Vinson Day 3: Rest Day at Low Camp

We slept in until noon today as the sun was behind the nearby peaks and later hidden by the clouds, making for very frigid temperature and a wind chill of -35°F/-37°C.

Joe Ashkar at Vinson Low Camp.

We leisurely enjoyed our Sunday brunch with plenty of pancakes. Afterwards we got to work as the wind picked and had to fortify our tents. We cut out some ice blocks and built walls all around our tents very igloo like. The process took a couple of hours.

Cutting out Ice Blocks.

Ice walls sheltering tents from the wind at Vinson Low Camp.

The rest of the team decided to take a 2-hour rest/nap in their tents. I wasn’t sleepy or tired so I remained outside and worked on cutting out more ice blocks to carve out some letters to spell my kids nicknames and build a snowman.

Antarctic Snow Man.

Camp SasaNaya on Mt. Vinson.

In the early evening, all but Roha roped up and went on 2-hour acclimatization hike on the Glacier and up to a nearby Col to stretch our legs.

Acclimatization hike near Low Camp.

We ended the day with a nice dinner of tortellini pasta and pork chops. Did I mention that we’re eating really well around here?

Sporksicle: Craig forgot his Spork in his water bottle which quickly froze.

It is now past midnight and it’s completely light and sunny. Tomorrow we will be spending another day around camp working on various tasks while awaiting the weather to clear and the wind to decrease up high on the mountain.