Mount Vinson summit

The successful summit of Mount Vinsion is the culmination of project which, at the end of the International Polar Year, aimed to cross the antarctic plateau from the commercial base at Patriot Hills and to then climb the highest peak on this continent. The four mountaineers spent 14 days traversing the 300km ito reach base camp at the start of January.

On 4 January Ettore Taufer, Giovanni Amort, Elio Sganga and Marco Farina left base camp at 2125m and reached 2800m before removing skies and continuing past the classic Camp 1 directly to the high camp at 3940m which they reached in 9.30 hours.

They set off at 10.00 the next day and 4 hours later reached the 4897m high summit. They then descended quickly to base camp which they reached at 19.00, accompanied by extremely cold arctic temperatures.

Mount Vinson (which forms part of the Seven summits, ie the highest summit of each continent) has only been summited 7 times by Italian mountaineers and the 300km traverse had been accomplished only once previoulsy, by another route.

The Antactic expedition has been organised by the Centro Addestramento Alpino di Aosta, the autonomous region of Valle d’Aosta and the Province of Turin.


Expedition members
1° Mar. Ettore Taufer - Expedition leader
46, Military Mountain Guide, Military Mountaineering Academic, Mountain Guide (UVGAM), Cross country and Alpine Ski Instructor, National Mountain rescue Expert, Italian Mountain Club National Mountaineering and Ski Mountaineering Instructor

1° Mar. Giovanni Amort
42, Military Mountain Guide, Military Mountaineering Academic, Mountain Guide (UIGAM), Nordic and Alpine Ski Instructor, National Mountain rescue Expert, Italian Mountain Club National Mountaineering and Ski Mountaineering Instructor

Mar. Ca. Elio Sganga
33, Military Mountain Guide, Aspiring Mountain Guide (UIGAM), Military Snow and Avalanche expert

C. le VFP 4 Marco Farina
24, Military Mountain Guide, Military Ski instructor, Aspiring Mountain Guide (UVGAM).