South-2-The-Pole

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Sat 18 Nov '06 - 17.30 - Punta Arenas, Chile

It might be a long way to Tipperary but I can tell you it's an even longer way to Punta Arenas.

Left Dublin 12.00 Thurs 16th - London - Madrid. Dep Madrid 23.50 - arr. Santiago 9.30 (13hrs) & then onto to P. Arenas (4.30hrs) Got here 16.30 Fri 17, after just 22hrs in the air & the rest in airports. Sleep ?...... about 3 -4 hrs. Anyway it's a lot better than Scott & Shackleton's journeys of 3 months by sea. Weather is good, here 13 degrees, sunny & windy.

We have a group of 4 + guide for Vinson which is a good number. Myself, Richard from the UK, Jon from the Philippines, Fredrik from Sweden & Ian our UK guide. Fredrik Strang from Sweden summited Aconcagua last Saturday is now heading forVinson as the final leg of his record breaking 7 Summits in 7 months. So I'm in good company & Fredrik is getting a lot of media attention because of his achievements. He's also filming for a documentary.

Spent the day doing gear checks, packing food & weighing everything. All my personal gear is down to less than 28kg which is very good & on top of that we have to take group gear. For Vinson we're taking enough food for 18 days, 3 tents, stoves, fuel etc. etc. & it weighs a ton. We'll probably have 55-60kg each which after base camp has to be carried to high camps. Weight is absolutely critical on this trip & unless an item is vital, it just gets left behind because everything has to be carried on the Vinson leg.

We're expecting to get away from Punta to Patriot on Monday but may possibly go Sunday afternoon, which would be great. Patriot is only a summer season camp & hasn't been fully set up yet & probably won't be ready when we get there, but we'll manage somehow. Anyway we're set to go & of this group just Jon & myself are going onto the Pole with probably one other. I'll probably get to post an update on Sunday before I go but after that I probably won't get another done until I get back to here. I will have access to a satellite phone at Patriot & at the Pole & will of course phone home with updates.

That's all for now.

Kevin,