MOUNTAINEERING INFORMATION ARTICLES

Vinson Massif - Climbing History

Vinson Massif was the last of the Seven Summits to be climbed mainly because of its remoteness and inaccessibility. Aside from that, it was only discovered only fairly recently in 1957 when a US Navy aircraft spotted it. Thus, it has the relatively shortest Climbing History among the Seven Summits.

Vinson Massif is named after Congressman Carl G. Vinson of Georgia, who was influential in promoting Antarctic exploration from 1935-1961. Meanwhile, the mountain range where Vinson Massif can be found is called the Ellsworth Range, which is named after Lincoln Ellsworth, who made a number of flights across Antarctica between 1934-1939. Discovered in November 23, 1935 it was not revisited until the 1960s.

In 1963, the American Alpine Club sought the support of their planned expedition to climb the Vinson Massif's summit. However, it was only 3 years later in 1966 when permission for the expedition was finally granted.

The climbing team, led by Nicholas Clinch, was transported by the US Navy to the Sentinel Range using a ski-equipped C-130 aircraft. The team finally reached the summit on December 18, 1966 and remained in Antarctica for about a month and summited other mountains including the peaks of Tyree, Shinn and Gardner. Soon after their return, US policy of encouraging travel to Antarctica was changed to discourage travel to this region.

In 2001, the climbing team of Conrad Anker, Jon Krakauer, and Dave Hahn climbed Vinson Massif from the via a new route. During the same expedition, they became the first to measure the mountain's height using a Global Positioning System or GPS. Using the GPS, they discovered that Vinson Massif only 16,077 feet (4,897m) which is slightly lower than the previous measurement made in 1979. However, the expedition by Damien Gildea of Australia, and Rodrigo Fica and Camilo Rada of Chile in 2004 showed that the mountain actually stood 4,892m, 5m lower than the measurements made by Anker's team.

It has been the Massif's Climbing History so far. It still offers a lot of pioneering opportunities since not too many people have had the chance to Climb it yet because of its remoteness, as already mentioned earlier. If you wish for a relatively easily Climb but wish to be challenged in getting there, then the Vinson Massif is for you.

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