Climb Vinson

The journey begins in Chile – in the city of Punta Arenas, from where the group takes off on an IL-76 plane to the Chilean Patriot Hills airfield, which the Americans rent for their tourist planes. From Patriot Hills, the group is transported by small planes to the Vinson Massif Base Camp, where the first camp is being set up. After setting up camps 2 and 3, the group sets off to climb the peak, which is 4897 m high. Temperatures are always low in Antarctica, but we climb in the summer when the sun does not set and there is no need even to use lanterns. All members of the group must be in Punta Arenas no later than three days before departure to Antarctica – due to frequent bad weather, there is a high probability that the flight will be delayed or postponed more than once. There are also rare cases when a flight was impossible due to bad weather, which lasted up to ten days.

Antarctica is a continent whose center is close to the South Pole. The area of Antarctica is almost completely covered with ice. The thickness of the ice sheet on the mainland reaches 4,800 meters. Only 2% of the continent’s area, which includes the coast and several peaks, is not covered with ice. This makes Antarctica the fifth largest and coldest continent in the world. It also recorded the lowest temperature in the world – 89.20 °C. It happened at the Soviet research station Vostok in 1983. In the summer season, glaciers off the coast of Antarctica begin to melt, resulting in the formation of icebergs, the height of which can be tens of meters, and the length of several kilometers. A range of Transarctic Mountains divides the continent into Eastern and Western parts. The western part of the mainland is a high snow–covered plateau, and the Eastern part is a group of mountainous islands covered with a layer of snow and ice. In the western part of Antarctica, its highest point is the Vinson Massif, which rises 4897 m above sea level.

Day 1-2. Flight to Punta-Arenas, Chile. Dinner and instructing the group. Overnight in hotel.
Day 3. Final preparations, buying food, equipment check, watching around. Overnight in hotel.
Day 4-5. Flight to Patriot hills, Antarktika. Flight to Base camp (BC). Setting up the BC(2100m).
Day 6. Camp 1 (3000m)
Day 7. Carrying the loads to camp 2, overnight in Camp-1.
Day 8. Camp 2 (3800m)
Day 9. Climb mount Vinson (4897m).
Day 10-17. Reserve days for flights delay and in case of bad weather during the climb.
Day 18. Descent to BC
Day 19. Flight to Union glacier
Day 20. Flight from Union glacier to Punta-Arenas
Day 21. Departure.

Important! Don’t plan anything at list three weeks after the supposed end of the trip. The delays of the flights from the glacier are pretty possible and might be long!  

• Professional mountain guide and other stuff
• Hotel booking in Punta-Arenas
• Briefing before the flight to Antarctica
• Flight Punta-Arenas – Patriot Hills – Base camp and back.
• Food in Antarctica
• Group equipment for the climb and base camp
• 25 kg of luggage to Antarctica and back

• Chilean Multi-Visa ($200)
• International flight to Punta-Arenas
• Meals and accommodation in Punta-Arenas
• Private equipment for the climb and Base camp
• Luggage over 25kg to Antarctica ($70 per extra kilo)
• Insurance $150 000 ($250)
• Any costs caused by the changing of the programs