Scenic flight

After dinner last night, Carl went to the comm box to check on the weather as we were told there might be a chance we could fly. As usual, it was the pointer to 4:00am this morning and Carl would inform us if we fly by 4:30. If we hear nothing from him, that means we are not going.By 3 something I was woken up by the sound of the Iridium turned on by Em. By 4:30 I heard footsteps around Em's tent and some chatting. My heart started to race. Are we flying, I wondered. I couldn't wait to hear the news so I popped my head out of the tent. Em informed me there was no flight. I didn't hear from Carl either.At breakfast, we were told there was another opportunity to fly out after lunch but by 10:30, Carl said we were going at 11:10. Needless to say we were overjoyed. It didn't take us long to get ready. The goodbyes to the Messner team was quick but not without a bit of emotion for me as we have spent quite a lot of time with them over the past 3 weeks. As we took off, as UG camp drifting out of the plane windows, the mountainous scenary appeared before our eyes. They are so beautiful, especially in such a beautiful morning like today. We had not seen blue sky for such a the past several days.10 minutes passed by. I was dozing off as I didn't have much sleep last night. The flight time was supposed to be 15 minutes. There was no sign we were descending. Looking out the window, a thick blanket of clouds covered the entire area of Hercules Inlet. There was no even a small break in the white blanket for the plane to attempt to land. At this point Carl told us we had to go back to camp. Needless to say I was disappointed. But I was glad in a way because safety is the highest priority here.We were back in camp just in time for the great lunch.The next weather update is at 5:50 pm today.Photo: Part if Ellsworth mountain range from the 15 min scenic flight today.Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.