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Live Reports Antarctica!
Vinson Massif Expedition 2005
Follow our reports here during our Vinson Expedition in the Ellsworth Mountains of Antarctica. Sean, Kevin, Cliff and Scott will be flying to the first Patriot Hills, then onto the Branscomb Glacier in the Ellsworth Mountains of Antarctica on January 4th, 2005 for our Vinson Massif Expedition 2005! John Rust will also be leading another group in January; Ray, Paul and Peter will be joining us for 2 weeks on the ice! We will post reports here daily following our progress.
Live from Antarctica! Most recent reports at top!
We made it out, Yahoo!
Jan 19th, 2005
Just out from the ice! Everyone is doing super good and we are jazzed! On the evening of the 18th, the weather started really looking better so the Illuyshin was called. It arrived at 4 am and we
were off to Punta Arenas at 6pm. Very excited to be out and able to make most of our flight connections.
So till next year when we again will be visiting Antarctica and Vinson!
Scott Woolums reporting from Caracas, Venezuela!
High Winds in
Patriot Hills!
17 Jan, 05 - 23:10 GPS-pos:
S80°18' | W081°21' | Alt: 782 M
High Winds in Patriot Hills!
We are still here waiting. All last night the wind was gusting up to 40 mph
which is impossible for the Illuyshin to land in so here we are! Still some hope
today. We will have more news at 7.30 pm today, but were not to optimistic.
Perfectly clear sky's today, very beautiful, just super high winds. Endless
games of cards, actually it's quite comfortable waiting, but now it's time to
go.
A wonderful place here in the Antarctic, wish we had an unlimited schedule to
stay and play!
Update: 11 pm. No flights tonight, it was just over the limitations to fly
tonight. Very good weather and the winds died a lot, just not quite enough.
We did climb up to the top of Patriot Hills tonight, very beautiful. Almost
perfect weather, just a lot of wind. Quite a bit nicer than the other day we
were up. Check out the photos from today!
Scott Woolums reporting from Patriot Hills (again!), Antarctica.
As the World
Turns, so does the Weather in Antarctica!
17 Jan, 05 - 00:17 GPS-pos:
S80°18' | W081°21' | Alt: 782 M
Just a bit too high of winds have shut down flights
tonight. All groups are here in Patriot Hills now and we are all ready to fly.
We just have to wait for safe conditions to get the big Illuyshin-76 in to pick
us up. The weather is almost perfectly clear, but winds gusting to 30+ on the
blue ice runway (directly crosswind) create a dangerous scenario for flying. So
here we are for another night. We are all hoping for better conditions tomorrow.
The next call is at 5 am, so we'll wait and see what happens. Obviously there's
starting to be some flight problems for folks getting back home, for both other
groups and ours. Most of our groups tickets are on the 19th out from Punta
Arenas, so we are keeping positive. It's now 3 days late getting flown out!
Nice evening here though, very enjoyable. 11.30 pm and it's bright sun! It's
going to be a change heading for winter in the Northern Hemisphere!
Follow our next trip immediately after this in Venezuela! We will be heading for
the mountains, cloud forests and jungles of Venezuela starting Jan 21st!
Check out the photo of Kevin breaking his tent strike (he was going to stay in
his tent till the flight left, he held out till breakfast!).
Scott Woolums reporting from Patriot Hills, Antarctica.
Clear
Blue Sky's here in Antarctica!
16 Jan, 05 -
14:21 GPS-pos: S80°18' | W081°21' | Alt: 782 M
Clear Blue Sky's here in Antarctica!
Beautiful day at Patriot Hills. We're in T-Shirts here today, seriously! One
Twin Otter just arrived with the second to last group out from Vinson Base with
only one more plane load there which should be back in a couple hours. As soon
as the second Twin Otter is back with the rest of the Vinso climbers, the
Illuyshin is called to take us home, yahoo! Lots of excitement in camp today.
Anything can happen still but it's looking' good.
Stay tuned! Scott Woolums reporting from sunny
Patriot Hills!
Marginal Weather In Patriot Hills
16 Jan,
05 - 01:21 GPS-pos: S80°18' | W081°21' | Alt: 782 M
Still here in Patriot Hills, Antarctica today. The other
groups are stuck in Vinson Base Camp with poor weather so we are waiting till
they can be flown out, then we will all get out from here on the Illuyshin to
Punta Arenas, hopefully tomorrow with a lot of luck. This morning the weather
looked not so good, but this evening it's a lot better and clearing as I type
this.
