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 11/29/2001: We have finally reached Patriot Hills in Antarctica. The Ilyushin-76 was finally able to take off at exactly half past noon today. There were very strong gusts of wind over Chile, but it didn't matter because after four and a quarter hours in the air, we touched down at Patriot Hills at 4:45 pm.

There were strong gusts of wind and it took the Ilyushin a very long distance to brake without skidding. This aircraft lands at a speed of several hundred kilometers an hour. The winds are very strong, so the wind chill must be about 40 below.

Everything was perfect and we were able to get all our equipment.

WE'RE FINALLY IN ANTARCTICA!

Of course, the sun is shining. There are clouds, but it's quite cold in the mountains near Patriot Hills. There was a huge contrast between our flight path and our arrival in Antarctica. But it's perfect. We're at an altitude of 876 meters.

Our plan now is to wait until the wind dies down here as well, so we can take another flight, whenever the conditions allow. It might even be tomorrow morning that we take off.

Nathalie and I have been very moved by our return to Antarctica. We walked, and looked over the landscape stretching to the horizon. This has stirred up memories that had been dormant for a few years. It's very beautiful. It's still every bit as beautiful, the snow is still just as white. We have finally arrived and we're now calling you from the tent, and it's very windy outside, but it doesn't matter, we're happy. We're here.

ONWARD TO MOUNT VINSON.

Until we talk again. I hope to talk to you again as soon as possible.

Bye,

Bernard Voyer

Update 11/30/2001: We left Patriot Hills on board the DC-3 for a 50-minute flight along the mountain range. The scenery was magnificent, quite outstanding; we got the impression that the mountains were rising out of Antarctica's great polar ice cap. We saw cliffs, ridges, snow-covered mountains as well as very black, very dark, rock faces. The DC-3 landed on the large Branscomb Glacier, with all our equipment and gear. This was the first flight this year. There had been an overflight to check out the crevasses. Once we had landed, we saw that a Cessna was also there and we got in the Cessna for a five-minute flight to avoid the large crevasses in our path from the Branscomb Glacier to the Mount Vinson base camp. All it took was five minutes. We landed on a glacier, which gives the Cessna a better chance of slowing down quickly or taking off again quickly. On landing, it was calm, the wind was no longer blowing, but it was fairly cold. We immediately set up camp.

We could see the summit-it is very beautiful and impressive. All around us, there are many other summits, including the summit of Mount Shinn, which is just on the other side separating these two mountains, Mount Vinson and Mount Shinn.

The tents are now set up and tomorrow morning, we will prepare to depart for camp I. As we set out, not very far from the camp, there are some crevasses of about 150 meters. We must assess the terrain to reach camp I; it should take us about six to eight hours to get to camp I tomorrow.

Now we are even more on our own; we are using sleds to carry our load as far as camp II: food, fuel, tents and all our climbing gear. At camp II, we will leave the sleds behind because the slope is much too steep: we must climb this glacier to reach camp III. Therefore, we will leave camp II with less equipment and many fewer supplies to reach camp III quickly and make an attempt to reach the summit. If however the weather does not cooperate, we will return to camp II. It is part of our strategy to use camp II as an advance base camp where we have a little more equipment. This is why we are going to use plastic sleds that we will pull behind us. These sleds are just like the ones children use for sliding. We will load our gear onto these plastic sleds and we will also have our rucksacks; this will enable us to carry more of our gear.

We are rather limited with these sleds and when it becomes too steep, we can no longer use them at all. From here, the glacier rises 1,000 meters up to camp II, on a fairly gentle incline, which means we can pull the plastic sleds behind us. But after that, it becomes much steeper: we have to use spikes and ropes and it becomes impossible to pull the sleds.

When we talk about the base camp, perhaps some people who are not familiar with mountain climbing think that we arrive at a place where huts are already set up. What we call the base camp is the starting point of the expedition, in other words it is a good location, especially in relation to the mountain, to set up camp. For example, we determined this year that we could set up camp roughly in this location, so a Cessna flew over the location once or twice and determined that there are not too many crevasses, so we could set up camp in this place. However, this changes from year to year, since the crevasse field shifts and can expand or contract. Slopes are created gradually, just a little more every year, but it doesn't change a great deal one year to the next. But it is always windy, with great gusts of wind.

So what we call the base camp is often the first camp we set up and sometimes we leave things there. It is our starting point, to which we also return. Setting up the base camp takes a great deal of time, because if the weather turns bad, we may stay there for several days, even several weeks. We don't want to do this, but we choose the location very carefully just in case. It is not a temporary camp like the other camps.

So, this is a little bit of our strategy; I hope to be able to send you another message tomorrow.

Bye,

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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