30th
January - It's 7.00am in Chile and the team
have just arrived safely in Punta Arenas after an uneventful flight
but meaning another night without sleep. The wind dropped last evening
and ALE managed to get their plane in and pick up the final expeditions
before the weather closed in again. They're relaxing back at their
hotel before starting their onward journeys.
29th
January - The team are still stuck at Patriot
Hills Base Camp as the high winds are preventing the plane from
landing on the blue ice runway. They're permently on standby so
could fly at any time but everytime they think the wind speed's
dropping it suddenly starts to blow again! At present we anticipate
Simon & Tony returning to the UK around the 4th February while
Dave John & Ian are continuing to Aconcagua.
27th
January - Everyone's now safely down at the
Patriot Hills Base Camp. They're all well but were on such a high
that they spent all last night reliving their experiences in the
mess tent. I think it was too windy to put there tents up as well.
It's now 6.00am and the sun's blazing down but that viscous wind
is still blowing. It's forecast to drop later today so there's the
possibility that they could be sampling the delights of Punta Arenas
by this evening...
26th
January -
Success!!! Dave, Simon, Tony
& Ian all summited yesterday and returned safely to their high
camp. John had turned back fairly early in the day after injuring
his ribs but is doing fine. The sat phone signal was very poor but
we know they're all well but tired. They're continuing to descend
down to Base Camp today.
25th
January - The summit attempt is on. They woke
this morning to perfect conditions and set out at 12:00 GMT today
for the final push. They've got a long day ahead of them so our
next update won't be for twenty four hours when we'll hopefully
be reporting a successful climb and the whole team safely back to
camp 2. Watch this space....
"On
behalf of everyone from the Child Brain Injury Trust, we wish Simon
and the rest of the team the best of luck in completing their challenge.
The funds that you have raised for the charity will enable us to
continue to make a difference in the lives of children and families
affected by acquired brain injury. Have a safe journey home!"
- Rachel Ritter, Child Brain Injury Trust.
24th
January - The day started
promisingly with a clearing in the weather but it soon closed out
and they've been confined to the tents all day. Conditions aren't
horrendous but the temperature's at twenty below with a stiff wind
blowing and there's almost a white out - Not the conditions to be
trying for the summit. Everyone's well and the plan is to try again
tomorrow if things look better.
23rd
January
– Everything's now in place for the summit attempt. The whole team
are at the high camp waiting for a break in the weather. There's
a couple of other teams at camp with them which should make the
trail breaking a little easier in the newly fallen snow. The
plan is still to attempt the summit on Wednesday 24 th . We wish
them every success.
22nd
January - Well things are starting to move
quickly now. They're now at camp 1 on the slopes on Mt Vinson. They
had good weather yesterday but last night was a bit uncomfortable
as the wind got up again. The plan for today is to move upto the
high camp (3800m) and have a rest day. If everything's looking promising
then they could be looking at a summit attempt on Wednesday 24th.
19th
January - The team have now arrived in Antarctica
after a memorable flight. At one point they diverted to the southernmost
point of Argentina and the flight was almost aborted due to the
weather but they got there in the end. They landed at 3.00am but
with 24 hour daylight they were still able to pitch the tents and
get themselves settled. The skies are blue and the suns beating
down but there's a vicious low level storm blowing across the ice
which is creating fairly unpleasent conditions. The next leg of
their journey is by a small Twin Otter aeroplane to Mt Vinson's
base camp but this'll mean more waiting until the winds ease.
18th
January - They're off!! We had a quick
e-mail from Dave at 3pm GMT saying they're off in the next 5 minutes.
Fingers crossed that the weather doesn't change during the flight
but our next communication should be by sat phone from the Patriot
Hills base camp on Antarctica...
17th
January - The waiting game continues! There's
now a fair bit of snow on the runway in the Patriot Hills but things
can change very quickly in these extreme latitudes. We received
this report from Dave this afternoon...
'It
is now the morning of the 17th January and we´ve now been
waiting seven
days for the correct weather to allow our flight onto Antarctica.
The news
today is a little more positive....and maybe by 4pm (Chilean time
-3hrs
GMT)we will get the go ahead. So why the wait?
The flight to Patriot Hills, the base on Antarctica close to Mt
Vinson, is
by means of a Russian Illussion Jet, an enormous cargo operating
beast! The
flight is around 4.5hrs and lands on a blue ice runway (pure ice)
on wheels
not ski´s. The blue ice runway is a natural feature around
3kms long, clear
of crevasses, deep snow etc BUT is effected by Catabatic winds,
that blow
across the runway. These cross winds can't be more than 20kms per
hr,
there must also be good visibility and contrast to enable manual
landings to
be made and the temperature must be around -10C to ensure the runway
is not
too slippery...NOT an easy shopping list for this extreme continent.
So we
must be patient, most flights generally go in on time or within
2 days of
the schedule date. Its not until you´ve actually been to Patriot
hills that
you can fully appreciate the logistics involved, but its well worth
the wait
to become one of the privileged few.
So in the meantime we´ve got to know the streets of Punta
Arenas quite well
over the last week, along with the odd short visit to see Magallane
Penguins, the local ski slopes (without snow, its summer down here)
for a
walk, a bit of a wild life tour where Condors, Wild Rhea (kind of
Ostrich),
Red necked swans, Sea Lion were a few of our sightings along with
seeing
some local culture such as sheep shearing. John even managed a bit
of a
horse ride! The team have gone in the search of Whale´s today.'
Dave Pritt
Message
for Caris Biltcliffe &
all at Fringford School from her dad
Simon Biltcliffe " still waiting
in Punta Arenas. Been here for a week now looking to get onto Antarctica
as it is too windy & snowy to land the Russian cargo plane.
Hope to have moved to Antarctica soon!"
13th
January - I'm afraid it's still too windy
and it's even started snowing in Antarctica. Surprisingly this is
fairly rare as it's one of the driest places on the planet. The
winds are 23 kph, gusting 27 but were 35 kph overnight. They need
to drop below 20 kph before the flight will go.
12th
January - They're still in Chile but on a
3 hour standby for the flight. There's been too much wind and /
or cloud so far but they're all raring to go as soon as they get
the word.
8th
January - Well the team are
now safely in Chile and awaiting their flight to Antarctica. However
bad weather is stopping play at the moment so its just a matter
of waiting until they get the call.
6th
January - The team departed from Gatwick today
for the long flight to South America.
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