Temperature: 34˚C, Partly Cloudy, SE 2 knots

Don’t know how I feel, part relived, part stressed, part nervous, part excited, part disbelief, part harsh reality!

But mainly unbelievably psyched that this is finally happening, at 11pm tonight the boys and I depart for QUEEN MAUD LAND !!!

It began in the Arctic with the Asgard Project, took us through the Never Never Land that is Yosemite and up The Prophet, onto the Lost World of Autana deep in the Amazon and now it leads us to the last great wilderness, Antarctica!

What an amazing journey, what an exceptional crew, what awe-inspiring landscapes, what excellent adventures.

Got a feeling this one is going to be tough.You must be careful what you wish for but honestly I genuinely hope that save for frostbitten extremities or serious accidents, we are pushed further and harder than ever before, get our arses kicked and a spirits near broken, and come back in one piece, friendships intact with a kick arse movie, some more truly epic tales and hopefully another elusive summit under our belts!

Just heard from the Russians that the day after we are due to be dropped off in base camp a 3 day storm is forecast.Looks like we’ll be straight in to the action, Gulp!
Leo
——————–
The anticipation is about to come to an end, after years of dreaming, and a lot of planning, we are about to fly to Antarctica. The good news is we have everything we need,the bad  a storm is going to greet us! We should have time to dig ourselves into a bomber camp, and then the first real test……

I’m not sure how I feel about this! Part of me is looking forward to seeing what this place has, the rest of me is scared of what it might have. It’s unlikely this will be the only bad weather we will face , so it’s to be hoped we take it in our stride, is this Antarctica flexing its muscles before unleashing a beating, or is it a warning shot designed to gain some respect!

After today, the anticipation will be gone, I’ll know what it’s like! By next week I will have weathered my first southern storm. Then it’s time to climb. Oh well here we go again.
Jason
——————–

The butterflies are churning today!  We spent our final afternoon in Capetown taking in the sights of Table Mountain, wearing flip flops and shorts in scorching heat.  Not going to be seeing that for a while.

One final packing rush, making sure chargers, phones, cameras, passports etc are sorted and packed away and we are off, dashing to the airport.  In a couple hours we’ll be aboard the Russian cold war transport Ilyushin 76 heading south to Novo base and the great white south.

Morale is high with the troops, we are absolutely psyched for this trip.  I can’t wait to actually see Ulvetanna in person after these months of planning.  Like Leo & Jas said, looks like we’ll get there just in time for a significant storm.  Looks as if it might be a white Christmas after all!

Over and out
Stanley
———————-

Here we go, about to head as far south as you can go, the anticipation has been mounting in me.  We’re going from 35 degrees to minus 35 and a storm for our arrival…..what a start! I want to get it all started and no doubt will have many moments in the next 5 weeks when i want it to be over!
Chris
The B team!

Berghaus Store

For outdoor clothing from Berghaus including men’s waterproof jackets, women’s rucksacks and more then please visit our online store.
You can find a wide range of gear for climbing, hill walking, mountain biking and other activities.

The film, which tells the story of Leo’s first ascent of the magnificent Cerro Autana, has scooped the Best Mountain Adventure award at the Kendal Mountain Festival, UK, as well as Best Mountain Film at the Torello Mountain Film Festival, Spain. Most recently the film has won big in Krakow, Poland, where it has been awarded the Grand Prize at the Krakow Mountain Festival.

Check out the trailer here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’re off on your own adventure and you’re after kit which will stand up to your demands you can shop some of the kit that helped Leo and the team through the expedition here:

Prognosis shoe
Leviathan 90 Holdall
Velum Pant
Men’s Technical Long Sleeve Zip Nect T-shirt
GTX Gaiters
Men’s Explorer Light GORE-TEX® Walking Boots

Berghaus Store

For outdoor clothing from Berghaus including men’s waterproof jackets, women’s rucksacks and more then please visit our online store.
You can find a wide range of gear for climbing, hill walking, mountain biking and other activities.

Check out the Neuquén Mountain Film Festival website for more details (note: the site is in Spanish).

The latest award for The Asgard Project has been added to the already record breaking number of awards.

You can find out more about the Asgard Project and buy the DVD here.

Due to open water in the Scoresbysund Fjord we had to cut the corner and go overland to the windy outpost of Kap Hope. After a sketchy journey across slushy sea ice we reached the hill into Scoresbysund village. I misjudged the severity of the hill and bogged down the snowmobile in deep snow. Within 5 minutes the locals were out in force to see what was happening. After digging out we left our fuel drums to be filled at the depot and headed to the local store. The local children were fascinated by our new snowmobiles and spent considerable time climbing on them and asking questions.

Once stocked with supplies we started our 45km journey back with heavy trailers. The weight proved to be too much and we quickly got stuck in the slushy sea ice. Sea ice problems this winter have hindered the local hunters a great deal. Strong winds of up to 230kph broke the sea ice up leaving a lot of open water and even where the sea ice has refrozen it is very thin. On top of this a lot of late winter heavy snow has made conditions even more hard-going making it very difficult for the local hunters to travel as normal. Finally off the sea ice we escaped back onto land the weather started to close in again leaving our visibility very limited.

