Climbing in Paradise

Recently when we get up in the morning the surface of the sea has an unusual wrinkliness to it. I was going to say like the wrinkly skin around an old man's eyes, however, I recently looked in the mirror and realised it looked like the skin around my eyes! The surface of the sea is beginning to freeze, telling us that it's time to go home - before our boat is locked into a frozen world until the next summer.

I am trying to squeeze in a few more climbs and adventures before our return home over the Drake. I manage to encourage Christine and Matt to venture out into dubious weather to climbing the peak leaning over the mooring at Paradise Bay. We climb glaciers and pitch up steep snow and ice in blizzards to reach the top just as the weather clears - one of the keys to Antarctic climbing is to be optimistic!

The next day Matt and I climb another peak on the opposite side of the harbour. It's an amazing experience to be roping up for a climb with penguins porpoising on the sea beside you, hearing the puff of a whale surfacing and watching icebergs float past.

While waiting for Greg and the dinghy I try doing a climb on a crag at the shore. Half way up the climb is a big shelf at nose height that requires a difficult move to mount it. The problem is that it is covered with about 2 inches of bird shit. I scrape it off looking for a hand hold and almost fall, plummeting down the cliff because of the stink -it is unbelievable. I think of my obituary - climber dies because he was not wearing breathing apparatus while climbing!

We try squeezing in a final climb, again with Matt and Christine. We camp on shore but wake to our tent buried by 15cm of snow. The rock looked amazing but is now plastered in snow - it's not going to happen, at least on this trip.

Looks like we (or me at least) are finding reasons for a return visit!