Today we slept in till noon and had a very casual day. This afternoon we went
for a super hike up into the Patriot Hills above camp. It's about a 3 hour hike
up a couple thousand feet, with great views of everything around here. Not the
best weather but good exercise.
Long hours of playing cards and just enjoying Antarctica. This really is a great
place to be. Quite comfortable the way ALE has set up camp. Beats being stuck on
the glacier at Vinson Base Camp!
Check out the pictures from our hiking the Patriot Hills!
Scott Woolums reporting from Patriot Hills, Antarctica.
Good Morning
from Patriot Hills, Antarctica!
14
Jan, 05 - 09:19
Super morning here in Patriot
Hills, it's a tropical 20 degrees with a 30 knot wind outside, but the sun is
out! Actually that's not too bad of a day here. Surprising how warm these
conditions can feel after the summit of Vinson.
The first Illuyshin flight got out this morning, back to Punta Arenas, Chile.
Unfortunately we are on the second flight out, probably the earliest will be
tomorrow night, the night of the 16th. The weather has closed down at Vinson
Base Camp this morning so the other teams are stuck there right now.
Life here in Patriot Hills is actually very comfortable inside insulated, heated
dinning and cooking tents that are provided. Quite a nice break from Vinson Base
Camp which is tougher to hang at then here. We still have to use our tents for
sleeping in outside though.
We are all hopeful the weather holds so we can get out somewhat on schedule.
Although we are now almost 2 days behind schedule to get out.
Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion as we are getting closer to the end of
our Vinson 2005 Expedition!
Scott Woolums reporting from Patriot Hills, Antarctica.
We're In
Patriot Hills on our way home!
14 Jan, 05 -
01:38 GPS-pos: S80°18' | W081°21' | Alt: 793 M
Well the good news is we're in Patriot Hills! The bad
news is we're in Patriot Hills now and the wind is blowing 50 mph here! Actually
were all very jazzed to be here. Right after the last report, we got a call to
be packed and ready in an hour as the Twin Otter is on the way. So we scurried
around stuffing everything in duffels and taking down tents.
Another absolutely beautiful flight across Antarctica! Perfect night with great
views of the Ellsworth Mountains on the 1 hr. flight back to Patriot Hills.
The Illuyshin is still here as the winds have not subsided since it flew in a
couple days ago and is now stuck here. So flights are starting to get backed up.
We will be on the second Illuyshin out.
Lots going on here as 2 different groups are just back from crossing Antarctica
on skis and kites! Sounds like some very wild trips!
We stayed up till 3am tonight playing cards and enjoying being one step closer
to home. Still windy here, but very clear. With some good weather things will
happen fast!
Good night from Patriot Hills Antarctica! Scott Woolums reporting.
Base Camp Day
2!
13 Jan, 05 -
17:49 GPS-pos: S78°32' | W086°00' | Alt: 2090 M
Hello from Vinson Base Camp! Still here waiting for our
flights to Patriot Hills. The latest word is later tonight or in the morning. We
are also waiting for the remaining groups to summit Vinson and get back to Base
Camp. Today has been our first day off for awhile and it really feels great. We
are using the time to get things repacked and sorted, eat and drink all the food
we brought into Base Camp. On tonight's menu is fillet's with potatoes!
We have heard that the large Illuyshin aircraft got stuck in Patriot Hills
yesterday because of high winds and still cannot fly! This is a flight that was
originally scheduled for the 9th. So this plane has to fly back to Chile and
then return for us still. Schedules are only a guideline here in Antarctica!
Check back to see what happens over the next few days.
Scott Woolums reporting from Vinson Base Camp, Antarctica.
Whiteout in
Base Camp
13 Jan, 05 - 01:06
Just arrived in Base Camp. Mostly whiteout with light
winds and cold, maybe -10. What a great feeling to be here. A short 2.5 hour
walk down the glacier from Camp 1 today. Still quite cloudy in camp here. No
flights to Patriot Hills due to weather. Now we wait. We will be the first group
flown out as we are the first group back down to Base Camp. From Patriot Hills
we are scheduled to fly back to Punta Arenas, Chile on Feb. 14th, dependent on
the weather. They are starting to break camp down for the season now.
