8000 Meter Peaks

Seven Summits

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After standing at the Earth's three poles—the North Pole, the South Pole and Mount  Everest—Bernard Voyer has taken on a new challenge: A world tour via the highest mountain on each continent.

Starting November 8, 2001, Bernard Voyer will complete the last stop on his World Tour of the highest mountains, by climbing Mount Vinson (4897 meters), the highest peak in the Antarctic, with climbing partner Nathalie Tremblay.

Update 11/24/2001: Well, we are still in Punta Arenas. We have been receiving weather reports from Antarctica every three hours since 6 am on November 24. There was a lull in the wind yesterday, but it picked up again last night. We are still waiting, hour by hour, for an opportunity to leave. Thus, everything is ready. We could leave at any time, even during the night. Here in Punta Arenas, it gets dark at night, but in Antarctica, there is no night. Thus, it does not make much difference for landing the plane.

All of our equipment for the expedition is already loaded onto the plane. Only a few personal belongings remain; we will bring them with us in small daypacks.

So, we are ready to move, but still waiting. We have been waiting since November 16; we hope the weather conditions improve in the next few hours, so we can finally start our expedition.

The weather is unstable; the winds die down and then pick up again. However, when it calms, large clouds roll in and cling to the mountain ramparts. Thus, the cloud ceiling is quite low, reducing visibility to zero for a large plane such as the Ilyushin, a Russian jet aircraft, to land on a natural, unmaintained airstrip.

Nothing else to report at this time, except for an increasingly lengthy wait. However, morale is excellent and we are taking advantage of this wait to strengthen our focus and look at things from a philosophical point of view. There is absolutely nothing we can do. Our schedule is totally dependent on the extreme conditions in Antarctica. We must be patient. Thus, we are waiting for Antarctica to open its doors to us.

Bernard Voyer

<<<< Dispatches >>>>

Check his web site for more up to date dispatches in French.

For more on Bernard on EverestNews.com including his interview after Everest see here.

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