More updates from Antarctica today. First off, you'll recall yesterday that I posted that the weather was nasty on Vinson, delaying summit bids, while teams holed up in their tents waiting for a window. Today comes word from ThePoles.com that a major rescue was performed on Saturday night to save several climbers who were caught out in the weather. The team radioed back to base camp that they were without fuel for their stove, and that some of them had already contracted frostbite. What followed was a desperate rescue mission, that thankfully ended without tragedy. Reports are that the team was exhausted and suffering from effects from the extreme cold.
Meanwhile, we have more news from the teams out on the ice. The Polar Quest Team had close encounters with a crevasse field, not to mention porridge. Meanwhile, Ray and Jenny had a long, hard day on the ice, with nasty winds, and even more sastrugi to battle, and Hannah declared it a "horrible day" only ten minutes after breaking camp.
And finally, on a TV programming note, The History Channel has begun showing Race To The South Pole. Apparently, the first episode debuted last Saturday, with the second episode airing this Saturday at 8 PM Eastern. If you missed the first episode, as I have, you can catch it again on December 17 at 1 PM. The episodes are each two hours in length, and focus on the race between Robert Falcon Scott and Roauld Amundsen's epic, and ultimately tragic, stuggle to be the first to reach the South Pole. If you're not familiar with the story, it's certainly worth watching. It should be great. I'll have to set my Tivo and get both episodes so I can watch them in order.
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