Expedition Reports

Pre-expedition Reports
Iceland Transfer
Walking In
First Reports
Second Reports
Final Reports

 

Second Reports

5th August 2004
Recce for musk ox tower written by Trevor Morton

Team Members - Sam, Ben, Jayne & Trev

One of our aspirations for the trip was to do a new rock route on a tower by base camp that we had named musk ox tower. We had only previously seen this tower in pictures from home. Two groups of two were keen to do the new rock route and in order to do it, we had to be sure of a descent route. To do this we all went to recce the descent route off the face by foot. It was an apparently obviously scramble down to the glacier that would lead us back in to base camp. We all set off up the glacier and roped up as soon as necessarily. Once we had established a route off we carried on up the glacier until we met the head wall where the glacier turned right ward up hill. We then followed up a steep line of ice up to the col on the head wall, from this col we could see down the side glacier from the korridoren that we had named “Back passage”. Views were as always fantastic and we were all pleased at having a day where we could do some mountaineering by ourselves as young leaders. We returned to base camp in high spirits to be greeted by a curious group of 25 eager to know of our tales of a possible descent route from musk ox tower.

The tower was later climbed alpine style by James, Stuart and myself up a gully banked out with snow that would be around a Scottish grade II due to a few rocky steps. For the three of us that did the new peak it was a very impressive summit to be done that was so close to base camp with outstanding views of the korridoren and its surrounding mountains

Cracked rib + dislocated thrutch written by Paul Sanday

Team Memembers - Paul, Chris, Andy B, Tom & Jayne.

One evening when a large north facing buttress on the opposite side of the korridoren glacier caught a glimpse of sunlight, a large line of weakness was uncovered and a route up the impressive north face there for the taking. The next day when the weather was wall to wall sunshine, Chris and I as a climbing pair and tom and Jayne as another pair set off on skis across the korridoren to investigate and climb the new route that we had spotted. We geared up for the approach when Andy Brown appeared, he had become bored on his own in base camp, he joined chris and myself to climb. The route was an impressive rib line that was first scrambled and promptly the ropes came out! Initially the climbing was about “diff” standard with some interesting chock stones! The going was good but there was a fair amount of “loose stuff” which meant a fair bit of testing for placing gear. we reached a “thank god” ledge, we had some food and set off again. After a couple of pitches, a long pitch of “hard sever”/alpine IV was lead which was awesome-Just what we wanted! After that there was another chimney of equal grade. A bit of interesting route finding and climbing lead access the “brown trouser traverse” and then to the top, where Tom and Jayne had just finished an equally impressive line. As a team we bagged a first ascent of the peak behind and the started the long trudge down the glacier foe a well earned sleep!

Search for the lost tent! written by Jayne Fitzsimmons

Our task was to locate the super quasar left on the Northern icecap by the ski mountaineers at the beginning of the trip. Since then there had been two rather large snow storms. The team consisted of 5 younger members of the group who were uncertain how successful the trip would be.

A Nine hour traipse up the crevasse filled, “Sleigh Ride Glacier” brought us to the col, where the plateau stretched out endlessly before us and the snow sparkling in the early morning sunlight. As we climbed over a brow, with much relief we caught a glimpse of the top of the tent on the horizon. Assuming that it was pitched behind a small rise we headed towards it excitedly, already looking forward to collapsing inside it to sleep. As we neared\it however we found that it was buried under 4 feet of snow and we spent the following 2 hours taking turns with the snow shovel. Even the porch was packed solid. Twelve hours of sleep ensued and we awoke to a fiery sunset. Despite this the weather looked to be on the turn so we swiftly retraced our route to base camp. Shortly after our arrival at Base Camp our decision to come down proved correct as heavy rain set in.

Science Report (Interim) written by Dave Ridout

All good expeditions have an element of science whether it be a collection of samples or a series of observations and readings. We had several scientific contacts who asked for the following :-

• Musk Oxen - none seen bit a skull found on the walk in below Teardrop Lake and some droppings seen.
• Geese - Observed moulting barnacle geese (+80) being hunted\by arctic fox.
• Mapping - Some fixes taken on summits re Lat/Long and height to update map info
• Plants - 20 samples of Salix Herbacea and 5 samples of Salix Arctica collected\for Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh. Also photos of several Greenland flowers.
• Birds - Raptors – none sighted, others - Raven, Glaucous Gull, Snow Finch.
• Rock Samples - Samples collected from some summits. Photo of basalt pillar.

Base Camp Report written by Ray Fitzsimmons

Base Camp is situated halfway along the Korridoren Glacier some 17km from its eastern snout. We are on a 100m long strip of moraine at the foot of a side glacier on the North side of Korridoren. That location description does not do justice to the fabulous panorama we have around us. Not the least being the 350m rock wall we have towering over our site behind us. On all sides there are fabulous views of glaciers tumbling down from peaks and snow domes to join this massive river of ice. One of the more interesting features of our site is the sports hall sized hole at the foot of the rock tower, in to which our site drains. The camp toilet facilities commonly known as the Cresta Run, are perched on the side of this hole. What was even more interesting was that after 2 days heavy rain the hole filled with water to the size of an Olympic Swimming Pool before disappearing as quickly as it had filled.

