The Elworth Highlands is made up of three northwest-southeast trending mountain ranges, of which the Elworth Mountains, located on the westernmost side of the Highlands, are the highest.

The main peak of the Isworth Mountains, Vincennes Peak, is the highest peak in Antarctica.

As the saying goes, looking at the mountains and running a dead horse is just as applicable to the Antarctic continent.

Tang Feng had seen Elworth Heights in the evening of yesterday, but by the time he reached the foot of the Elworth Mountains, it was already late the next day.

Standing at the foot of the Elworth Mountains and looking at Vincennes 10 kilometers away is a really different feeling.

In the warm season, there is very little snow on Vincennes, and although the temperature here is cooler than that of Mount Everest, the perennial strong winds make it impossible for the snow to stay on the summit.

The blue-black mountain is so bare on the outside, and against the backdrop of the white glacier, it looks particularly majestic.

It is a mountain with four ridges, and the four ridges are almost in the shape of a "ten" in the east, west, north, south and north directions of the main peak, and only on the leeward side of the north sun can you see the snow and glaciers. There is very little snowfall in the warm season in Antarctica, and there are storms, so it is difficult to retain snow on the windward side, and only on the leeward side of the sunny side, the snow will accumulate little by little, and eventually form glaciers. On the other side of Vincennes, to the south of Beiyang, the snow line is halfway up the mountain, and there are no glaciers or snow at all above the mountain.

What shocked Tang Feng was that there were many tents and snowmobiles at the foot of the Elvos Mountains at this time, and there was no doubt that these people had come to climb Vincennes Peak during the warm season in Antarctica.

Since 1966, when a U.S. mountaineering team first climbed the first peak of Antarctica, more than 1,400 people have climbed the mountain every year. There will be a lot of people coming to challenge the mountain, so it's no surprise to see these tents and snowmobiles at this time.

In fact, on the Antarctic continent, in addition to a limited number of large perennial research stations in a few countries with a few aircraft, there is also a public camp with a natural hard glacier runway several kilometers long. It was enough for a large transport plane to land here. This camp is the famous Patriot Hill Camp.

Patriot Mountain Camp is located at the southeastern end of Isworth Heights, at the northern foot of Patriot Mountain. It is more than 200 kilometers away from Vincennes Peak in a straight line, and it is a transit point between the South American continent and the South Pole, and all civil activities on the Antarctic continent are centered on the Patriot Mountain Camp.

Ordinary people who come to Antarctica to explore, such as Tang Feng, will set off from the city of Punta Arenas at the southern tip of Chile, fly 3,500 kilometers by plane, and then land at the Patriot Mountain camp. Then those who climb Vincennes go to climb Vincennes. Those who cross the pole will go to the pole.

Patriot Mountain Camp is invested and built by Antarctic Logistics Expedition Company in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, because the camp is on the leeward side of Patriot Mountain, and the strong wind from the north from the pole will be blocked by the tall Patriot Mountain, so the camp is set up here to avoid being destroyed by a blizzard.

Before Tang Feng came to Antarctica, he knew that there was such a Patriot Mountain camp near Vinson Peak, and Tang Feng also learned some about this camp, knowing that the tent group of this camp can accommodate 50 people. At the center of the camp is the dining room tent and there is also a small library in the dining room tent.

Three meals a day are provided at the camp. Flown in from Punta Arenas, Chile, the chef prepares international dishes and serves snacks, freshly baked pastries, cold and hot drinks 24 hours a day. As for the price, hehe. That's really not something that ordinary people can afford.

You know, in this camp, it costs forty dollars for twenty minutes to make a phone call!

There are also professional climbers who work to climb Vincennes, who will lead you to the summit of Vincennes for $30,000 per person!

The reason why Tang Feng did not choose to take a plane from Chile to the Patriot Mountain camp at that time was the reason why. In fact, it is to avoid some trouble. No one knows what will happen in Antarctica, Tang Feng has a star core by his side, so he naturally doesn't need to be afraid, but if he is with other people, then the star core will not be able to be used, which Tang Feng does not want to see, so Tang Feng decided to act alone.

When there was a snowstorm a week ago, there must have been no one here, and the mountaineers who came to climb Vincennes must have been in the Patriot Mountain camp.

It's been more than a week since the blizzard, and the weather forecast reports that there hasn't been any bad weather lately, so these mountaineers come here in groups.

In fact, this valley between two mountain ranges is the base camp for climbing Vincennes. Just like the Everest Base Camp, as long as you are a mountaineering enthusiast, you will gather here and wait for the right time window for climbing. As soon as the weather permits, these mountaineers will complete the conquest of Vincennes in one day.

The valley where Vincennes Base Camp is located is a very flat glacial terrain with few crevasses, so it is relatively safe; However, about five kilometers from the base camp along an oblique line, there is a transition camp almost 500 meters higher than the base camp, although this transition camp is also on a flat glacier, but there are more cracks here, so the danger level will increase a lot.

Approximately five kilometres of a winding route from the transition camp leads to a low-altitude camp about 150 metres higher than the transition camp, where the terrain is similar to that of the transition camp, the penultimate camp before the summit.

There is still about three kilometers from the low-altitude camp to the high-altitude camp, but in these three kilometers, the altitude will suddenly rise by a thousand meters, most of this section is 45 degrees of snow slopes, there are also some rocky sections, of which six dangerous sections are installed with route ropes, each section is about 200 meters away.

After this stretch of the distance, the climbers will reach the last camp before the summit - the high-altitude camp, which is the last safe camp before the summit. The camp is about 1,100 meters below sea level from the summit of Vincennes, but to climb this 1,100-plus meters, one needs to travel about 14 kilometers. The first half of the trail is fairly flat, but in the second half, you'll need to climb along a rocky ridgeline of about 40 degrees.

If the climber can successfully reach the summit within the right time window, then it will be fine, but once the right time window is exceeded, it will be very dangerous to force the summit. Because the climate at the summit of Vinson Peak is more unpredictable than that of Mount Everest, and the weather conditions are even harsher, the slightest carelessness will be the result of death!

Although Tang Feng has not climbed Vincent Peak, nor does he plan to climb Vinson Peak, he still knows how to climb Vinson Peak, after all, this mountain peak involves the secret of the star core, and Tang Feng can't afford not to care about this peak! (To be continued.) )