Hello cybernauts of the MountainZone, this is Vern Tejas at the bottom of the world, hanging out in Patriot Hills. Yes, once again, trapped in Patriot Hills by the weather. Goodness gracious, me oh my, it must be blowing 30 to 40 knots out there, and has been all day. Impossible to bring in a plane to evacuate all the different campers here.

Fortunately, we've got quite a menage a ... campers, because we have people from all over the world. We've got Spaniards, we've got Italians, we've got British, we've got Japanese, we've got Scottish, we've got Americans, and they're all here to enjoy the wonders of Antarctica.

Some have gone to the South Pole, some have skied, others have flown. Some have just come back from Vinson, like myself, and we're all biding our time and waiting for the winds to drop. I don't know if you can hear it in the background, but it's howling outside. Buffeting our tents.

So we have a small band of adventurous spirits here, maybe about 50, all waiting for the airplane to come back from South America to evacuate us. As I mentioned earlier, it's a Russian jet. It's amazing. It has just a 50 seat capacity, so we're all very anxiously waiting for it to come so we can jump on and fly home.

However, in the meantime, Antarctica has different ideas, and it's getting pretty gnarly down here. But as they say, when the going gets tough, the tough play music, and I just got finished jamming this evening with an American pilot who flies a Cessna 185, and does trips all around the local mountains here. And also playing with Conrad Anker, who is here from the other side of the Vinson Massif with his team. So we sat down, and strummed the mandolins, guitar, the fiddle, and it's been an all-around wonderful afternoon and into the evening.

And now it's time to bed down and pray for some calm to come our way. So y'all sleep tight and warm, and we'll just see if we can get through this night of a shaking tent. Cheers, that's all for now, talk to you later. Ciao.

— Vern Tejas, expedition leader and MountainZone.com correspondent