The wind was quickly filling the sled tracks in and it was becoming difficult to see. A steep incline to cut the corner as before, but this time with heavy laden trailers, meant we had to bed a track in first. After what seemed like hours we rounded the corner onto the safe haven of Hurry Fjord to breaking weather and an astonishing sunset.

We really have had a massive amount of really horrible weather. Strong northerly winds, heavy snow and 10m visibility are something we’ve had to contend with a lot more than we had hoped. However the few glorious days we have had have been amazing. When the sun finally shines and the mountains reappear the snow conditions have been amazing for snowboarding and skiing. And in Greenland it’s always fresh tracks!

We have managed to head into some stunning valleys, skin up some beautiful mountains and snowboard and ski some fantastic lines. Greenland really is a place of extremes and to get these amazing days we have had to experience rather a lot at the other end of the spectrum. The snow is falling now with no wind, got to be another blue sky powder day coming up soon.

Julia Pickering’s Profile

Three days of hard graft followed digging out and building a Weatherhaven to house the snowmobiles and equipment. Then the blue skies and sunshine were replaced by zero visibility, snow and howling winds.

Finally two days later the sun returned and we could see the world again, so we headed to the remote mountains around Carlsberg Fjord in far Northern Liverpool Land. This part of Liverpool Land is rarely visited and most of the mountains here are unclimbed. The 85km snowmobile route in looked to be fairly straightforward, the weather forecast for the next few days was good and we were not expecting any major problems. However, conditions were not on our side!  The snow was incredibly deep on the access glacier and despite their wide powder skids, the sleds struggled, we had to dig and push and pull several times just to get going again. This made our return journey into a bit of an epic.

We finally came off the glacier in the dark into howling winds that had filled in our previous tracks with snow. After the GPS stopped working, we were route finding under the spectacular glow of the Northern Lights. Suddenly we were travelling over wind scoured, exposed rock and as we tried to find a way around, every route we tried ended at an impassable ravine. We were progressively getting more tired and hungry and the temperatures were tumbling. The only option left was to make an emergency camp at 2.30am.  Only a few hours later we were up again melting snow for water and trying to get the tent warm.

The following morning was glorious but very cold and the sun never lies. Our compasses were 180 degrees out, must have been something in the rock? In the light of day with the sun as our guide, we were able to navigate back and a few hours later we were back at base eating brunch and planning where to go next.

Julia Pickering’s Blog

The Prophet is believed to be the first British route on El Capitan and has been a major objective for Leo for almost a decade.

The Prophet is the main feature on Psyche II the follow up to Alastair Lee’s successful 2007 film PSYCHE.

The film is 35 minutes long and some of the climbing has to be seen to be believed. The screening is this Thursday, 18th November at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival, the venue is the Town Hall and the time is 7:30pm, both Leo and Al will be there to introduce the film and do a short Q and A session after the film. ‘The Prophet’ is part of the ‘Climbing 2′ program KMFF website. Full details can be found on the Kendal festival website.

Watch the Trailer of the Prophet here.

In an interview on UK Climbing back in September, Leo Houlding described his route:

“It starts up the first 5 pitches of Bad to the Bone on the right side of El Cap, then three new pitches, a new traverse featuring the epic ‘devil’s dyno’, it shares Nicolas Favresse and Seán Villanueva route The Secret Passage for 25ft then finishes up the last 4 pitches of Eagle’s Way. Nico and Seán started up Eagles way then finished up the line I was originally looking at (Bad to the Bone) so I tried to find an alternative finish. The Prophet and The Secret Passage run parallel then cross sharing 25 feet on pitch 9.

The Prophet has been almost 10 years in the making. I originally attempted it from the ground up with Jason Pickles; no aid, no fixed ropes, no drill, in-a-day. It’s quite harrowing – hardest climbing I’ve done ground up; shitty belays, shitty bolts, hard moves.

You can join Leo on the Berghaus Adventure Tour at venues across England and Scotland, for more information and to buy tickets visit www.berghausadventuretour.com

Travelling through ten countries with her climbing partner, Simon, she’ll be taking on some of the most iconic climbs that Europe has to offer including Fontainbleau, Ceuse, Buoux and the Gorge Du Tarn.

Leah is aiming to take her climbing to the next level by also representing Berghaus in local, European and world cup competitions throughout the year.

Keep up to date with Leah’s progress on her very own Facebook page.

Tackling a wall of over a mile high and deep within the Arctic Circle on Baffin Island, the project was at the cutting edge of extreme climbing, particularly as the team were climbing the North Face which sits in the shade for 23 hours day, exposed to fierce Arctic temperatures and weather conditions.

The climbing team, which included fellow Berghaus athlete Carlos Suarez and Sean ‘Stanley’ Leary, prepared for months in advance with globe-spanning training climbs in the USA, Italy and Spain.

Once on Baffin Island the epic trials and excitement started, including rock falls, ice storms, life-threatening falls and a once-in-a-lifetime skydive into base camp.

The whole expedition, including the training climbs, was captured in stunning HD by award-winning film-maker Alastair Lee. The DVD is available to buy if you want to find out what it’s like to have half a mile of air underneath you as a piece of gear fails…

Find out more about the kit that literally saved the lives of the team in Arctic temperatures.