Joe Butler called in a nice New Year’s post from low camp on Mount Vinson. They took a rest day today, after making the move up the Branscomb Glacier to their current camp, at about 10,000′. Today was spent resting, acclimatizing and reviewing skills that they will use when they ascend the steepest part of the route tomorrow.
Although it never gets dark in Antarctica at this time of year, the sun does pass behind the Vinson Massif, leaving climbers’ tents in the chilly shade. Chilly in this case means -30F at night!
The crew is carrying a DeLorme inReach GPS transmitter, which allows us to follow their progress in almost real time, as well as send and receive text messages with the team. This particular device is the only one that works so far south, but the online platform on which you can track the team is a bit, well… not great.
Click HERE to view the team’s location and to track them during the day. Use the filters at the top of the map and select “Last 24 Hours” or “Last 7 Days” in the Date and Time Range to better see their progress.
Here’s Joe!
