Wally Iceberger

The Afternoon Weather Report
January 12, 1999 — Punta Arenas, Chile


CLICK TO HEAR THE CALL:

Hi, Mountain Zone. Iceberger here. Afternoon of the 12th at Punta Arenas. I called [Patriot Hills] this morning with Koos and Rachel Shepherd operations manager at Adventure Network here in Punta. We just wanted to take a close look at what's going on down on the ice and our prospects.

Big wind going on here. Not the greatest news, although we're all still determined to make this thing happen; confident that we will. Huge adventure getting flown down there. Huge undertaking. I'm reminded of it every time I come down here, and we're playing that game in a big way here.

[click to zoom]

Right now, with the runway cleared, I'm going to give you the report so you can post it, and kind of leave it at that right now. Wish I could report a lot more gaiety and frivolity down here, but it just isn't quite that way. We're focused on what's going on, watching the report, and waiting for it to turn in our direction.

This is the weather from Patriot Hills this morning. 18 knot winds gusting to 25. Remember the threshold for those crosswinds on the runway is 15. Koos said he's not worried about the gust - he can make judgment and set it down, he feels, with a gust well over 15 knots, just kinda by talking to the ground before he comes in, and timing it. But a steady 18 knot speed is too much.

Visibility 3,000 meters. He actually likes about ten. Alto-cumulus layer at 5,000 feet. We need maybe up about 7,500. Contrast is poor, no horizon. So visibility is not good.

Probably the discouraging thing for the non-aviators who are here in this thing this morning was the description "driving snow." Once again, precipitation is underway down here. Now this is a very light density snow that with this kind of wind does not necessarily accumulate on that runway — actually, it does not accumulate on that runway, so that's not a great concern. But not good weather down there.

We also are pulling satellite images back into Patriot now, and sounds like there's a big low to the southeast of Patriot over the Wendell Sea, and we'll see what that does. Hopefully it's going to move to the west and not continue to have an affect on the Patriot Hills area.

I'll keep you posted; you'll know day-to-day, and not even radio-call-to-radio-call, what our prospects are. We're still down here to get this mountain climbed and to get our feet on the ice down in Antarctica, in the interior of Antarctica as soon as possible. And we're hoping for some good words from the little man in red.

Best wishes. Hi to everybody. Bye.

—Wally Iceberger, Expedition Leader

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