January 21, 2011

We received word from Antarctica & Punta Arenas, Chile today that ALE called in the IL76 for a flight! This is great news for our team who’s been waiting at Union Glacier for a couple weeks now and especially great news for IMG Guide, and ping-pong champion (see yesterday’s blog post) Aaron Mainer who has been there since late November. Two trips and two summits of Vinson for Aaron, but like the rest of the team,  he’s ready to get home. It’s a small weather window so we’ll hope for the best!

Camp 2 on Aconcagua. (Photo by Diana Rehborn)

Further north on Aconcagua, IMG Guide Eben Reckord called in from C2 today after a successful carry to High Camp. They’ll move up tomorrow and hopefully summit on the 23rd.  All continues to go smoothly for these guys.

And even further north in Ecuador Phil reports that they continue to enjoy great weather and are en route to the hut on Cayambe. They’ll train/acclimatize tomorrow and shoot for the summit on Sunday.  Maybe we can arrange a Sat phone call from the Cayambe summit to the Aconcagua summit from Phil to Eben…

That’s all for now.

Tye Chapman

Chile & Antarctica
Greg and his team continue their “standby” status to leave Antarctica while Mike and his crew weigh their options in Punta Arenas.

So what do you do with 20 hours of daylight and literally nothing to do…well,  you play volleyball and ping-pong of course. IMG Guide Aaron Mainer (who’s been on the ice since November by the way) won the first ever Union Glacier International Ping Pong Tournament besting over 30 competitors from all over the world. Our team has also participated in the first ever Union Glacier Olympic Games as well as a the Volleyball Tournament.  We’re not sure how the volleyball tournament played out but we like our chances with Greg on the team…he did win a National Title at Pepperdine and played professionally in Europe. It looks like their flight from the ice will be weather delayed once again to Sunday or early next week. Sounds like they’re making the best of a difficult situation.

Ecuador

A proper dinner for our team in Ecuador.

Phil called in this afternoon to check on the other IMG teams to his South, and to report more good weather as they ride the high from their recent summit of Cotopaxi. Today the team  enjoyed some personal time to clean-up, tend to their gear and maybe crank out an email or two. Right now they’re currently at San Augustine enjoying a fantastic dinner featuring some authentic high Andean Incan cuisine.

Argentina
Eben called in from C2 to report that they didn’t carry today, instead they hung tight at camp hoping to match their summit day with an anticipated weather window. Everybody is doing just fine – in fact they’re enjoying some fresh camp-made pizza! Eben mixed up some dough, Mike is tossing & forming the dough and Martin is tending to the stoves. Two pizzas each – proper fuel for their carry to High Camp Tomorrow!

Lower on the mountain IMG Aconcagua Team #3 led by Peter Anderson made their way to our trekking camp #2 en route to Base Camp.  They’ll hit BC tomorrow and enjoy a rest day on Saturday.

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Tye Chapman

January 19th, 2011

The Andes Mountains in South America

Ecuador
Phil called in this afternoon to report that they had 10 of 12 on top of Cotopaxi in beautiful weather! They’re en route to Hacienda Tierra del Volcan tonight and off to San Augustine tomorrow before heading to climb Cayambe. Nice work team!

Argentina
Eben called in this morning as well to report that his team has camp established at C2 and are planning on carrying to High Camp tomorrow. It’s a touch windy down there now, but that’s normal for Aconcagua. Their summit window may shift a little due to the forecast but we’ll see how that plays out in a couple days.  Follow their progress via the SPOT Tracker Eben is carrying.

Chile
Mike Hamill and his team continue to wait it out in Punta Arenas. Hopefully the part to the IL76 arrives soon so they can trade places Greg and his team on the ice in Antarctica.

Tye Chapman

January 16, 2011

Tierra del Volcan.

Ecuador
Phil called in early this morning to report that he and his team have been enjoying beautiful weather and, after a private breakfast at La Matilde. were off to climb Pasachoa on one of their acclimatization hikes. After their hike, they’ll head to Hacienda Tierra del Volcan (12,000ft) where they’ll sleep before a training day on Cotopaxi tomorrow.

The route to Camp 1.

Argentina
Eben called in from Plaza Argentina to report that all is well. They enjoyed a rest day yesterday but didn’t get much sleep last night as a wind storm came through camp forcing everybody out of their tents to secure their camp. No issues, just a few hours sleep they missed. The team carried to C1 (14,500) today and will move up tomorrow. (Follow their progress here)

Chile
Mike Hamill and our last Vinson team continues to hang tight in Punta Arenas (0ft) as they wait for the repairs to the IL76. They’ve waited this long, so at this point what’s a couple more days?

Tye Chapman