South Georgia Mountaineering expedition 24’ (III)
The mountaineering team is now back on board Vinson after a bracing few days on the Salomon Glacier. We didn’t get up Mt Macklin. On South Georgia you prepare as thoroughly as you can, try to get as close as you can to the mountain, and then hope for a lucky break in the weather. Alas this year we didn’t get that lucky break.
Kenny Brookman starts Salomon. Picture from S.Venables.
It all started well last Thursday, motoring back round to Hamilton Bay on a glorious morning, then setting off at 10.00 am, skiing up the glacier under a cobalt sky. The pulks were heavy, laden with tents, climbing gear and food for twelve days, but the snow surface was perfectly crisp and frozen. It was all fine and dandy and by late afternoon we had our two tents pitched at 500 metres for our first night ashore. Big winds were forecast for Friday, but the morning was calm, so we did a recce to the top of the Salomon Glacier and found the best pass to get over to the next glacier leading to Macklin. Early afternoon and still no wind, so we returned, towing the pulks back up to the pass and to make a cache of all the heavy climbing gear and surplus food and gas, buried beside a cairn of snow blocks.
Quarrymen. Picture from S.Novak.
Gear depot. Picture from S.Venables.
Back at camp I was making afternoon tea when the promised wind finally picked up – not a nice steady predictable blow, but a series of increasingly violent blasts, shrieking down the glacier to hammer our tents. South Georgia is famous for these katabatic ‘williwaws’ but these were the worst I had experienced here in thirty-five years. The tent I was sharing with Iain Young and Kenny Brookman seemed to take the worst hammering, bending and contorting with each blast until poles snapped and spindrift started to pour through holes in the ripped fabric.
Tent death. Picture from I.Young.
Meanwhile Skip Novak, Julian Freeman-Atwood and Steve Brown had started building a snow wall round the other tent. That one, thank God, survived and by evening all six of us had piled into a single dome designed for three people. And there we slept for the next three nights, jammed in head to toe, emerging during the day between the worst blasts, to keep adding snow blocks to the wall. Despite the overcrowding, spirits remained high, sustained by Novak’s cooking – risotto, pasta and some excellent couscous – and Mrs Venables’ fruit cake, carried all the way here from Edinburgh.
Surviving tent. Picture from S.Venables.
Wall building (video from S.Novak):
With two spare tents cached at the beach, waiting to be collected once the weather improved, we could have continued with the Macklin attempt. But we needed the promise of a sustained fine spell and all we were getting from skipper Paul Guthrie’s Inreach messages was an ever more gloomy forecast. So, rather than continue banging our heads uselessly against a brick wall, we decided to bail. On Monday we had a clear window, so first thing three of us skied back to the pass to collect the gear depot, while the other three started digging out the surviving tent. Then, pulks loaded, we all enjoyed a glorious trundle, skimming back down the Salomon Glacier to the beach, where Justino was waiting to take us back on board Vinson of Antarctica.
Beach penguins. Picture from S.Venables.
Zodiac pickup. Picture from S.Venables.
It was a big disappointment never to set foot on Macklin, but on South Georgia you have just have adapt to the conditions. And it’s lovely to back on board this magnificent vessel, making the most of day ski trips during short weather windows. On Tuesday we had a great ski above Little Molkte Harbour in Royal Bay – a nice nostalgic indulgence for Julian and me who spent Christmas here in 1989 – and yesterday we skied over to the Gentoo penguin colony at Maiviken and back to Grytviken, where we are now tied up, safe from the winds which continue to blast the island.
Stephen Venables
Mountaineer. Co-Expedition Leader.
