Dispatches

Dispatch #13 - January 6, 2005 - Punta Arenas

Hello Everyone,

We arrived in Punta Arenas at 6 a.m. today (6th). Everyone is excited for a hot shower and great bed. The Illysian 76 arrived at midnight at Patriot Hills. Everyone was excited for the flight, and we said our goodbyes to the white, slient and beautiful continent. We all had a wonderful time and will miss our short, but strong friendships we acquired while we were here.

Our group will be leaving back home in the next couple days.

Adios amigos! Christine


Dispatch #12 - January 4, 2005 - Patriot Hills

This is Christine Boskoff and the Mountain Madness Vinson Expedition reporting from Patriot Hills. We have been in Patriot Hills for several days now waiting for agreeable weather so we can fly to Punta Arenas. Currently the wind is 10 knots with gusts to 30. We must have a wind of 15 knots with gusts to 20 to fly out, so it is a matter of hurry and wait at this point. Needless to say we are playing a lot of cards and reading a lot. Everyone is eager to get back to Punta Arenas but we are all in good spirits.

Dispatch #11 - January 1, 2005 - Mt. Vinson Base Camp

Happy New Years everyone! This is Christine Boskoff and the Mountain Madness Vinson Expedition reporting from Vinson Base Camp. We had a great New Years Eve celebration last night. It was a lot of fun. Now we are waiting for our plane to take us back to Patriot Hills. More from Punta Arenas later

Dispatch #10 - December 29, 2004 - Mt. Vinson Base Camp.

This is Christine Boskoff calling from Mt. Vinson Base Camp, here at 7000 feet. Yesterday on the 29th the team descended from the High Camp. It was marginal conditions here. Visibility was poor and we had very windy conditions, so we are all glad we summitted when we did. We are happy to be back down at Base Camp. The whole group is safe and in good spirits. Today we are having a rest day. More tomorrow…

Dispatch #9 - December 28, High Camp at Mt. Vinson

This is Casey Henley reporting from High Camp at Mt. Vinson.

Everyone is in good spirits and is super-psyched that the entire group summitted. There has been a lot of laughter. The climb itself was good. It was a long day with not much wind, and by the time we got to the top thewind had died down completely. We were greeted with a 360 degree views ofthe Ellsworth Range.

Today we had a rest day at high camp and tomorrow we return to Base Camp. We are hoping to explore the area in the next couple of days before we fly to Patriot Hills. Then we hope to spend a couple of days at Patriot Hills before flying to Punta Arenas.

Dispatch #8 - December 27, 2004

From the top of Mt. Vinson, Antarctica

This is Christine Boskoff calling from the summit of Mt. Vinson. It is 10 o’clock at night and the sun is high in the sky and we just summitted. We are proud to say that all nine people in our expedition team made it. We are on our way down now and will call in later.

Dispatch #7 - December 25

Hi Everyone,

We want to say hi and Merry Christmas to all. Here are some messages from the group:

(Note: there was some difficulty with this transmission, so not all messages are complete. All are in good health though. The group will likely be in position for a summit attempt in the next several days if weather permits. We will keep you posted. From the Mountain Madness office).

Ona- Hi everyone and all you guys in Crested Butte.

Raymond- Merry Christmas to the entire family. We have no Christmas tree but do have the most beautiful white Christmas in the world.

Will- Hi to family and niece and nephew.

Jack- Had a great day going up to high camp. Happy birthday to Julie and Johnny. Hope you are having a great time, we are but it’s a bit cold (laughs).

Bill- Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We are having a great timehere in Antarctica. We went to high camp today, Chris and Casey are busting our butts, but things are moving along well.

Megan- Hi to family and friends and all at work. Everything is a bit chilly, but going well. Hope uncle is doing ok and wish him the best of health.

Chris- Hi to mom and everyone.

Casey and Joe- Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

More later,

Chris


Dispatch #6 - December 24

Hi everyone,

It’s Christmas eve morning and our group has just gone to sleep for the night. This morning we broke down camp and moved up to Camp One. We climbed up the Branscomb Glacier with breathtaking views 360 degrees all around us. It took us four hours to reach the camp at 10,000 feet. Everyone is good and strong and in good spirits. Camp One is situated at a beautiful valley with views of the stunning peaks of Tyree and Mt. Shin. We are anxious to carry to our high camp tomorrow. We wish our friends and family a happy Christmas Eve.


Dispatch #5 - December 23

Hello and good morning.

