Sunday 4 December 2005
Ice Climbing
Saturday was a really great day. After a very enjoyable lie-in I was woken by Ian (our Field Guide) to say that the wind had dropped enough that we could go on a trip to the coast. With the first plane due any day now I wanted to get in one more visit so I jumped out of bed, gathered together all my trip equipment (which after two years is finally reasonable well organised) and got in a sno-cat heading for Creek 2. It was a dingle day (blue skies, brilliant sunshine) but when we arrived the wind had picked up again, preventing us from going onto the sea ice.
Me, Frances, Jamie and Ian enjoying the view from the top of the cliffs at Creek 2. Now it is warmer the sea ice is breaking up so a lead of open water is visible. Photo by Bryn.
We have strict restrictions on the wind speed when it comes to sea ice travel as it's possible for it to break up rapidly leaving you stranded! The maximum limit is 15 knots which is reduced to 10 knots if the wind is coming from the east (as that's where most strong winds come from here). Unfortunately that meant we couldn't walk along the bottom of the cliffs and explore some of the amazing ice caves that people had found on their post winter trips.
Instead, Ian found a suitable section of the cliff where he could teach us some ice climbing. This particular section was about 30 metres high with a slight gradient - well suited for beginners like us. We abseiled off the top on one rope, switched to the belay line then took it in turns to climb the cliff while someone else belayed us. In theory you use your crampons to dig your feet into the ice and support your weight and your ice axes to stop you falling backwards. In practice I didn't have a lot of confidence in the little spikes on my feet holding my weight so spent most of the time trying to hold my weight on my arms - bad idea!
Ice Climbing the cliffs at the coast. Left: Frances half way up the cliffs (photo by Bryn). Right: Me nearing the vertical section at the top (photo by Frances).
Once we'd all had a go we moved the ropes a bit further along to a more challenging section and tried again. This time I had a bit more confidence and actually found it a lot easier until the final section, which was completely vertical. For that bit I returned to a combination of poor technique and brute force - it was a great feeling to finally haul myself over the top!
Posing for a photo half way up the climb (Frances was abseiling down on the other rope when she took this one).
We got back to base around six, which gave us a couple of hours to freshen up before sitting down for a big Saturday night meal. With this being the last weekend before the first summerers arrived Kev cooked up a storm and we got out the table clothes and dressed up smart for the occasion. The food as always was amazing, but even more so if you consider it's been over nine months since we've had any fresh supplies. I had King Prawns for starter, Ostrich Steak as my main course and a Chocolate and Cointreau Tart for dessert!
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