I am now back in Chile after a successful expedition to climb the highest mountain in Antarctica – Vinson Massif – standing at 4892m.

Firstly, I want to thank Freddie for updating my blog in my absence. Updates were somewhat limited given the comms on the ice but it was much appreciated.

Onto the expedition itself: what a truly unbelievable experience – it really was. The continent itself is something very special. The vastness and clarity of everything is like nothing I have ever witnessed and makes it incomparable to every other expedition I have been on.

Having rushed onto the Ilyushin 76 (Russian cargo plane) to fit into a very tight weather window we landed on the blue ice runway to be greeted by a bitingly cold wind which, hopefully, was not a sign of things to come. We were quickly relayed via a Twin Otter plane to VBC – Vinson Base Camp – where our tents were pitched and life in Antarctica had begun.

A day to relax and take in this immense environment ensued before the sled pulling commenced the following day. The experience was similar to Denali as we loaded all our gear, food, stoves, gas and of course food onto our rucksacks and sleds and dragged it the 6 miles to Low Camp at around 2700m. The following day we took advantage of another slight gap in the weather and proceeded up to High Camp at 3700m.

The route to Low Camp was a gradually meandering slop that rose over 1200m without any significant inclines – a wonderful and occasionally challenging introduction to life on the ice as we were roped together for crevasse protection. Heading up to High Camp involved ascending the headwall which is an unrelenting 45 degree slope up fixed lines. It reminded me of the North Ridge of Everest in some ways without the enormous effect of altitude but it was a longer ascent – over a vertical km. From the top of the ropes to camp, it was another gradual incline but the weather turned and the winds picked up. Our arrival at camp was miserably cold, a tent was erected to cache food and kit needed for summit day, and possibly a few days either side, and immediately the four of us huddled inside, clad in full down gear, and tried to stay warm.

The following 6 days at Low Camp went by without much drama. The key to any ascent of a mountain, especially ones like Vinson where bad weather means you cannot move, is waiting. We read, we drank a LOT of tea – Lifeboat, of course – we cooked and we rested. The 24 hour sunlight was disorientating. We went to bed very early, around 3-4am and had “breakfast” early afternoon. It was a frustrating where the highlight was the daily radio check and forecast. A few teams were planning on staying at High Camp so as to be in the best place for the summit when the weather did turn but had to descend when that was not a forthcoming option. The leader of a Russian team said: “In most places, heaven is on top and hell down below. Here in Antarctica, hell is on top and heaven is below – very funny!” The reason for this being that the weather at Low Camp was perfectly pleasant but higher up it was 45 knot winds at a temperature of minus 35.

Christmas Eve was spent ascending Knutzen Peak which provided a nice 4-5 hours exercise. The summit ridge was wonderful; if not rather exposed and provided great views of the surrounding area. My first Christmas away from home was spent using a snow saw to carve up blocks of ice to protect our tents from getting decimated by the wind. It miraculously calmed later in the day and standing outside our tents exchanging tales at 3am with the sun overhead and a view to savour was a definite highlight.

Boxing Day was a turning point. The forecast was good and it was back to the fixed lines. In fact, the weather was the polar opposite of what it was. It almost became too hot despite being -10. We reached High Camp in several hours less than the expected time and prepared ourselves to leave for the summit the following day. We woke, put snow on the boil, made a brew, ate a freeze dried meal and a few hours later at 8:34 we were setting off.

The going was fairly steady to be honest. We moved briskly, overtook all the teams in front of us then decided on the spot to traverse the summit ridge. This involved ascending a slighter steeper but more direct snow slope which we duly did and finally, after only 4 hours of ascent, were standing on the summit of Vinson Massif – the highest point in Antarctica.

The views were beautiful, absolutely beautiful. The photos do not come close to doing it justice. Miles and miles of blue skies, hardly a cloud overhead, the sun shining, mountain tops appearing from miles beneath the surface but after an hour it was time to descend and 2 hours later we were back at High Camp. To put that in context, other teams took 13 hours to do a round trip, we took 7 including an hour at the summit.

The following day was one for descent as we dropped first to Low Camp, to VBC then to Union Glacier via a traditional Russian celebration – vodka shots of course. Once more, the skies were clear and our route out of Antarctica was open. We took the Ilyushin back to Punta Arenas and settled in. Several showers, a shave (yes, it was necessary before you ask) some clean clothes and we looked almost respectable again.

We were lucky with our flight to and from the ice, we were patient lower down and that was worth it for the incredible experience we had on the summit.

I was immensely fortunate to be given the opportunity to visit one of the most pristine and unspoilt environments on the entire planet.

Thank you to my main sponsor – Lifeboat Tea. Without their support, I would not have made it to Vinson. With your support, numerous lives can be saved at sea by choosing Lifeboat Tea which directly gives money to the RNLI.

For me, it was a truly unforgettable expedition. I will make another video with my footage and upload some photos when I manage to sort them all out back in England.

At the moment though, it is despedida, or farewell, from Chile with 5 down and 2 to go.

Dear all,

A quick message to let you all know that I’ve heard from Geordie on the side of the mountain. All is well and they are very excited and very on schedule. The team has been waiting it out at Camp 1, as scheduled, whilst the weather passes.

