Log Entry No 16 - 18th Jan 08. (Discoverer)

FROM THE MOUNTAIN

67 foot does not offer much space for 16 people and following a fondue fuelled training session at the Damoy hut near Port Lockroy, the new mountain A-Team deployed to the Reclus Peninsula. Now 2 days in to the attempt on Mount Johnston, we can report that the route involves a lot of uphill pulking and crevasses. Chris has been going particularly slowly as he is suffering withdrawal symptoms from his MIB (inflatable boat) whilst James is cursing the particularly heavy snow corer and having second thoughts about dragging it all the way to the summit. Sam is relishing is new role as point man and is determined that the only way is up, up, up. Dragged behind, Chris has devised a coded system of rope tugs to feed forward the Chinese whispers from Richard at the back of the team to indicate left or right or stop (but never faster!)

Apraoching the summit of Harris Peak.

Climbing out of campsite 2.

Tonight’s camp is situated above the Bayly Glacier looking into Charlotte Bay. The views both up to the Forbidden Plateau and across to Brabant Island are breathtaking and fortunately the weather at the moment is very clear and sunny, the mountaineering team were even able to strip down to T shirts for much of today’s route. Both the mountaineering and geological party camped last night below ice falls at the base of Harris Peak. After an early start we climbed the 300 metres to the summit by mid morning. At this point the mountaineering party split from the geological party and the mountaineering party continued along the dangerous traverse to our current position. Although we’ve only made about 7.5 km during the day, we’ve now completed much of the difficult terrain.

Crossing the Dangerous Traverse.

Sam penning - this blog.

The team hope to conquer the summit in the next couple of days, by which time all heavy items of kit (inc this laptop which was kindly supplied by Fujitsu and the clever BGAN Sat dish which along with the amazing solar panels to charge them were supplied by NSSL Satcom Solutions) will have been cached at base camp, so this will be the last update for a few days.

Steve sending the blog.

Taking a well earned rest.

The Geology team consisting of Dick Pattison, Dr Connor Ryan (the geologist) and Dr Richard Appleby (the exped doctor) are now staying at slightly lover levels where exposed rock can be accessed. Over the next few days they will be carrying out rock raids at suitable locations. More details to follow.