Antarctic Landscape

Haugen at summit of Mt. Vinson

Summit Ridge

Approach to summit ridge

Towards the summit...

The Team

Bad weather coming...

Home Sweet Home

... Finally home! After 6 different planes and over 24 hours of travel, I am back in Denver and ready to jump into the swing of things.
First of all, I would love to thank everyone for their support and enthusiasm regarding this website. I had no idea how big of a deal the site had become until I got home and read all of the comments and heard reports of people logging in from around the country. I also have to apologize for not being more eloquent or providing more details. Most of the posts I made were after long days of climbing or carrying gear and the cold weather limited the amount of time I wanted to spend outside the tents on a satellite phone. So, thanks for listening!
A few thoughts:
-Everything worked out very well. It was nothing but good Karma that we were able to arrive a whole day earlier than what was predicted to be our unrealistic earliest possible day home. We were truly the strongest climbing team on the mountain. Everyone had a fabulous attitude towards the climb and a strong work ethic to get the job done. There was no complaining, only bad jokes and lively conversation. Instead of our moral being lowered on our bad weather days, our commeradery was reinforced with every snow block that we used to strenghthen the walls protecting our camp. We were also blessed with overall fabulous weather conditions. The only time I was truly cold was on the flight leaving Antarctica. I am convinced the pilots thought it would be funny not to turn any heat on in the back of the plane.
-It is nice to be able to change clothes on a daily basis considering I did not change clothes the entire time I was on the mountain (really). It is just a way of life on a mountaineering expedition. You do not want to carry the weight of multiple sets of clothing and they will just start to smell instantly anyway since there is no way to shower. Besides, I smelled like roses compared to everyone else.
-The 24 hours of sunlight really began to mess with my head even more than the altitude. We would be working until 1 o'clock A.M. some days and I could have sworn it was only 5 in the afternoon. I think without a watch, I would have quickly lost any sense of time.
-What a surreal place. For several days I looked out from our camps and could have sworn I was looking down on a low cloud layer, which is often the case from bigger mountains. What I was really looking at was ice and snow as far as I could see. I was a witness to a couple of interesting phenomenon. First, when I took a compass out to look at the direction, the needle was pegged down against the bottom of the compass since we were so close to the south pole. Also, all of our altimeters showed an altitude that was a t least a couple of thousand feet higher than the actual altitude at the top. We are pretty sure that this is due to a further decrease in barometeric pressure as you move away from the equator towards the poles. Equatorial bulge?
-Antarctica is an isolated place. After traveling to places like the Rub al Khali sand desert in southern Saudi Arabia, I thought I had been in isolated places. Antarctica is an entire continent of nothing but snow, ice and mountains. There are a couple of research stations with no permanent residence... thats it. Antarctica is a place that spawns stories of courage and adventure from Shackleton to Scott and many more. We flew hundreds of miles over a small chunk of Antarctica and saw no signs that any people had every set foot to this spectacular area. To put it into perspective, I was told at the end of the trip that fewer people have stepped on top of Mt. Vinson than have gone into space.
-Everyone on our trip lost some weight. I personally lost about 6 pounds. I think I should market this diet. You can eat all the fattiest food that you want such as bacon quesadillas and raw chocolate chip cookie dough logs and still lose 5-10 pounds in a couple of weeks. All you have to do is either climb ten hours a day or sit around in - 22 degree weather.
-Finally, I have been extremely fortunate to have realized so many of my dreams and goals. I have been able to turn two of my loves, teaching and climbing, into careers. I consider myself to be extremely lucky to be envited as a professional guide and climber on such an amazing expedition. Thanks Phil!! I am also lucky to be at a school such as Kepner Middle School where I not only get to teach an incredible group of students, and I get to learn from them as well. I have been fortunate enough to have a world class set of mentors in every stage of my life; from my parents whose values set me up for success to a fabulous set of high school science teachers, to Joe Williams, an amazing scientist, advisor, and hard worker, to climbing mentors like Andy Politz and Phil Ershler whose modesty as living legends have inspired me to work as hard as I can towards every goal. I truly belive you can over come any obstacle and reach any goal with enough hard work, an open eye for opportunity, and respect for all people along your paths in life.

After taking several more deep breathes, I am sure that I will come up with some more ideas. Keep checking the website since I should be able to start putting some pictures up this week. Also, I will be able to start replying to the "comments" section. If you have any questions about Antarctica or any other ideas you would like me to carry on about, write 'em down.
Thanks!!!
Mike Haugen
P.S. I did not chew gum on the mountain. I am physically unable to walk and chew gum at the same time. Just kidding. I do not chew gum while I climb because it is hard enough to breathe at altitude because of a lack of air pressure. I am pretty sure that gum would not get hard in your mouth due to the fact that I never remember my tongue being cold.