All kit has already been moved up to Camp 2, and I haven’t been in contact since yesterday. This means that they could be ascending the peak… right now!

A very merry christmas to all of Geordie’s supporters and thank you again for your interest! We hope to bring you news of summit very soon…

Team Geordie

Dear all,

It seems that the whole of the UK is supporting Geordie, with its empathetic snow conditions reflecting the fact that our man will be having a very white Christmas. He is now safely on the Antarctic ice, having arrived on Friday 17th December. If we’re concerned about the flight delays here, the 4 strong Adventure Peaks team did well to catch a plane out in the good weather window and are now making good progress two days in…

Having landed on ice at Union Glacier, Geordie and co. headed for some food before flying again to Mount Vinson itself. The latest news today is that he’s feeling good and in typically fearless spirits, which is going to serve him well for the 24 hour sunlight they have down there! Camp 1 (2,800m) at the moment, with ice walls built up around them to protect from the wind, and making ‘excellent progress’. The plan is to make full use of the current good weather window in getting up some kit to Camp 2 (3,750m).

The team are on schedule, with a summit period of 22 – 28th December at the moment. Christmas is looking a good bet… Watch this space.

Team Geordie

It is important to say first of all that we made it to Punta Arenas which is great news. The flight or more precisely, flights, it took three of them, weren’t ideal but after a missed connection through delays, we finally made it to the southern tip of South America. Other than Antarctica itself, this is one of the more southerly points of land in the world. Punta Arenas is perfectly nice, extremely windy, architectually pretty unappealing but it is nice to think that so many of the great Antarctic explorers stopped here at one point or another.

In an ideal world we would have flown a day earlier as the past 36 hours here have been somewhat stressful. A few briefings from the logistics team yesterday set the ball in motion and expedition mode came about. There a few interesting people heading up Vinson the same time as me including a former F1 driver in the 90′s which personally I find exciting, a former Welsh rugby player and a Korean team led by one of the most high achieving mountaineers ever – enough of a bunch to completely belittle ones modest achievements.

Several hours yesterday were spent shopping for our expedition food. 4 British guys wondering around a Chilean supermarket was one of the more unproductive, amusing and draining experiences of my life. Working out quantities, translating labels and locating particular items turned into a rather lengthy process. People often ask what one eats on expeditions such as this. At the high camps we will have freeze dried meals but lower down there is porridge, condensed milk, chocolate (lots of it), biscuits, cheese, salami and we purchased a disproportionate amount of meat as well for dinners.

Part of the briefing outlined the etiquette in Antarctica which is essential for these expeditions. The policy is to try and leave the place exactly as one finds it. This means that all litter, feces and food waste is taken back off the ice and disposed of appropriately back in Chile. Yes, that does mean we carry our own feces before you ask. This etiquette means that Antarctica and Vinson  stays the pristine environment it has always been.

Onto the expedition itself. We are due to fly in the next few hours. It would appear as though we have been extremely fortunate in this respect as often teams are stuck in Punta Arenas for days and even weeks. Fingers crossed the weather holds for us over the next week or so. We fly in an Ilyushin IL76 which is an old Russian cargo plane and we land on blue ice before getting another flight to Base Camp in a twin otter plane. The second flight will take place as soon as possible after the first.

From there, we should utilise 2/3 camps before making a summit attempt and try and reach the highest point in Antarctica. It is a wonderful prospect. As I mentioned, updates will be as regular as they can be from the ice but mainly positional rather than anything else.
As for the blog title. A former 7 Summiteer kindly passed on the words of wisdom to “watch out for the man eating penguins…” – thanks Jake, I will bear that in mind.

Thanks a lot for your support and if you are interested, subscribe to the blog. It means you receive an email every time it is updated.

DRINK TEA…SAVES LIVES. www.lifeboattea.co.uk

If i’m still on the ice on the 25th…HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!

There are two things that provoke the writing of this post. The first being the fact that I am leaving to go to Antarctica in a few hours but also, I would like to promote a fantastic bit of kit.

Pacerpoles are the first poles to use biomechanics to create a more powerful and efficient thrust. The handle is designed in such a way that it fits in with the way we walk rather than us adapting to it like normal trekking poles which are essentially just collapsable ski poles.

The crux of the matter is that they provide more power with less effort and I am delighted they have chosen to support me to complete my 7 Summits challenge.

Secondly, Mt Vinson, Antarctica. I am leaving home with Mum in a couple of hours to hop on a plane and five flights later, I will hopefully end up at Base Camp. The first point of call is Madrid followed by Santiago, Chile then Punta Arenas. Beyond that it is heavily influenced by the weather. The flight to Patriot Hills – one of only a handful of bases in Antarctica – is dependent upon ice stability, wind speed, visibility etc so fingers crossed that works for us before a final flight in a  twin otter plane to Base Camp.

Antarctica itself is a phenomenal place, it truly is. It is the only continent to have no permanent human settlement there, it experiences 6 months of of darkness in Winter followed by 6 months of sunlight in the Summer and if its ice sheets were to melt, it would raise the world’s oceans around 60 metres.

