Patriot Hills

- 80.316666666667 - 81.266666666667Koordinaten: 80 ° 19 ' S, 81 ° 16' W

The Patriot Hills Base Camp is a tented camp in the Ellsworthland in western Antarctica. It lies at the southern end of the Ellsworthgebirges just north of the eponymous Patriot Hills, a snow-covered hills.

The bearing is (now owned by Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions LLC) operated by a private company Adventure Network International and is the only privately operated camp on the Antarctic continent. It was built in 1987 and is used only during the summer months of November to January. Patriot Hills is a stopover on the way from Chile Punta Arenas into the interior of Antarctica for many adventurers and explorers. The flight time from Punta Arenas is about 4.5 hours.

The camp was built near one of the rare blue ice fields, which serves as the starting and landing strip for small aircraft.

The heart of the camp is the communal tent that serves as a common lounge and dining room. In the communications tent, whose devices are powered by solar power, are high-frequency radio equipment with which contact with Punta Arenas and through the eternal ice traveling expeditions is held. The residents of the camp are housed in two-person tents.

In the summer months the temperature rises to -15 ° C. The temperature in the winter months is estimated to be about -40 ° C, but so far no one has wintered in Ellsworthgebirge.

Patriot Hills was during the Antarctic spring of 1989, the starting point of the continental crossing by Reinhold Messner and Arved fox that crossed the South Pole to McMurdo Station.

The camp is the starting point of many expeditions to Mount Vinson some 120 kilometers away.