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Vinson
2002! |
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Dispatch
#3 January 6, 2002. Punta Arenas, Chile.
Holla
amigos y familias. Many of the climbers have told
friends and family that we would be flying to
Antarctica in a C 130 Hercules aircraft. This
is the plane that has been used for years and that I
flew on last year. It is 4 propeller aircraft
that makes the flight to Antarctica in a little over
6 hours. But the organization that flies
us to the ice has brought in a different plane this
year. When I landed in Punta Arenas I saw the
aircraft sitting on the tarmac. It is a
monstrous plane from Russia called an Iliushin 76.
It has 4 jet engines, more wheels than I could count
and an enormous payload capacity. They tell us
it can make the flight to Antarctica in 4 hours and
can land in slightly stronger cross winds than the C
130 Hercules. The reason this is interesting
is because it is cross winds that create the blue
ice runway. Winds called Katabatic winds come
down from a high plateau over the Patriot Hills and
scour the surface at the base creating a sheet of
blue ice. While it is not smooth like a
skating rink it is just as slippery and shiny
as if the Zamboni machine has just come out and
polished it. Because the pilots can't use
the breaks when landing all the conditions have to
be just about perfect so the plane can land on the
runway and stay on the runway. The cross winds
affect our ability to fly to the ice because they
must be able to approach the runway head on instead
of approaching in what pilots have told me is called
"crabbing" which basically means flying
sideways on approach and then straightening out at
the last second before touchdown. This is very
common on commercial flights landing on concrete
runways, but this is anything but a common
commercial flight. You can imagine if the
plane lands a little sideways and tries to stop it
could start spinning like a top. Something I
am sure no one is interested in experiencing.
So we continue to wait for the right conditions
before we can take off for Antarctica. |
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Because of the delay Gary Weaver,
Jean Michel Vallete and myself took the opportunity to do a
little fly-fishing yesterday. We hired a guide and
headed to an amazing river just a few miles from the end of
the road. Our guide told us that just ahead was the
terminus of the road to southern end of the Americas.
From there one would have to walk one or two days to reach
the most southern tip of the continent. This area is so
rich with the history of exploration. In addition
to seeing quite a number of old and abandoned ships, we
drove past the grave of the Captain of The Beagle,
Charles Darwin's ship during his exploration to the South
America and the Galapagos. But back to fishing. A
beautiful sunny day, a peaceful river, lots of falcons,
kingfishers, finches and an endless number of ocean birds
flying overhead, no other people around. A
sportsman dream come true. If only we caught something
bigger than a french fry. Jean Michel did catch one
pretty good size trout and I am sure it will continue to get
bigger in the future as he tells the story to his family and
friends.
Hope all are well. Neil
McCarthy
 Dispatches |
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