Trekking from sea level a four-man Australian team reached the 16076 feet (4,900m) high mountain in Antarctica. They braved temperatures of minus 35c at the summit. Roped together for safety they carried all their own supplies, pulling 60kg sleds across the ice. The group reached the top today after beginning their 400km trek across the continent early last month.
The team:
• Led by Adelaide mountaineer Duncan Chessell, 36
• Adelaide mountaineer Peter Weeks, 53,
• Melbourne doctor Robert North, 31
• NSW mountaineer Robert Jackson
With this Duncan Chessell has become one of the elite group of mountaineers to have conquered the highest peak on each of the world’s seven continents. He is quoted to have said by satellite phone:
We are all exhausted but exhilarated, The view, standing alone on the tallest part of the Antarctic, was incredible - you could see almost to the south pole. To stand there and see the hundreds of kilometres we had trekked from the sea, across land never before crossed by people, was humbling.
Other climbers, including Australians, have reached the summit of Mt Vinson, but never after a trek from sea level.
Via: The age