We just heard a couple other groups may have summited today, yahoo. That's good
news as we are all supposed to be on the same flight back to Chile together.
Huge feast today, smoked salmon, pizza, and ice cream with Baileys Irish Cream!
So good to be down.
Hoping for blue sky's and no wind tomorrow!
Scott Woolums reporting from Vinson Base Camp, Antarctica
Safely Down
in Camp 1 after the Summit!
12 Jan, 05 - 00:06
Safely Down in Camp 1 after the Summit!
We're all here in Camp 1 now. Very marginal weather, only one other group of 3
tried to go up today, not sure how they did. Everyone else is waiting at High
Camp to summit. We feel lucky to be the only group to get up in the short window
yesterday.
This morning was quite nasty in High Camp, lots of clouds and blowing snow. We
slept in hoping conditions would improve some, not! There was a short break
midday that allowed us to get outta there. Camp 1 today is feeling a tropical 10
degrees! All below Camp 1 is a massive sea of clouds. Above are high cirrus and
lenticular clouds that do not look good with large plumes blowing off the ridge
above camp near Vinson's' summit. Looks very, very cold up there right now.
In camp here we have been enjoying ice cream, grilled cheese sandwiches, and
sunshine with everyone looking forward to heading home. We may have to wait for
the groups trying to summit up high now before getting flown back to Chile. We
all feel we would much rather be here than up high right now, waiting.
We decided to just stay in Camp 1 tonight as below here are all clouds and would
be quite cold with no warming sunshine. No hurry now anyways, we're all
basically on vacation now.
We hope to catch a Twin Otter flight back to Patriot Hills as soon as the
weather clears. It's a bit closer to home and much more comfortable. The weather
will play a big role in setting everyone's schedule over the next few days. Very
nice to have the summit behind us though. Probably do a little celebrating when
we arrive in Base Camp tomorrow.
Scott Woolums reporting from Camp 1, Vinson, Antarctica.
From the Top
of Antarctica!
11 Jan, 05 -
00:55 GPS-pos: S78°29' | W085°42' | Alt: 3720 M
Yahoo, we did it! All of the Adventures International
Team summited Mt. Vinson today. Not the perfect day, high winds and very cold,
but just enough of a window to make it. The weather has really changed now, very
high winds and a whiteout here in High Camp.
There are several other teams up here now planning to go tomorrow. We are hoping
tomorrow will bring a break in this storm that's raging outside tonight.
This morning started out being very good, no winds and clear sky's. By 9 am a
few clouds were rising up from the south, still no wind and quite warm. It
looked good enough to rally the team and go for a hike to check it out. So we
left High Camp around 11 am to have a better look at the weather. From High Camp
to about half way to the summit it was light clouds, no wind with the sun
filtering through and quite hot. Very good conditions actually so we made good
time up till when the wind kicked up. We put on our down suits as it looked like
we would be climbing into the wind. As we got higher we climbed above the
clouds, spectacular views all around.
With 10 degree temps and lower plus a 20-30 knot winds, it was extremely cold
all along the summit ridge and on top. Very quick stay before heading down. So
Scott, Neal, Kevin and Cliff summited around 5pm, followed by John, Ray, Peter
and Paul. I believe these we're the first summits of 2005!
This made number seven for me with reaching Vinson's' summit. What a fantastic
feeling to have set foot on the top of all seven continents. It's a goal I have
never really pursued, yet it's happened!
Scott Woolums reporting from High Camp on Vinson Massif, Antarctica.
Perfect
Weather in High Camp!
9 Jan, 05 - 23:34 GPS-pos:
S78°29' | W085°42' | Alt: 3720 M
Yahoo, we're all up in high camp here after a super day.
Everyone did really well coming up the glacier and icefall. The weather today
was the best we have seen in Antarctica yet. A good night to be here in high
camp! Only one other group is up here with us taking advantage of this super
good weather.
Camp here is at 12,150 ft. So it's still a long way to the top. We are hoping
for some good weather in the morning, planning to try if it looks good. It's a
long and potentially extremely cold day, so we have to be all feeling well and
have good conditions to have a go at it. Most important is the wind speeds, as
this is what makes it very cold. It's well below zero tonight, so even 5-10
knots of wind can be very cold.
