Log Entry No 13 - 11th Jan 08. (Discoverer)

FROM THE CAPTAINS CABIN

We picked up the geological party yesterday (account below) and then sailed back down to Vernadsky to recover the mountaineers from Waddington Bay later this morning. As we’ll then struggle to accommodate 16 aboard, I’ll go back to Lockroy to put 7 ashore. The 7 will then carry out unfinished climbing business, whilst the Mountain Party recovers and hatches further plans. We hope that these ‘further plans’ will allow the sailors to skip off further South (to 67S?) for a week – more to follow!

It will be good to have the mountaineers back with us. Once aboard they’ll be able to access the e-mails that friends and family have sent and we’ll soon create a Blog to let you know what they’ve been up to.

Best Wishes and thank you for your support

Andy Mills

FROM THE GEOLOGICAL PARTY:

Landing on the southeast coast of Anvers Island on the afternoon of the 6th, Geordie Rob H and I were tasked with carrying out a geological survey whilst also searching for a route to the summit of Mount William (~1600m). After gearing up on the foreshore at Canty Point we roped up for a steep initial climb up onto the peninsula to the east of Borgen Bay….a three hour ski to our base camp site in the sweltering heat of the Antarctic sun followed. It was with great relief that we dived into our tent, with Mount William towering above us to the southwest. Any thoughts of forcing a route up from the east were quickly discarded after observing the objective dangers which threatened most of the eastern approaches.

Setting up Base Camp.

We rose at 2.00 AM on the morning of the 7th to explore the area to the west of the Mount William – Shewry Peak axis. This involved ski traversing steep, icy ground (led by our ski expert Geordie) to the north, to gain access to the Hooper Glacier, which flows from the south into Borgen Bay. After several hours of skiing we reached the glacier with mountains towering above us on either side.

Geordie on the Hooper Glacier.

As we travelled it became evident that the geological map of the area was not correct, with previous geologists wrongly assuming that the rocks of these mountains would be the same as those on the nearby shore. It’s not every day one gets to change the geological map of a region! By about 12.00 AM we had reached the base of a ridge which could lead to the summit of Mount William, albeit indirectly. With a difficult climb ahead, we decided it would be best to get some rest and dug a snow pit into the side of the ridge to shelter from the wind. We were quite smug about our perfectly carved pit, until it started filling with spindrift! Before long, we were soaked.

The bivvy site.

At about 7.00 PM we abandoned the bivvy ; Rob H and I then made an attempt at our route up Mount William while Geordie improved the bivvy site. After a couple of hours climbing on good frozen snow we had reached a height of over 1000m and could just about see the way to the summit, however, with decreasing visibility and increasing winds we reluctantly decided it would be best to bale out. (And that’s true, Mums!)

Conor & Rob H on Mount William.

We regrouped with Geordie at the bivvy site and began to make our way back to base camp at about 12.00 PM. With low temperatures and high winds, our tired bodies found the going tough. The journey back was delayed by tricky route-finding through a crevassed area and it was 5.00 AM on the 8th before we finally got back to our tent. Our reward for our 27 hours on the go was the amazing scenery we witnessed along the way such as the huge white desert that is the piedmont that covers much of Anvers Island and to top it all off, as we approached our tent, we witnessed a huge glacier calving into Borgen Bay and some whales playing in the waves that spread across it! A great few days in the mountains with some good geological sampling at sites on the coast. Rob D picked us off the shore and ferried us back to Discoverer.

Dr Conor Ryan