We have seen some of the extremes of Arctic weather, dense cloud at ground level with visibility down to 20 metres, 2 days of very heavy snow fall with some tents totally buried, heavy rain and then ‘wall to wall’ blue skies with Sun Factor 30+ the order of the day. Distances are huge and its only when the teams are still in view for an hour or more and now look like ants on the near horizon that you realise the scale of things here.

Today Tuesday 3rd August 04 there has been persistent rain but all teams were back in camp from their various treks before 0600 this am and before the weather came in. This evening all 29 managed to cram in to the Base Camp tent to enjoy a communal dinner of spam with cheese and onion potato cakes rustled up by the ‘Catering Team’.

Spirits are high despite the weather with every one savouring the treks and climbs achieved so far and looking forward with eager anticipation to more exploration of this fabulous and beautiful land.

Ascent of Lost Gauntlet Couloir to summit of Rhodesia Peak Sat/Sun 31.7.04-01.8.04 written by Stuart Peat

Directly across the valley from Base Camp the team could see a long and inviting climb via a steep gulley to a peak subsequently called Rhodesia. Tom Griffiths, Ben Wolstenholme, Adam Lechmere and I decided to give it a go and left camp mid evening when conditions would be more stable. At the foot of the couloir we found rock debris and past avalanche run out but considered that the conditions were ideal for an attempt at this long climb. The beginning was assessed as Scottish Grade 2 and there followed 6 pitches of fairly difficult ice climbing to gain the right hand chimney. The climb at this point became more demanding with 5 more pitches of ice grading up to Scottish 3.We reached the summit ridge at about 0330hrs, still in daylight! We then followed the line along a sharp ridge to the 1440m summit of the peak we later called Rhodesia. The descent was via the glacier on its eastern side was long and hard and took us over 11 hours to get back to Base Camp.

Ascent of Peak Ambler and Peak Myrthir written by Stuart Peat.

On Thursday evening a party of 11 expedition members set forth up Scout Glacier which is the name we have given to the steep side glacier immediately behind Base Camp. They set out explore regions to the North of Base Camp. The ascent of the glacier was made more difficult by a layer of snow and the route followed a couloir up to an aptly named Supper-Time Ridge. This followed to a corniced summit, but with time and weather pressing the party decided to leave this as their high point of the trek. The peak was named after my late mother ‘Ambler’.

The group re-traced their steps and all returned safely to base camp 4 hours later. On Monday evening Stuart Spencer, Richard Wood, Joe Craig and myself followed the earlier route up to Peak Ambler and from here we followed a narrow corniced ridge to a snow dome at approx. 1700m.Following a team discussion we carried on to a narrowing rocky ridge . The rock resembled coal and coke and broke away when touched. Eventually a somewhat slaggy and crumbly summit was reached which we named Myrthir after the coal mining industry. Photos and refreshments were taken and we retraced our steps again all the way down to Base Camp and a warm welcome from the other teams returning to base.

Pulk Fiction III - The ascent of Black Mountain written by Joe Ashworth

Following on from their intrepid exploits in Pulk Fiction I & II the team of Phil, Tim & I (Joe A) with our newly acquired side kick of Ken, set off to try and find the pulk left on the main glacier and a route through to Puderne. The route this time would take the right hand branch of the Pulk Fiction glacier, passing the abandoned pulk to pick up pre-positioned food and equipment on the way. Passage up the glacier was relatively straight forward at first although we took the precaution of ‘roping up’ in case the recent new layer of snow had concealed the known crevasses. The highest serac field barred our way out of the glacier so we navigated to the right (ascending) meandering through the numerous large columns and gaping voids. On exiting the seracs we skinned over to the South and East ridge of Black Mountain. This was traversed over snow and loose basalt rock to gain the first ascent of this 1644m peak. Descent was reverse of the ascent with some very interesting skiing amongst the seracs!

1st Pudding Land (Puderne) Expedition and the search for access to Mount Pudding – the elusive mountain – written by Andy Brown

After a full days hot sunny preparation for a 6 o’clock departure the team were delayed 24 hours by a vomiting participant! The advance party of Claire, Dave and Trevor left on foot to camp – they travelled on homemade snowshoes cut from a barrel. They camped at the Korridoren / Venture Forth glacier junction and made a brief sortie to observe what was an icefall blocking the whole valley.

Next day the ski team set off to join the walkers, Joe, Tim, Paul, Phil, Chris , Ken and myself – on arrival we had a brew then set off pulks and all to tackle the glacier icefall. It got more difficult as we engaged in serac dodging and climbing and extreme pulking. Six hours later we were back at the start! We moved up the Korridoren ro camp below the Monster Munch glacier – would possibly give quick direct access to the high southern plateau.

Next day we left the tents + pulks and set off in 3 ropes to tackle the Monster Munch icefall. We carried skis! A couple of hours later we were stranded on a large serac with almost the difficulties crossed – with this our only escape route, with the prospect of Tyroleans and the weather only able to get worse – high sirrus crossing overhead we retreated, had a brew and a meal and skied back to base camp.

This exploration to find access to Puderne failed but our Arctic exploration of two untravelled glaciers increased mankind’s knowledge of this untravelled world! A veritable success!