There was good news, though. We would be leaving most of the group gear at High Camp for the next Adventure Consultants group to use, thus sparing them the work of packing it uphill and likewise sparing us the burden of taking it down. We kidded Mark that it seemed too coincidental AC had steared this strong group of Climbers into an early season expedition to act as pack mules. We would similarly be leaving group gear packed into Low Camp. Just before leaving High Camp I walked out to the edge of our perch. With the whole of Antarctica spread out before me in shades of white, I opened a plastic bag and released a small quantity of my brother´s ashes into the breeze.
While descending the fixed lines my Thermarest mattress role came loose and shot down the ice face. Considering it´s light weight, the mattress moved incredibly fast, skidding out across glacier at the base of the hill. The sight of this served as a sober reminder. Once at the bottom of the lines Mark and I roped up to retrieve the mattress settled some two hundred yards out on the glacier.
The Team loaded the sleds left at Low Camp and continued down to Vinson Base Camp. There Mark cooked up some pasta and poured red wine from a box. We delayed building camp as there was some chance the Otter would make a flight, extracting us from this shaded place that held the cold air miserably. During our first two days at Vinson Base Camp several of us had agreed that this was the coldest we had ever been. This included experiences on Denali and Everest. The Otter arrived a few hours later. One Team was ahead of us in priority, but that left 4 seats open. Phil immediately volunteered to stay behind.
Meeting Phil has been one of the true treasures of this experience for me. He is kind and affable, quick to laugh, and brings a liteness of spirit wherever he may be. Phil shared many quirky stories about the Isle of Man and his work their as a Police Officer. He had me laughing so hard a couple of times it hurt to gasp in the cold air. It goes without saying that Phil is an extremely gifted Mountain Climber, but what´s more he is a Rare Dude.
Phil and Mark stayed behind at Vinson Base Camp. We left them our final stores of wine and Glen Livet with which to be better received at dinner in the heated staff hut that evening. Guy, Steve, Tony, and I climbed into the Twin Otter and, forty minutes later, stepped out at Union Glacier Base. We were greeted by a lively man in an Adventure Consultants jacket, the owner of Adventure Consultants, Guy Cotter. Readers of Into Thin Air will recall numerous mentions of Guy and his brave efforts to help the stranded on that day when everything went wrong. He is a larger than life character with flashing smile and energetic demeanor. Guy helped us set up our tents, then took us into the large dinning tent for dinner and a beer. He had just finished guiding a private party that skied the last degree to the south pole. A brown tiger stripe on one cheek told of the extreme cold that had sponsored this minor frostbite. Guy readily answered questions about the events that took so many lives on Everest in May of 1996. Acknowledging mistakes made by various parties, he likewise detailed what had been learned by them and the steps taken to improve Climber safety in the future. I could not help but think this sort of discussion is as tiresome as it is painful for Guy, but if either is the case he did not show it.
I settled into my sleeping bag and listened to Christmas music on my I-pod. I had brought along a small set of battery operated Christmas lights which were rendered useless by the 24 hour daylight. But they now shined brilliantly inside my sleeping bag. I thought of family two continents away and the coming holiday.
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