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Posted by Bill S on January 12, 2007 at 8:10:26 pm EST
In reply to Re: Vinson posted by SteveTheFolkie on January 11, 2007 at 12:51:50 pm EST

Ummm, Steve, hate to tell you, but thepoles.com is basically the National Enquirer of the polar regions. They had a story about our "ordeal" with the storms and broken plane that isn't quite right. I mean, they forgot to describe how we had to "suffer" with the daily fresh-baked bread, omelettes, pancakes, orange juice, and such at breakfast each day during our stranding. Well, yeah, thepoles.com is funny reading, particularly when picking it off the web during our wait. Read this one, for example - http://thepoles.com/news.php?id=15444

Or this one - http://thepoles.com/news.php?id=15430

Hannah's report is a bit of a takeoff, and fun to read -
http://www.adventurehannah.com/sptracker.html

" The Grim Truth
6 Jan, 07 - 17:47

Well, it's been just over a week since the Twin Otters came to collect me and the other teams from the South Pole. But I am still on Antarctica. At first the issue was simply windy weather, which prevented the Illyushin 76 from getting in to collect us, but on the 3rd we received the news that the big plane had suffered some damage in high winds at Punta Arenas airport and was now in need of repairs. The part would need to be brought from Moscow and the whole fix might take up to five days. Well, the latest is that the part is arriving in Punta today and the plane should be operational by sometime tomorrow. The great thing is that it has stayed consistently windy here in Patriot Hills and we have not missed a single flyable slot due to the damaged plane. So although the delay must be frustrating to the ALE management and also those clients waiting in Punta to fly onto the ice, but in fact the delay is no more than one should be prepared to expect from a prolonged period of Antarctic fickle weather.

Things here in camp, stranded, isolated in one of the remotest places on the planet are, as you might imagine, pretty desperate. There is some concern about the food supplies. The grim truth is that we are nearly down to the last ton of fillet steak, the thick cut smoked salmon will run out within a month unless we resign ourselves to only eating it at lunchtime and the beer has run out, forcing the whole camp to drink wine, champagne or port in the evenings. Many of the icebound refugee's are suffering the severe effects of overeating (distended stomachs the need to nap after meals) and the medics fear that supplies of indigestion medicine could run out.

During the day the forlorn castaway's of Patriot Hills do their best to keep their spirits up by hiking in the breathtaking hills, skiing and tobogganing on the slopes of Windy Pass, taking skidoo trips out to various sites of interest, building igloos, learning to kite ski, baking various patisserie style delicacies and playing a fiercely fought ping-pong tournament. At night the Indian Navy entertain as with singing and guitar playing and Sam Silverstein from the American Antarctic Mountaineering Expedition 40th Anniversary team writes and performs comic songs and poems for our amusement.

There is also lots of other interesting activity to keep us diverted. We have been visited by two Russian MI8 helcopters and their crews, who appear to be enjoying their stay so much they don't want to leave, in fact they are awaiting passengers to take to the Pole, but they too are waiting in Punta with their fully functioning An74 which is also unable to fly in due to the windy weather.

Truly, things are tough! If they don't get us out of this winter wonderland soon, I just don't know what we're going to do! I can tell you now, if I have to give up one of my mattresses to the Russians I may be going out for some time!"

What she is referring to in the comment about giving the Russians a mattress is that the MI-18 helicopters arived without any sleeping bags for their crews totalling 9 men! So we rustled around to loan them bags.

Replies

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• Re: Vinson - adam g 08:02:17 01/13/2007
  • Re: Vinson - Bill S 19:20:26 01/13/2007
    • Re: Vinson - Dave 00:02:20 01/14/2007
• Re: Vinson - Tom D 20:25:33 01/12/2007

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