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Outside Magazine February 2003

Dispatches: Adventure
Massif Attack
Jon Krakauer joins an elite team of alpinists to knock off a new route on Vinson Massif for PBS

By Jason Daley


Ice men: Krakauer (left) and Anker return from the climb. (Liesl Clark for Nova)
HOPING TO SPICE UP the climbing-documentary genre, the long-running PBS science show Nova is mixing a little Vertical Limit with a dash of Mr. Wizard. On February 11, Nova premieres "Mountain of Ice," an hour-long film following alpine superstars Jon Krakauer, Conrad Anker, Andrew McLean, and Dave Hahn, plus glaciologist Dan Stone and director Liesl Clark, on a 45-mile, 17-day journey through Antarctica's Ellsworth Mountains, 600 miles from the South Pole. The goal of the climb, which was completed successfully in early 2001, was to make the first east-side ascent of 16,067-foot Vinson Massif, the continent's highest peak, along the way collecting data for an independent study of Antarctic snow accumulation to determine whether the continent is growing or shrinking. The episode is the first in a four-part, multiyear series that will also look at extreme mountain science on Everest, McKinley, and Mont Blanc. On the untracked slope up Vinson,
"[Jon's] an authority on adventure narratives and knows these quotes by heart."
the team stopped every few miles and dug six-foot pits to measure layers of yearly snow accumulation. During the 12,000-vertical-foot climb, they scaled a 3,000-foot headwall, endured windchills of minus 70 Fahrenheit, and lived through Anker's cooking (maple syrup, garlic, and curry—mixed).

Narrated in part by Krakauer, the film weaves together the team's climb up Vinson with his stream-of-consciousness musings on the 1911 race to the pole by Roald Amundsen (who made it first) and Captain Robert Falcon Scott (who came in second and perished on the way back). "Jon and I would just sit in the tent with the microphone between us and start shooting the breeze," says Liesl Clark. "He's an authority on adventure narratives and knows these quotes by heart." For professional guide Dave Hahn, 41, who holds the record for the most Vinson ascents with 21, the trip was less about bagging the new route and more about sharing Antarctica's extreme isolation. "Being that far from the rest of the world," says Hahn, "is as close as some of us are going to get to a different planet."