South Georgia Mountaineering expedition 24’ (IV)

In order to appease our spectacular failure on Mt Macklin we wasted no time. Onward to St. Andrews Bay, the repository of the biggest King Penguin colony on the island and likewise elephant seals and pretty much all else with regards to the wildlife. This is traditionally the must visit for a voyage to South Georgia – as seen on the BBC and other wildlife documentaries many times over.

Skiing up from Moltke Harbour. Photo from S.Novak

We had our sights set on skiing up the Cook Glacier to the junction of the Webb Glacier for a look at Mt Fagan, named after one of the team who first summited Mt Paget with a joint services expedition in 1964/65. We were all geared up, breakfast in our bellies and about to launch the Zodiac when a violent katabatic wind came rocketing down the Heaney Glacier turning the bay into a maelstrom immediately scrubbing our landing plans.

Skip and Stephen on summit above Moltke Harbour. Photo from S.Brown.

We dusted ourselves off, our ambitions intact and proceeded back south to the relative calm of Moltke Harbour for a day’s ski outing culminating in summiting an unnamed peak of soft snow over loose rock, an awkward scramble, but rewarded with fine views of the main Salvesen Range under a clear blue sky.  All those unclimbed peaks - Smoky Wall and the unnamed peak 2089m standing out and endlessly speculated on, sadly most likely not to be attempted in our life time.  But Mt Vogel and Kling climbed by Stephen and Julian et al, in 1989 offered some nostalgic consolation and of course the mighty Mt Carse, hidden from view to the south, climbed by Stephen and Brian Davidson on that same expedition which was then the highest unclimbed peak on the island.

Iain, Kenny and Steve lying low on the summit of Hodges. Photo from Kenny Brookman.

That same afternoon after a ski descent with reasonably good skiing condition (sometimes rare on the island) Steve Brown, Ian and I made a cursory survey of the beach to assess the fallout from last year’s bird flu and see if there was any sign of new mortality in the birds and seals.  During our inspection of this same beach last February on the albatross survey for the government we found hundreds of dead elephant seal weaners and many male fur seals which had succumbed earlier in the season, buried in sand.  This time, it was strangely empty – only a few withered carcasses from last season in evidence, but otherwise very few elephant seals, measured in the tens when there should have been hundreds at this time of year.  In any event the gentoo penguins in residence further up the valley, visited by Stephen were all standing which was a relief.  So far, the penguins at least seemed to have escaped the ravishes of the avian flu, but not the seals.

Grytviken from the top of Mt Hodges. Photo from I.young.

The northwest airstream that has been plaguing our mountaineering objectives continued unabated so there was nothing for it than to head up to Grytviken for four days on the Tijuca Jetty, taking short forays ashore on skis, including Ian, Kenny and Steve Brown summiting Mt Hodges in very windy conditions, on hands and knees on the top.

Landing at Ocean harbour. Photo from S.Novak.

With a lull coming up on September 29th we back tracked again south for a night at Cobblers Cove, a tiny pool of an all-weather anchorage. Although Vinson is a bit big for Cobblers with respect to swinging room, we were thwarted by an ice berg that parked itself right in the narrow entrance.  It might have been possible to slip inside the cliff end of the cut, but a risk of getting stuck inside the cove if the berg shifted was not to be ignored.  Although disappointing we continued not far to Ocean Harbour where we were well staged for the next morning.

High up Black Peak above Ocean Harbour. Photo from S.Novak.

Approaching the summit of Black Peak. Photo from S.Novak.

Black Peak, at 830m was the objective.  Stephen had climbed this three times previously, while I led the less capable of our clients on a gentle ski tour around Black Peak ending up at the same pick-up beach in Cumberland Bay East. Climbing Black Peak is a classic ski randonée tour, the majority of the route on skis and skins with a short climb on crampons to the summit. This time it was more problematic with deep crusty snow on the upper reaches forcing us to carry skis on our rucsacs and step plugging to the summit ridge.

The superb ski down into Reindeer Valley. Photo from S.Novak.

Lingering long enough for a photo shoot on the windy summit with spectacular views onto the ice front of the Nordenskjöld Glacier we dropped down on to the north side of the mountain, got back on our skis and had a marvellous slide down into the Reindeer Valley that cuts a flat swathe across the Barff Peninsula.  I had been in this terrain twice before during years past in high summer aiding a team from the University of Maine Climate Change Institute taking ice cores from the Szjielasko Glacier, a vestigial piece of ‘permanent’ ice accessible by foot from Cumberland Bay East. On the periphery of the Antarctic ice shield these glaciers are particularly interesting for climate change scientists as they are fast disappearing.  Now with snow cover our route down was unrecognizable, so we followed our noses down through undulating valleys, up gentle rises and around glacier lakes until we reached the valley floor. We then skied across the frozen Reindeer Lake and descended down to Sandbugten Bay where our trusty crew of Paul, Mariana and Justino were there to pick us up.  Eight hours plus on the go, beach to beach.

The ski across Reindeer lake. Photo from I.Young.

So nice to be back on board Vinson, our mobile base camp. The dinner was on and we were chomping on the bit for it.  What a day!

Skip Novak

Co-Expedition Leader