Hello everyone and welcome to the Mountain Trip Vinson December 2nd expedition dispatches.
Jacob here, checking in, and happy to let all of you know that the entire team has arrived with all of our bags (which is the first big hurdle of the trip).  Let me introduce the team.

Michael Koy from the US.

Cason Crane from the US.

Edward Searle from the UK.

And I am Jacob Schmitz from the US.

We are all enjoying getting to know each other, which is made easier because several of us have climbed together on previous expeditions.

I have been here a few days taking care of logistics and shopping for the two weeks worth of food we will fly to the ice. I’m really excited about this menu, and we pride ourselves at Mountain Trip to have the best food on the mountain. We’ll be dining on everything from Thai food with shrimp, steak and veggies to soup with quinoa. And of course, we’ll have plenty of coffee!  Needless to say we will not go hungry.

The team arrived in Punta Arenas on the second of December, in time to celebrate Cason’s birthday.  We went out to one of our favorite local restaurants and had a great evening.
In a few hours we are all going to a pre-flight briefing, along with all of the different expeditions to Antarctica, to go over logistics and regulations designed to keep Antarctica pristine and beautiful for future generations. We should know later today when we are expected to fly down to the ice.

Please check back as we will be calling in every day or two to post updates of our trip on this blog.  But please remember, no new is good new. We’ll have such a good time on Vinson we might forget to call, but we will try to keep everyone updated.

Cheers.

Jacob

Team Dinner and Cason's Birthday Celebration