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Final Report

Simon -

All in all the storm may have been worth it. The blown snow in bright sunlight was a sight to behold. It would also have been a 'sub-arctic' experience to return home after three weeks of perfect weather - pretty difficult to connect with 'The Worst Journey In The World' (Apsley Cherry-Garrard) and the like.

After two or three sleeps and as many missed meals, (we only nearly burnt the tent down once) we'd completely lost track of time. In a storm with 24-hour daylight and 12-hour watches it's pretty easy to do. So we used the GPS and established that it had only been going for 48 hours so far.

Storm Hints

• Don't park your pulk behind your tent or it's drift will help bury you.
• If you are going to use all ten guy ropes and anchor four corners with ice axes, don't do it at full stretch. When the storm has left you buried in one metre of hardening windslab it's going to take some time (3 hours) and effort to dig those pegs out!

We are back at a lower camp, near the landing zone. The good weather (perfect blue skies again) and lower winds are a real relief, as is being re-united with all our supplies.

Ruth and Simon have completed a major ski-tour. The 12-hour circumnavigation of the massif to the north-east turned into a triangular route taking in the area's three main glacier systems, and they had been gone for 19 hours. For Mark and Sean this extra time provided time for discussion of the possible reasons for the delay: avalanche, crevasse fall, injury, broken equipment, complicated route finding, etc. For many of these they would not have been able to help much (digging someone out, 20 hours after being buried by an avalanche is no great consolation). However, they had made the decision to prepare for a search, minutes before Ruth and Simon returned.

Simon -

We saw a lot of the country that we had been planning to explore in a more leisurely manner, before we were pinned down by the storm. However, 57 km with two passes (one highly crevassed) and snow that was either ice or slush depending on the time of day makes for a gruelling outing. Snow tastes surprisingly good when your water runs out and you're hot and thirsty. I'm taking a day off.