Good day, cybernauts, this is Vern Tejas reporting in from the Branscomb Glacier Base Camp on Mount Vinson. It dawned clear and COLD this morning, and the ANI pilots were able to fly us all the way from Patriot Hills to the Base Camp.

It was quite a scenic flight. Flying high over the ice we could see crevasses and untold unclimbed peaks fading into the distance. It was quite a beautiful sight. We landed here about noon today and had a great rendevous with the climbers coming out, bumped into Bob Anderson, he's just finished a first ascent on the other side of the mountain, a brand new route on Mount Vinson. We congratulate him heartily. (Ed. note: MountainZone.com cybercast Robert Anderson's first ascent on Vinson. You can get the entire story here.)

The climbers that were in here in bad weather were very happy to board the plane and head back to South America. Ourselves, we're just having a great time, it's crystal and clear air at 7,000 feet, that's about, oh goodness, that's about 2,100 meters above sea level. And we're very excited to be starting.

My climbing partner, Tomas Weber...one of the first times he's been in this kind of altitude and this remote of a region, and he's very excited to be testing it out. We'll be climbing with Christoph Hoebenreich, and he's a known climber, he's gone to the North Pole and climbs all over the world. He's an amazing companion on this trip. I'm looking forward to spending much good time with him. He, too, is very concerned about the ethics and the morals of climbers, and has turned me on to the Tyrol Declaration, which is a manifesto of many of the great climbers that are still living today and some of the up and coming climbers that got together in Innsbruck earlier this year and, excuse me, earlier last year and declared to the world our, climbers, desire for freedom and at the same time responsibility to enact our own standards throughout the world. If you haven't seen this manifesto, I strongly enourage you to go to Mountain Future and see if you can read up on it. It's a very educated piece of writing.

I just want to tell you a bit more about the Base Camp here. We are surrounded by towering white peaks on each side of us. Some of them have some beautiful ski tracks coming down them that some of the other climbers have been able to put up. It's fabulous skiing conditions right now, about four inches of powder over a very consolidated base.

We look down the Branscomb, we can see down to the Nimitz Glacier, ice falls and ice streams pouring in to this valley, and then further down into the Nimitz Valley. Just a wonderful, beautiful sight for us mountaineers to see, and in a region that is pristine, and clean and clear...it's just, for me, I'm in heaven, I've gotta tell you, I'm very excited to be here.

We look out to our East and we see rising above us the main upthrust of the Vinson Massif, a combination of rock and ice towering 6,000 feet above us, an amazing sight, to be looking up this wall. And on beyond that you can actually see the summit sticking up above the plateau.

So from right here we can see all the mountains, and we're going to take a little more circuitous route as we acclimatize. We've opted today to stay in camp and get used to this altitude, just slightly over 2,000 meters. And then hit it tomorrow in the heat of the day (laughs), which should move up to, well, almost zero degrees, if we're lucky.

So, please, join us tomorrow for our push up to the next camp, and we'll keep you abreast of any wonderful changes as they come. Ciao for now from Vern Tejas, and if you're looking for stats, stand by.

Here we are. New location, and things have changed a little bit. We now have an oxygen saturation of 93 percent, and pulse rate has jumped up, as predicted, to 55 beats/minute. In the tent, it's a sultry 24 centigrade, which converts quite nicely to 78 degrees fahrenheit. Outside, it's -20C and about 0F. We now have a pressure of 756 millibars. There is no wind, with this beautiful weather we're having. We have zero octers covered with clouds, so zero eight of cloud cover. We're at 2,100 meters above sea level, it's roughly about 6,000. Ok, talk to you later, ciao for now.

— Vern Tejas, expedition leader and MountainZone.com correspondent