Hola from Punta Arenas, Chile
Today we completed our final covid tests which all climbers results came back negative. Shortly afterwards we received our flight boarding passes to Union Glacier, Antarctica! The team is very excited to hop on the flight an head to a new continent. Currently we are scheduled for a flight departing Punta around 9am tomorrow, December 7th. The plane ride from here to Union Glacier is approximately 4hrs. Once we arrive in Union Glacier depending on the weather we will take another flight (shorter around 45mins) to Vinson Base camp.
Once we land in Antarctica we will be reporting our cybercast via satellite phone and InReach message. It is not uncommon for us to post every few days so no worries if we miss a day as we might be busy making our way up the mountain.
While we are in town would like to take the time to introduce our team. On this Alpine Ascents Antarctica Expedition we will have two teams. Ben Jones and Lakpa Rita will be leading a team of three climbers. Ben and Lakpa are currently at Union Glacier and we will be meeting them there. The three climbers are Thierry, Peter, and Philip. These three climbers have experience climbing around the world including ascents like Denali, Rainier, Mt Baker, Aconcagua, Cho Oyu and Everest with Alpine Ascents.
The other team is a group of skiers on an exploration trip in the Vinson Massif. The expedition team members are Caroline Gleich, Rob Lea, and myself. Our goal will be to climb and ski Vinson while exploring first descent in the Massif.
While spending the last few days in Punta we have had the time to check out some of the historic monuments along with enjoying the wonderful local Chilean cuisine.
We will be in touch with updates along the way!
| Jonathon Spitzer | Director of Field Operations He/Him/His |
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| Office (206) 378-1927 | |
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