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Top of Gondwanaland: Not everyone can do this. We can!
Dec 13, 2004 16: 18 EST
Damien Gildea is an expert on everything Antarctic. He has written a book about Antarctica, compiled Antarctic statistics, skied to the South Pole, measured the summit of Vinson and other peaks - and now he's really marking his territory by climbing virtually every unclimbed peak in the area. It's mine, all MINE - ya hear! Just kidding.
Voices and discoveries from the top of Gondwanaland
But the fact is that Damien sure is making a name for himself on the core of Gondwanaland. November 28, the Antarctica Vinson season had not yet started, when he and his mates spent the night on a lonely Vinson summit, shooting over a voice dispatch to ExWeb straight from the top.
He measured it, of course, delivering the news that the top is some 5 meters lower than the existing official height. Also, he said that some data suggests summit of Vinson in winter could be the coldest place in the world, beating even the -89.6C recorded at Vostok base years ago.
Measured five unclimbed peaks in three days
Here's Damien's latest:
"Hi all,
It's been a busy but productive few days up here on Antarctica's highest mountain. Basically, as I had hoped, we climbed and measured five unclimbed peaks in three days.
We set off late afternoon of the 8th, following the track of the 30 or so folk headed up Vinson. After several hours we left that and followed our old tracks around to the col that leads out on to the plateau south of Vinson main summit. We picked up the cached gear we had left there - tent, fuel, food, gear - and launched out on to the plateau. After about three hours of walking we made a camp around 10pm in site of three of the sub-peaks we wanted to climb.
"They failed to climb it, so they can't name it!
Pretty much straight away we headed up toward the highest of them, to our west. This unnamed peak is visible from regular Vinson base camp (look up, then right) and lots of people have thought about climbing it over the years, but no one ever did. Some Spanish in the early 90's called it 'Monte Espana' but they failed to climb it, so they can't name it!
No place to drop your gloves
I can't officially name it either, but I refer to it as "International Peak" in honor of all the nationalities of people who have walked below it over the years on normal route up Vinson. It was the highest unclimbed peak (not an independent mountain like Tyree or Shinn) in Antarctica, over 4800m.
I say "was" because we reached the summit around 0020 on the 9th and started the GPS, followed by a live voice dispatch to thepoles.com. It was a narrow icy summit with a huge drop down the south side - no place to drop your gloves. A quick descent down the east face (we had ascended the south ridge) and we
were back at camp. Six hours later Rodrigo went back and up and collected the GPS and returned.
The sharpest summit I have ever sat on
Camilo and I then immediately headed off to a sharp peak nearby that looked easy but proved a bit trickier, requiring a route up through a face of rock and snow to a sharp ridge.
We had climbed unroped but waited for Rodrigo, coming a bit later and carrying a rope, to arrive. Rodrigo belayed me up a crumbling knife-edge ridge of sugary snow to the sharpest summit I have ever sat on (no room to stand). Like riding a collapsing horse, hundreds of meters up in the air. I knocked the top off the pinnacle, set the GPS, fixed a rope and returned.
24 hours between summits!
We descended to the tent, had a rest, then Camilo and Rodrigo returned 7hrs later to retrieve the GPS (yes, we are actually climbing every peak twice!). Straight away we headed off to a third peak, to the south of us.
The route on this was not so hard, just steep exposed snow, and the summit was much easier to work on. We reached the summit around 1am on the 10th, just over 24hrs since we had reached the first summit ! I returned later and soloed the route to retrieve the GPS, meeting up with the guys on the way down to trek across the plateau to a new campsite near the next two peaks we were to do.
Our last peak
The first of these (after 10hrs or so of sleep !) required a climb up 50 degree snow, traversing through rock up the west face. Rodrigo and Camilo did this and the next morning Rodrigo and I climbed the peak by a different route, a rock and snow ramp on the south face, to retrieve the GPS.
Rodrigo went for a rest while I headed off to our last peak, a big, long peak southeast of Vinson main summit that often shows up in the background of Vinson summiteers. Camilo met me on the way, in increasingly high winds coming from the west. We set off up the south face and reached the summit after 90 min or so of steep cramponing on bad snow and through rock bands.
Just like in "Vertical Limit"
It was hard to find the highest point, but Camilo went to one we thought was higher, realised it wasn't, and went back to the first one. Here again we were lucky enough to be able to put the GPS on rock. The winds were some of the worst I have known, constant at around 50km/h but gusting regularly to over 90km/h.