We are having some charging issues with some of the satellite phone and IPAQ
batteries so we are limiting our communications to just these reports. We plan
to keep them coming every day, so check back tomorrow to see how things went! A
sort note about the technology we are using here. The reports are going out
using an IPAQ 2215 running Human Edge Tech's Contact 3.0 software which has been
working amazingly well. We can send reports with pictures out using our Iridium
Satellite phone as a modem. That's all been working perfectly!
So we'll check in tomorrow hopefully after coming down from the top. Buenos
Noches y hasta manana!
Scott Woolums reporting from High Camp, Vinson Massif, Antarctica.
Rest day in
Camp 1
8 Jan, 05 - 17:01 GPS-pos:
S78°30' | W085°48' | Alt: 2761 M
We're up in Camp 1 here taking the day off. After
yesterday's carry to High Camp we all feel we will be a bit stronger and more
acclimatized if we rest today before moving up high tomorrow. It feels very good
to have all our food and fuel up, so we're all set to go now! We have been going
quite hard since arriving in Base Camp so a little recovery is good for the soul
(and legs!).
The weather is very good again today here in camp with some high winds on the
upper mountain. Almost the entire route up to below Camp 2 is well protected
from the prevailing winds. Today looks like it would be quite cold and blustery
at high camp anyways, so a rest day today looks like a good plan. We just heard
that Patriot Hills is experiencing winds of 30-40 today, which is probably what
it's gusting to on Vinson's summit today.
Check out the sound file to experience what can happen to people under extreme
conditions during long expeditions to Antarctica!
Scott Woolums reporting from Camp 1, Vinson Massif, Antarctica.
Up and back
to High Camp!
8 Jan, 05 - 02:13 GPS-pos:
S78°30' | W085°48' | Alt: 2761 M
Just back from a super day up to high camp with loads. A
big day but everyone rallied and did really well. Over 3200 ft. vertical rise up
through the icefall. The icefall is surprisingly steep and once on the plateau
between Shin and Vinson, there's some quite large crevasses to cross.
The wind was blowing all day up high today and in high camp, yet the whole way
up was very hot and sunny along the route. More or less a perfect day!
Another very nice morning today. We slept in till the afternoon. The insides of
the tents get super warm from the sun, even though the air temp is only 7
degrees.
We again just finished dinner and it's 1.40 am! And the sun is still out! Some
very long days here, especially as we are still close to the winter equinox.
Tonight we grilled up some excellent steaks with potatoes and hot applesauce. On
tomorrow's menu we'll be having Denver Omelettes with bacon for breakfast!
Tomorrow we are planning to move up to high camp if the weather continues to
stay like this. So we are hoping for more of the same. Still some lenticular
clouds and blowing snow streamers coming off the upper mountain. We plan to
watch this close and make a final decision in the morning.
It's getting tonight, so buenos noches all!
Scott Woolums reporting from Camp 1, Vinson Massif, Antarctica.
Up in Camp 1
now!
7 Jan, 05 - 13:00 GPS-pos:
S78°30' | W085°48' | Alt: 2761 M
Yesterday was the perfect day for traveling. No wind,
clear blue sky's and quite good snow conditions. The team is doing extremely
well. Camp here is at 9100 ft. With good views all around.
So beautiful here, being able to look out over the horizon at a virtually
endless expanse. A very special place, the interior of Antarctica. We are
actually several hundred miles south of the huge Ronnie Ice Shelf and the
Bellinghaus Sea. It's about 600 miles to the south pole from here.
Today we are planning to carry food, fuel and equipment up to high camp at
around 13,000 ft. This will put us only 2 days away from the summit! We would
like to climb Mt. Shin if time, weather and supplies hold after Vinson.
So far we feel incredibly lucky with the weather. We hope it holds! The winds up
high on the summit ridge can be very strong. Base Camp and Camp 1 here are
protected from the extremely high catabatic winds which blow from the pole
across the whole of Antarctica. Today the winds are obviously fairly high as we
can see lenticular clouds up high blowing off the summit. High camp is located
in the col between Shin and Vinson and can be very exposed to the winds. So
we'll need several good days up high, starting tomorrow!
Starting to get things ready now for today so have to sign off.
Scott Woolums reporting from Camp 1 on Vinson Massif, Antarctica.
