Feasting on mountains

by Brian Newham

Visibility wasn’t great this morning but it looked to be improving so we made a move. All four loads made it 5km to our old summer depot site. The edge of the mountains are now tantalisingly close and as the conditions improved they were a feast for the eyes. Soon we will be back amongst them.

This afternoon we broke the loads down from four to seven in readiness for the tricky section ahead. It will increase our manoeuvrability, reduce our weights and make it possible to use one of the Cats as a brake at the back of each load when we go down a steep crevassed section.

The plan is to do a reconnaissance with the ground penetrating radar and then to start taking the loads through using a staging post at about the half way point. Some calm weather with good contrast would help a lot through here so, once again, we will choose our moments. The next 5km is likely to take several days.