This is Casey Henley reporting from Vinson base camp. Today was a beautiful day. We took a load of food and gear to Camp One and got to see more of the amazing sights to be seen down here. To the south of us extends an ice cap as far as we can see. Everywhere else there are amazing peaks. With 24 hours of sunlight we’ve been eating, sleeping, and traveling at all hours of the day. Tomorrow we’ll move Camp One. We’ll call in tomorrow and let you know how things went.

Jack wants to send his love to Amy, the kids – John, Scott, and Julie, and the grandkids –Johnny, Julia, Michael, Jane, and Liam.

Hope all is well back at home with everyone’s families and we’ll talk to you soon.


Dispatch #4 - December 22

Hi everyone!

This is the Mountain Madness Vinson Massif December Expedition. I’m calling from Vinson Base Camp. It’s December 22nd at 12:20 a.m. We got the green light in Punta Arenas on the 20th at 8:30 p.m. that we were going to fly to Patriot Hills. We had 15 minutes to get ready before our bus picked us up for the airport. We departed Punta Arenas at 10:40 p.m. and arrived at Patriot Hills at 3:10 a.m. We landed in marginal weather with white snow. Due to inclement weather, we stayed at Patriot Hills for the night.

Yesterday we woke with cloudy skies so we waited until 5:00 p.m. to fly. We established our camp, and had a great Mexican dinner and drinks. Bill and Will helped with melting snow.

Everyone is in great spirits and eager to move to Camp One tomorrow. We’ll call again this evening. Over and out! Christine


Dispatch #3 - Monday, December 20, 2004

(Punta Arenas) Hello from Punta Arenas! We got the call after being on stand-by for the day....we fly in less than an hour.  Talk to you from the ice soon!

Cheers - Casey Henley


Dispatch #2 - Sunday, December 19, 2004

(Punta Arenas)  This is Christine Boskoff writing from Punta Arenas, Chile. Our entire team has arrived, and thankfully so has their luggage. Bill, Will, Jack, and Ona arrived on the 17th. Will’s baggage did not arrive with him. Fortunately, we were able to track it down and it arrived late in the evening on the 18th. Good thing everyone was scheduled to be here early in case there was just such a situation.

So far, we’ve been busy enjoying Punta Arenas and making final preparations for our journey. Bill, Megan, Will, Ona, and Joe went to see the Penguins on Isla Magoalena. The boat ride took 2 hours each way, but everyone agreed it was well worth the journey! Casey and I went shopping for last minute items, like T-bone steaks, Chicken, good sausages and cheeses which we stored in the Antarctic Logistics Expedition’s (ALE) freezer until our departure.

We are now ready for our journey! Today we had our Antarctica briefing with ALE, who will be chartering the aircraft for our journey. After our two hour meeting, we went back to the hotel and packed all the luggage that will be sent to Antarctica. We weighed our bags and we were easily under the set weight limit. We are ready to depart at any time.

We may fly tomorrow afternoon (the 20th) if conditions at Patriot Hills are good. We will be flying down on an Illysion 76, a Russian transport plane. For us to land at the blue ice runway at Patriot Hills we need good visibility, less than a 20-knot crosswind, and no snow on the runway. We are all waiting patiently, but I can tell the group is eager to begin.

Keep your figures crossed that we will fly tomorrow! Until then. . .

Adios,
Christine


Dispatch #1 - Friday, December 17, 2004

(Punta Arenas) This is Christine Boskoff reporting from Punta Arenas, Chile.

Welcome to the Mt. Vinson 2004-2005 Mountain Madness Expedition. Casey Henley and I will are looking forward to guiding this Mt. Vinson adventure.  Casey and I arrived in Punta Arenas last night and checked into the Hotel Isla Rey Jorge.  We met our first team member, Ray, who arrived a couple days ago. Ray has been touring the area, including a visit to the Penguin colony and Torres del Paine National Park.

We woke up to rain this morning and went to pick up another team member, Joe, at the airport.  After our return, we went to the supermarket to purchase the remaining food items needed for our climb. We are not only making sure we have plenty of food in case we encounter bad weather on our climb, we are helping ensure our success since eating properly and well is important to each member’s success.

Tonight the team went to dinner at a local restaurant. It is 11:00 p.m. and it is still light outside.  We are all having trouble adjusting to the long days. 

Tomorrow we meet the rest of the group since Bill, Ona, Megan, Jack and William will be arriving. It will be great for the entire team to be together!

Cheers from Punta Arenas!

Christine