Meeting at 3 p.m.

We have a meeting at 3 p.m. today to update us on the status of the weather at Patriot Hills. We remain hopeful for good news. I will update everyone once we learn our fate....

More Pictures

Hit the link to the left to Mark´s blog for more pictures (he is quite the photographer). In all of the group shots he sets the camera up on a remote timer and runs over to the photo. It is quite funny....

Picture of Glacier from our Campsite

This is a picture of the massive glacier in the park. It is impossible to describe the scale of the glacier. A huge piece of it broke off in the middle of the night and woke us up. The following morning we set out on a long hike to the glacier. It was an amazing day. We ended the day by hiking back to the base of the mountain and taking the boat out. We spent the night at a small town on the way back to our hotel were everyone is stranded. We are having another meeting on Monday at 3 p.m. for an update. Everyone is VERY focused on getting to the Artic to get the race in as soon as possible. The only thing that is making things bearable is the quality of people who are assembled. The race director, Brent, has completed an amazing 150 marathons and ultramarathons (races up to and past 100 miles) around the world, including in the Arctic and Antarctic. He is a geography teacher and cross-country coach at a Junior High School in Wyoming. His positive attitude is helping us all deal with the gloomy news. We remain hopeful that it is wheels up on Tuesday. More later....

This is the view from the lake. We took a boat across the lake with our gear and set out on a 7.5 mile hike at 7 p.m. at night. It stays light until well after 10 p.m. We were a sight to see.... One of our freinds some total of gear was the clothes on his back and a sleeping bag and tent that he carried. Mark and I did not have a whole lot more. We made the entire trip in order to camp by the side of a massive glacier. We hit camp aroung 10 p.m. and hung out talking for a few hours. The group included Fredrick, from Sweden but living in London, James from London, Raj from London, Mark S from Ireland, Mark and I. It would be hard to assemble a better group of guys. Everyone is easy going and we all have the same caustic sense of humor. We had a blast.

Picures From Our Trip....

This is a picture as you go into Torres Del Paines national park. It was about a 6 hour drive from our town. Mark and I had a great time with the group of guys we traveled with to the park. They are an amazing mix of people. We laughed a lot. The views are impossible to describe.....

The Storm of the Century

The logistics company (the one that provides the airplane and ground support) says this is the "storm of the century" at Patriot Hills (they have live updates at www.icemarathon.com). Mark & I are holding out hope that once it stops we can somehow get on the plane, land on the ice runway (surrounded by piles of 4 feet of snow), get on the snow, run the marathon and make our flight on Saturday... As many of you know, Mark is running this race in honor of his dad who died from cancer after an 8 year struggle. This race is important. It has turned into a quest. My hope and prayer is that it works out for us.... More later....

Update..... More snow or plane?????

We left for the mountains .... We drove 6 hours, arrived in the national park and took a boat across an amazing lake and went on an 8 mile hike. We camped at the side of a massive glacier and saw all kinds of wild animals. The next morning we woke up and called the logistics company. We were hoping for news that the plane would that very night (today Saturday). If so we knew we had to run 3 hours through 8 miles of mountain terrain in order to catch a boat at noon and then drive 7 hours to catch the plane. You are getting the idea of just how bad we had to get out of town.... The verdict.... BAD NEWS. The strom continues. The worst in anyone's memory. We have a nothing meeting at Monday at 3 p.m. Mark and I know that we have to get on the plane by Thursday.... We continue to put hope over experience. . More later.