Beautiful Day
here in Antarctica!
7 Jan, 05 - 03:45
After a long night making some of the wildest flight
connections imaginable from Punta Arenas to Patriot Hills and onto Vinson Base
Camp after only a few hours waiting in Patriot. We all slept well last night
(actually early this morning).
We are now here in Vinson Base Camp at 7150 ft. You can see the summit up
glacier rising over 9,000 ft above camp. We arrived here at about 3 am and were
quickly into bed as the sun was down behind the ridge then and the temps drop
well into the subzeros.
Around 11.30 am we're up to a perfect day, no wind, direct sunshine, and about
15 degrees (which feels very warm here!). Taking our time getting everything
packed and ready today. Just enjoying being here!
Last nights flight from Patriot Hills was so surreal. Watching the vast expanses
of ice stretch out to all horizons. The mountains of the Ellsworth range rise
directly out from the high Antarctic plateau. Simply amazing! We feel very small
here right now in quite a large, isolated and dramatic landscape!
We are almost packed and ready to move up glacier to camp 1. Trying to take
advantage of this weather. We plan to leave at 7 pm to move up to camp 1! Its
best to quickly switch to a schedule based on the sun and shadows as its quite
cold without the sun. Night and day blur together here as even last night at 5
am, the sun was shining all around us. The sun really does not set here, more
just slides behind a ridge for a few hours as it circles the sky at 10 to 45
degrees above the horizon.
Scott Woolums reporting from Vinson Base Camp.
Were on the Ice!
6 Jan, 05
- 00:55
It's been a long day and now
night! The weather at Patriot Hills was nearly perfect, no wind, about 20
degrees and blue sky's for miles and miles! So very impressive to land here on
the ice. Its like no other experience in the world. The sheer vastness and stark
beauty of this continent can be compared with nothing.
After landing on the ice here, we enjoyed a very nice dinner at the Patriot
Hills Base Camp. Met with Mike Sharp, basically the man in charge of camp here.
We would only have couple hours and then were off to Vinson Base Camp on the
next leg of the journey.
So right after dinner (1 am!), we loaded up the Otter and flew out to our Base
Camp for Vinson. One of the most spectacular flights imaginable as we traversed
the Ellsworth Mountains tonight landing right at the base of Vinson. A very long
and rewarding day. Were all tired. I am actually writing this at 5.45am our time
here and we have not slept yet. Looking forward to sleeping in a bit tomorrow.
So tomorrow we plan to start up to Camp 1. Have a number of things to do here
before leaving so we are hoping for good weather.
Scott Woolums Reporting from Vinson Base Camp!
Into
the Belly of the Beast!
5 Jan, 05
- 16:19
Were up hat 30,000 ft. on our
way! Around 4pm today we finally got the word to pack. The weather was clear
with no wind! Off to the airport, through immigration, and out to the plane.
What a monster! Huge cold war Russian technology, but were very happy to be
walking up the ramp into it today. We will be taking off with 190 tons of fuel,
baggage and people. A large part of the payload is Aviation fuel!! In barrels
stacked in front of the seats. Anyways the plane will burn over 72 tons of fuel
enroute. There's exactly 6 windows in the whole cargo area! Everyone is sitting
along the sides with all the gear equipment and fuel barrels in the middle of
the aircraft.
Just have to look out the window for the in-flight movie!
Wanted to say hey to everyone and to watch close here as we get to the ice. We
are all hoping to get flown straight out to Vinson Base Camp from Patriot Hills
on our arrival there. Nothing guaranteed here!
Scott Woolums reporting from 35,000 ft. in an Illuyshin 76!
It's looking
like a go here!
Jan 5th,
2005
Just got the word that we may
try a day time flight in maybe half an hour! So everyone is scurrying around
getting ready here at the hotel. This will be confirmed at 10.30 local time with
a definite go or no go.
The energy levels are definitely peaking here! Were set to go now. I will update
this if we do fly today. Hopefully we'll be sleeping at Vinson Base Camp
tonight! Yahoo!
Scott Woolums reporting from Punta Arenas, Chile.
On Standby in Punta
Arenas Now!
Jan 4th,
2005
Increasing high winds at
Patriot Hills, Antarctica last night and through today has kept us here in Punta
Arenas today. So far this does not really represent a huge delay as today is the
first day we were actually scheduled to fly in, and we still have this evening!
