antarctica

"We have now completed the expedition and we are back in Patriot Hills Base Camp. It felt balmy at minus 16 degrees C. Unfortunately we have been bombarded with bad weather, blizzards and heavy snowfall which means we will not be able to travel back to South America for at least five days or so.

"We are now at Camp Five on our Antarctica adventure, pitching tents at an elevation on
1275m on the Schneider Glacier. Today we climbed our third un-climbed peak up
to 1865m. The views from the top were just fantastic and it was just a
wonderful place to be – we could see at least 50 miles in all directions. Temperatures

"Still in Punta
Arenas, but we nearly flew south to Antarctica
tonight. Alas, the katabatic wind at the blue ice strip at Patriot Hills is
still too strong: 35-45 knots, and blizzard conditions. 15-20 knots is the
maximum crosswind for this Russian cargo plane on the ice. Gusts have reached
61 knots, which is a big crosswind, given that winds above 64 knots are

I’m leaving tomorrow at 0630.
It’s a frosty English morning, and I’m not relishing the thought of spending
the nights in my tent at minus 20 degrees!