Mt. Shinn / Gardner

Next, the team set their sights on Mt. Shinn—accessible from Vinson Camp II, where a shelf led to the upper slopes of this 15,750-foot peak. Despite a storm, the entire team summited in the next four days, with Hollister, Silverstein, Corbet, and Wahlstrom reaching the top on December 21, Long and Schoening following the next day, and Evans, Clinch, Fukushima, and Marts two days later.

From Mt. Shinn the team had their first good glimpse of Tyree. It was then that they realized that this might be the most serious of the peaks they planned to climb.

The team returned to Camp II for Christmas Eve and then returned to Vinson Base for a Christmas steak dinner.

“We took a day off immediately after Christmas and traveled as a group—the only time in six weeks that we were all together. We used that day to check out how to attack Mt. Gardner and Tyree,” Fukushima recalled.

After exploring route options the team headed for Mt. Gardner. On December 28 the team established a base camp below Mt. Gardner and fixed a line up the 4,000-foot gully leading to the plateau that sweeps up to the summit of Gardner. While Evans and Marts split off to explore routes up Mt. Tyree, the rest of the team stayed behind to attempt Mt. Gardner. Despite cold and stormy weather the team summited on January 2, before focusing their efforts on Mt. Tyree.