Vinson summit reached!

Mark Ryman called in from the sum­mit to report that the team reached the sum­mit at 6:45 P.M. local time.

Stand­ing next to Mark on the sum­mit was Romi, who hours ago became the first Fil­ipino to climb the Sev­en Sum­mits- a huge con­grats to Romi! Near­by stood Omar, who com­plet­ed his sixth sum­mit and will com­plete his jour­ney this spring on Denali and in doing so will become the first Egypt­ian climber to reach the Sev­en! Along­side was Rick, who after some chal­leng­ing days ear­ly on ral­lied to reach the sum­mit with the team. And Scott and Jay came in strong as they all reached the summit.

Con­di­tions were good through­out the day, with cold (-26 C), but rea­son­able temps and mild to mod­er­ate winds. Over­all a per­fect day and a good strat­e­gy played out as a weath­er sys­tem is mov­ing in on Fri­day that would have like­ly delayed efforts to reach the sum­mit had they been one day behind the sched­ule they have maintained.

Great effort by all and a huge con­grats. We’re also glad to report that Levi has arrived safe­ly back in Pun­ta Are­nas after leav­ing the trip ear­ly. Jacob and Levi arrived back in base camp and today Levi flew off the con­ti­nent and back to the rel­a­tive warmth of Pun­ta Are­nas. With a res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tion at high camp it just was not in the cards for Levi, but he made a great effort to stay with the team as much as he could.

Tomor­row the rest of the team will be back in base camp with Jacob for a cel­e­bra­tion and a much need­ed rest. Con­grats again!