Vinson Massif

Flight Information

Antarc­ti­ca is a unique des­ti­na­tion, which presents trav­ellers with many chal­lenges. Coor­di­nat­ing a flex­i­ble return date from Antarc­ti­ca with fixed reser­va­tions on com­mer­cial air­lines is one of these chal­lenges. Flights to and from the con­ti­nent may be delayed due to weath­er con­di­tions. It is impor­tant to allow for extra time at the end of the trip. Since all flights to and from Antarc­ti­ca are weath­er depen­dent, it is prob­a­ble that you will need to make changes to your return flight reser­va­tions on short notice (about 4 hours). Dates include inter­na­tion­al trav­el and include some extra days. Trip dura­tion will be short­er with no delays. Please con­tact our office for any help need­ed with flight schedule
 

Day 1-2

TRAV­EL

Fly to Pun­ta Are­nas, Chile. Hotel night on day two.

Day 3

PUN­TA ARENAS

Make final prepa­ra­tions, includ­ing equip­ment check and ori­en­ta­tion with ALE, for the flight to Union Glac­i­er. We will also have time to explore the inter­est­ing port city of Pun­ta Are­nas. Hotel overnight.

Day 4-5

BASE CAMP

Ele­va­tion: 7,000 ft / 2134 m

Weath­er per­mit­ting, we make the 4.5 hour flight to Union Glac­i­er and con­tin­ue to base camp locat­ed on the Branscomb Glac­i­er. The flight from Patri­ot Hills to base camp will be on a Twin Otter. Once at base camp we orga­nize our camp and pre­pare for our ascent.

Day 6

CAMP 1

Ele­va­tion: 9,600 ft / 2920 m
 

Move to Camp 1. Depend­ing on how the team is feel­ing on our first day on the trail, we will camp at a major bend in the glac­i­er, at 9,600 feet / 2920 meters or at a camp around the cor­ner from a mod­er­ate­ly steep head­wall at 10,000 feet / 3048 meters.

Day 7

MOV­ING UP

Ele­va­tion: 10,000 ft / 3048 m

Based on the progress from Day 6, we will either pro­ceed to the camp at 10,000 feet (3048 meters) or car­ry loads to high camp at 12,400 feet / 3780 meters.

Day 8

CLIMB THE HEADWALL

Ele­va­tion: 12,400 ft / 3780 m

From camp we move up the steep head­wall that ris­es above camp. Mod­er­ate slopes lead to the broad col between Vin­son and Mount Shinn where we estab­lish high camp at 12,400 feet / 3780 meters. Due to the thin­ning of the atmos­phere at Polar Regions, the ele­va­tion here will feel high­er and may result in some moun­tain sick­ness among team members. 

Day 9-13

SUM­MIT DAY

Ele­va­tion: 16,077 ft / 4898 m
 

From high camp we tra­verse about 3 miles and gain about 3,600 feet / 1100 meters on our way to the sum­mit. From the sum­mit we are greet­ed with out­stand­ing views of the Ellsworth Range, the Ronne Ice Shelf and the vast hori­zons of the icy con­ti­nent. We spend the night again at high camp. There are four reserve days built into the itin­er­ary in the event of bad weather.

Day 14-15

BASE CAMP

Return to base camp. Fly to Union Glac­i­er. Reserve day.

Day 16

PUN­TAS ARENAS

Weath­er per­mit­ting, return to Pun­ta Arenas.

Day 17-21

FLY HOME

Depart Pun­ta Are­nas and fly home. Days 18 – 21 are reserve days.

Note on Itin­er­ary: Although we do our very best to fol­low the sched­ule list­ed, this itin­er­ary is sub­ject to change due to inclement weath­er, unsafe route con­di­tions, or oth­er rea­sons beyond our con­trol and in the guide’s best judgement.