The pilots still want to fly onto the ice in the Antarctic night hours for
better landing conditions (colder temps). That means leaving Punta Arenas here
in the early evening hours. So we are hoping to see better conditions tonight.
Its now 3pm here and we are supposed to have a weather update at 4pm concerning
how things are looking for leaving tonight.
So we have spent several hours today going over lots of details to better
prepare for arriving in Base Camp. Yesterday we did have a bit of good news, our
team will be the first flown out to Vinson Base Camp in the Twin Otters on
arrival in Patriot Hills. With almost 40 people going out to Vinson, we will
have a little more time as this shuttle can be delayed with weather, and it
takes 4 to 5 flights to get everyone out after the large Illuyshin drops us in
Patriot Hills.
Today we are just trying to catch up on sleep, emails, phone calls because as
soon as the weather improves, things will happen fast. The excitement and energy
levels are high here as everyone is thinking positive about tonight's window for
getting out. The weather here in Punta Arenas has really changed today, colder
with some rain. Fortunately weather here is not a factor and has no relationship
to the weather in Antarctica. We'll keep everyone updated as plans change.
Always very important to stay flexible with a good attitude here as waiting for
weather delays are simply a part of this expedition. If we do get in this
evening, we may be quite busy getting everything set up at base camp so it might
be a little while till we have time for the next report.
Quick update: 4pm and still a no go! Waiting for another update at 8pm for the
final decision for this evening.
Scott Woolums reporting from Punta Arenas, Chile.
Perfect Weather
down here in Punta Arenas!
Jan 3rd,
2005
Were all here now enjoying a
few moments after a busy couple days getting everything packed and ready for our
flights into Antarctica, hopefully tonight even! Everyone is ready to go. We had
our briefing this morning from Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions (the charter
flight operators). We then had our "weigh in" which went great. So now all
equipment and food is loaded on the huge Illuyshin Jet ready for a break in the
weather.
Were supposed to know anytime if tonight is a go or not. Earlier today the winds
were very high and Patriot Hills was socked in with cloud up to 2500 ft. so far
things are on hold for now.
As it gets later in the season, the ice can become a little more dangerous to
land on during periods of high solar exposure (like right now). So ALE is now
flying only during the Antarctic evening hours when the sun is a little less
intense and the ice runway is in better shape for landing. So leaving here needs
to be timed perfect for the best conditions for landing.
From here we are basically on standby, day and night, so with the first break in
the weather we take off for the 4.5 hour flight onto the blue ice runway at
Patriot Hills. This will be the first stage of our journey to base camp. From
there we are relayed into Vinson base camp by small Twin Otter aircraft on skiis
to our final destination.
Everyone is very excited and ready to go. Even though we are having some of the
best weather I have ever seen in Punta Arenas here, it all comes down to what
happening at the other end that really counts. We just heard that there are a
number of groups stuck in Vinson base camp in high winds there so, as usual, the
weather can be a factor effecting everyone's schedules.
We all have time built in for waiting out weather and were in a great place in
spend a few days if we have to here in Southern Patagonia.
We also just heard that the preliminary research being done in the Ellsworth
Mountains on Vinson Massif right now has concluded that the summit of Vinson is
so far the coldest place on earth! Whew, that's gotta be a bit chilly!
We plan to post daily reports from Antarctica during this expedition, so watch
close as the 2005 Adventures International team heads south to explore the
bottom of our planet!
Scott Woolums reporting from Punta Arenas, Chile.
Can you say Remote?
December
4th, 2004
Meeting January 2nd in Punta
Arenas, Chile where John Rust and myself will be leading 2 different groups into
Mount Vinson, the highest Peak on the Antarctic continent! Quite excited to see
and experience this remarkable corner of our planet! Watch as we first fly from
Punta Arenas, Chile to Patriot Hills in a huge Russian 4 engine jet (see photos
above), that will land us right on the blue ice! Imagine landing on pure ice at
200 mph! From here its a few more hours in on twin Otter aircraft to Vinson Base
Camp and the start of the climb. Remote is an understatement here. This is one
of those places where you feel very, very small compared to your surroundings!
We will post lots of updates, pictures, video clips from the very bottom of our
planet!
Scott Woolums Reporting