South America

Well... this is the end of the road.
With a lot of luck and the correct playing of our cards, we made it from our high camp to Punta Arenas, Chile in one push. I was awake for about 30 hours ¨yesterday¨. We carried heavy loads from high camp all the way down to Mt Vinson base camp, picking up the items we left at the other camp along the way. As we were setting up camp, we recieved a radio call informing us that the twin engine otter ski plane was on its way. We were also informed that there was a posibility that the Aleutian jet would be in the air that night and could bring us back to Chile. This was a stroke of luck for us since that flight was supposed to come to Antarctica on the 4th of December. So, after a long day of hiking and an absolutely fantastic flight from base camp to Patriot Hills landing strip we waited for 10 hours to fly back to South America, arriving a day early! We had all been planning on waiting for several days at base camp or Patriot hills because of weather or other delays. In fact, our return flight tickets were all scheduled for just before Christmas to allow for weeks of bad weather and delays. Anyway, we are in Punta and are scheduled to begin our two day air trek back to the states this afternoon. What a surreal experience this has been. I think a couple of good meals and a bit more sleepwill allow me to put my thoughs in a little better perspective. Adios for now...

Punta Arenas

Hi everyone. The computer that I am relying on has not been working properly so I was not able to post yesterday. Anyway, we got a weather report for the landing strip at Patriot Hills, Antarctica. The report was good with wind speeds at 18 knots and a temperature of -13 degrees C (about 8 degrees F). We got on all of our cold weather clothes, finished packing our bags, and headed to the airport for the big flight. When we arrived at the airport, the owner of the flight service informed us that we needed to wait for one more weather report to see if the wind speed was still trending downward. The weather report showed an increasing trend in the wind. Since an attempt that gets aborted in the air means a waste of fuel and therefore money, the pilots and owners decided to nix our flight. So....We wait.
Punta Arenas is actually a pretty nice little town. It is the southern most city in Chile and located on the Straights of Magellan. Magellan traveled through these waters on the first circumnavigation of the globe around 1520. Tierra del Fuego is located across the straight from us, so we are not far from cape Horn which is the southern most tip of South America and home of some of the roughest seas in the world. Our weather report comes every few hours so I have been spending my time looking at a few sights and waiting at the hotel for positive news. Mike, one of the climbers in our group, has been walking around trying to find a church where he can light a good luck candle. No news from God yet!
The group dynamic for this trip is much better than could be expected so far. We have ten people from the U.S. and Great Britain that are getting along very well. We spend our dinners together laughing and telling some great stories.
I can not wait to get to the ice and get to work climbing this mountain. Hopefully my next posting will come from my satellite phone on the ice.

Punta Arenas, Chile

Hi all,
We flew into Punta Arenas yesterday afternoon on one of the scariest flights of my life. The pilots decided it was perfectly safe to land the plane in 65 Knot (about 75 mph) winds. It is one thing to hit some turbulence at 30,000 feet, but to have constant turbulence while banking to circle the runway and looking straight down at the water about 300 feet below was a little crazy. About 2 seconds before we touched down, the pilot hit the gas again, causing us to do about three large bounces on one wheel before landing and stopping about 30 feet short of the end of the runway. When we were stopped at the terminal, the plane still felt like it was in turbulence because the wind was bouncing us around so much. In fact, some of our guys could not get their baggage because the luggage handlers were afraid to open the cargo hold. I think they were afraid either the doors would whip open to fast or the open cargo hold would act like a sail and turn the plane around. I can´t wait until we fly down to our runway in Patriot Hills, Antarctica, which is blue ice scraped clean from the polar winds.
Anyway, we have all of our backpacks and group gear packed up and ready to go on the plane tomorrow. We brought down 13 days of food from the States and picked up some additional ¨emergency rations¨ in case we get stuck down on the ice. Know all we have to do is wait for the winds to die down at our landing strips in Partiot Hills, Antarctica so it is safe to fly in. We are flying in on an ¨Aleutian¨ which is one of the biggest Russian military jets ever made. This sucker is big enough to haul snow plows and trucks 2000 miles and land them on the ice. If all goes well, we will get the call to fly about 5 o´clock tomorrow morning (1 o´clock Denver time). I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I had some King Crab pancakes and a toast for all of you.

Santiago, Chile

Hey everyone,
I have been on the go for 24 hours and have travelled 6000 miles. I only have 13 more hours and 1200 more mile to go before we get to Punta Arenas in Patagonia. This is where we will depart from to head towards Antarctica. I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving. Eat some turkey for me!

Departure Day

I am all packed and ready to embark on my journey to the bottom of the world. I will be on planes or in airports for the next two days as I travel from Denver to the southern tip of South America (I think it is about 7000 miles). I will fly through Miami and Santiago, Chile on my way to Punta Arenas in the Patagonia Region of Chile. We will have about a day in Punta Arenas to organize our expedition supplies before we hop on a military jet and fly down to "the ice".
This will be the 3rd of the 7 summits (the highest mountains on each continent) that I will have been on this year. I need to say "THANK YOU!" to all of my family and friends for always being there for me, to Phil Ershler from International Mountain Guides for inviting me to be a guide on this expedition, and to the wonderful staff and students of Kepner Middle School.

Denali, Alaska

Haugen at 17,000' on Denali, Alaska