Port Lockaroy

Saturday evening

As night fell on Thursday the water was still and grey. Continuing down past Brabant Island we reached Anvers Island, the site of our main objective – Mt Francais. Entering into the Neumayer Channel is quite dramatic with steep glaciated ice and rock looming above on either side. By midnight it was pretty dark. Crew manned the bow on watch for icebergs – the small ones big enough to jolt the boat popped suddenly out of the twilight, though larger bergs almost glowed on the black sea.

We manoeuvred into the Port Lockaroy, and anchored for the rest of the night. As you lie in bed you can hear chunks of ice whacking the sides of the boat as they get moved about by wind and current. The ice is constantly on the move.

On Friday morning we took the opportunity to visit the Port Lockaroy Base. This was the first British base built in the early 1940s. It is now a heritage museum staffed by 4 volunteers over the summer. The main building has been restored and restocked to display the life of a British Antarctican during the 40s and 50s. It is very well done, and underneath the wall paint they recently discovered amateur paintings of Doris Day and Ava Gardner, etc. Company for the lonely men. There is a small shop to support the work of the Antarctic Heritage Trust. Please don't tell anyone that the first thing we did after landing on Antarctica was visit the souvenir shop!

So after a late lunch we finally got the skis out, took a Zodiac to the shoreline, and made an ascent of Jabet Peak, which reaches about 550m. Everybody's skis and other gear worked well, which is a relief. We roped up in 3 groups of 3. Almost all ice here is glacial and therefore there is always the risk of crevasses. We crossed a few narrow ones but nothing substantial. Finally we reached a point where it got very steep, at about 400m. Skis off, crampons on, ice axes out. Stephen broke trail through very soft snow. A couloir (snow gully) took us to the summit. Well, not the true summit. That was not far away but it was steep and technical and would have required hours of faffing to set up fixed ropes for 9 people. So the West Summit of Jabet was deemed adequate.

Skiing down was not as difficult in the soft snow as expected, and rather fun. We are not roped up as the snow cover is thick and one is unlikely to fall in a crevasse whooshing along on two planks. The final bit of descent brings us to the sea and penguins. It's not everyday one gets to ski past penguins. We Zodiac back to the yacht for gin & tonic. The Port Lockaroy crew join us for drinks and dinner.

This morning we packed our sleds, otherwise known as pulks, and backpacks ready for the big adventure. In the afternoon we motored around to Access Point on the southern end of Anvers Island and dropped our packed pulks and skis on the rocks, ready for tomorrow. Back to Port Lockaroy tonight.

Tomorrow morning we will return to Access Point at dawn and set off for Mt Francais. The plan is to sled for 3 days, about 35km, across the piedmont, or ice field, towards Zeus Ridge, where we will set up base camp. There may be bad weather in a few day's time which we will have to sit out in the tents, then hopefully ski up and down Mt Francais in one big day. Then a few more days to return. So we will be out of contact for a week, although there are satellite phones. So there will be a brief interruption to this broadcast. Adios for now.