Just like in "Vertical Limit" I had to drive my axe in and hunker down over it so as not to literally get blown away. Camilo's data logger (which we also leave on the summit every time to collect atmospheric data alongside the GPS) showed -29C, not counting the wind. I
t was a long and windy climb down and trek back across to the tent, where we slept for a few hours. Rodrigo then went and collected the GPS, returning none too happy about the 'wind situation' on the summit :-)
Five peaks in three days
This last peak was probably again the highest unclimbed peak in Antarctica, a title that it held for only a couple of days since our ascent of "International Peak". At this point I realized we had been quite successful in our project so far - five unclimbed peaks climbed and measured in three days.
This is in addition to our earlier ascents of Vinson and 'Kershaw Peak'. So we are well on-target to achieving our primary objective of the first comprehensive GPS survey of the summit of the Vinson Massif.
Not everyone can do this. We can.
When the going gets hard up here, which I'm only to happy to admit that it sometimes does, I wonder if this combination of mountaineering and science that I have specialized in the last few years is really the way to go. Shouldn't we be engrossed in specimens in some field camp, more comfortable, "safe" and "scientific" looking ?
But then I look at the peaks around me, I feel my feet on the steep ground where I am and I realize 'no', this is the only way to do this work. Satellites and taxpayer-funded tractor-trains can only do so much. You can't fly a helicopter up here and lounge around.
To get to these places and collect data you have to climb to them and you have to get to that climbing on your own two feet, carrying all your own gear, and get back again, with all your data and fingers still intact. Not everyone can do this. We can.
Frozen turds dangling off our rucksacks
Without a break we packed up (including our little plastic bags of frozen turds dangling off our rucksacks) and headed back north across the plateau toward the col, past the main Vinson summit and the route back to C3.
As I plodded through the small col, I looked back to the plateau and the five peaks we had climbed. Only three days earlier it had all seemed so new and unknown. Now we had been all over it and climbed all the peaks within close view. It struck me how places are changed merely by us visiting them, if only in our own minds, which is where the most important stuff is anyway.
Not many people have been over there
Quite tired, and battling the wind all the time, it took us three and a half hours to get back to our roomy tent at C3 in the early hours of Dec 12th, in site of our old friend Mt Shinn. It didn't take long to fall asleep. We are now recharging the five sets of GPS batteries with our solar setup and having a rest.
In a couple of days we plan to head back up and climb the remaining two big sub-peaks. These are a bit more to the east of where we were recently. Not many people have been over there. There are also two smaller peaks we hope to climb and measure on the way back from those peaks to C3 and then we are done up here!
This is Damien’s sixth expedition to Antarctica. He led the successful Omega Foundation projects on Mt. Shinn (2002) and Livingston Island (2003) and previously summited Vinson Massif on an Omega expedition in 2001. He is the author of The Antarctic Mountaineering Chronology (1998), the only reference book on mountaineering in Antarctica and is currently working on a second book due out in 2005.
In 1998 Rodrigo Fica and some friends made the first complete north to south crossing of the Southern Patagonian Icecap, a grueling journey recounted in his upcoming book Bajo la Marca de la Ira.
Since then he has been on successful Omega Foundation Antarctic expeditions to Mt. Shinn (2002) and Livingston Island (2003). A computer engineer by training, he now makes his living in the mountains, in addition to writing and photography and often climbs with his wife Patricia Sotos, the first Chilean woman to climb Mt. Everest.
Camilo Rada studies astronomy at Universidad Catolica in Santiago. On recent expeditions with friends he has made the coveted first winter ascent of San Lorenzo, the second-highest peak in Patagonia and before that, the second winter ascent of San Valentin, the highest mountain in Patagonia. Camilo has made other expeditions in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, including the first ascent of Volcan Melimoyu. This will be his first trip to Antarctica.
The Omega Foundation is a Non-Profit Organization dedicated to supporting scientific, environmental, educational and literary endeavor in the Antarctic region.
Images:
- Damien climbing to the summit of the second unclimbed peak Dec 9th
- Rodrigo and Camilo on the summit of the third unclimbed peak in 24hrs - in the background the long flat peak is the main summit of Vinson, to its right
is Kershaw Peak. Courtesy Damien Gildea.
http://www.mounteverest.net/story/ThetruesummitofVinsonDec82004.shtml
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