The expedition itself will be challenging but the summit certainly attainable. It is extremely cold but St Andrews has provided sufficient training for that over the past few weeks. The climbing is tough, especially when combined with the sled pulling that is necessary on Mt Vinson but nowhere near as technical as previous expeditions.

I am incredibly excited. To visit Antarctica itself is a massive privilege and to combine that with an ascent of Mount Vinson and continuing my 7 Summits challenge is something I cannot wait for.

I have attached a map of Antarctica and the route up Vinson for your information.

It is going to be a very white Christmas this one…

Sorry for the extended break between now and my last post – I wouldn’t want to bore anyone with the ins and outs of my non-expeditioning life.

I am now under 6 weeks away from getting on a plane destined to Antarctica which is seriously exciting. Getting there seems to be the biggest challenge of the whole trip from what i’ve heard. When I reach Base Camp it will be the culmination of 5 different flights and the one onto Antarctica itself is so weather dependent that trips can be seriously delayed. The conditions have to be exactly right (winds, ice stability, visibility etc) for flights to take off.

Whenever I mention to people that I am climbing Mt Vinson, nobody batts an eyelid. When I say that Mt Vinson is in Antarctica, their ears prick and suddenly interest is higher. I cannot explain how excited I am about visiting this pristine continent. It is so unspoilt thanks to a number of regulations that delimit the human activity on the ice. It should be an expedition to remember for a long long time.

For the moment though, I am training hard. I have a put a few photos up in the Gallery. I usually run on West Sands in St Andrews- made famous for the opening scene in Chariots of Fire – climb, hit the gym for core strength, cycle and of course, play golf (yes, it does count). It usually does the job and I feel in pretty good shape at the moment.

Below is a picture of me climbing with St Andrews in the background – it is a wonderful university!!

I’ll keep you posted on how things are progressing but it should be good to get my 7 Summits attempt back on course in a few months time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygbNogXoexc

It has been almost 3 months since arriving in London from Kathmandu. A lot of that has been spent recovering, re-training and planning for the future but I have also just come back from the Alps after a fantastic 10 days climbing.

I first saw the Matterhorn aged 12 when I was skiing in Zermatt and it isn’t something that escapes one’s memory easily. It is an absolutely stunning mountain and eventhough I wasn’t into climbing at the time; getting to the top of it was definitely something that intrigued me. Fast forward almost 10 years and I was going to give it a go. The picture below isn’t mine (our weather wasn’t quite so good) but it is there just to give you an idea of the beauty of the thing.

Chamonix in the summer is a wonderfully vibrant place. I stayed in a few different hostels during my 1o day stay and met some fascinating people. I find that going anywhere alone gives one a much better indication of the place and there are hill-walkers, climbers, mountain bikers as well as sight-seeing tourists who all provide their own tales and insights.

I was climbing for the first few days with another young Brit called David and being guided by a Frenchman called Yannick. Yannick is one of the premier mountaineers in the world, a true purist of the sport and his advice will be invaluable. After a few days climbing, the weather was closing in and we had to head to Zermatt a few days earlier than expected.

A 3 hour trek into the Hornli Hut, a somewhat restless kip and at 4am we were ready to set off. A surreal sight takes place on the Matterhorn because people aren’t allowed to go for the summit until 4:20am so there is almost a queue of climbers waiting to depart. The time eventually comes and we head out in the dark. The route follows the long ridge on the photo above. It is very very exposed – steep scrambling and rock climbing are the norm and provide an exciting challenge. As a result of the expected weather, the speed was quickened and the sweat was glistening from other climbers faces as they were lit up by each others headtorches. After 4 hours we took our last few steps along the unnervingly narrow summit ridge and stood atop the Matterhorn.

It was a feeling of relief and happiness. A long and painful descent (the Matterhorn isn’t recommended when one has slightly suspect cruciate knee ligaments) resulted but after a good nights sleep, I deemed it a necessary sacrifice.

I was then rock climbing with an American guide called Kent for several days before attempting Mont Blanc. Once again, it was going to be a battle against time and the weather. Snow was prevalent several hundred metres earlier than expected and caused the alarm bells to ring especially when added to the news from other climbers of snow up to 1.5 metres at 4000m. We arrived at our hut planning to leave at 1am. When the time came it was still snowing so a few more hours rest before a 4am wake-up took place and we hoped Mother Nature would be kind to us.

It wasn’t to be…welcome to the world of mountaineering.

We were forced to descent. The route up was going to take us under some precarious couloirs and with unstable snow conditions, the avalanche risk too high.

It was a fantastic 10 days regardless. The real aim of the trip was to stand at the top of the Matterhorn and I managed to do that. I really really wanted to get to the top of a big mountain after what happened on Everest and I was especially happy with this one. Mont Blanc wasn’t to be this year but these things happen. The Matterhorn is a much harder climb and we were hugely fortunate with the weather there. It has hardly been climbed, if at all, since the day we summited. I am thankful for that.

I have made another video. The link is at the top of this post so please feel free to check it out.

Bernard-Paul Heroux: “There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea.” I cannot agree more!!

This leads me quite nicely onto the point of this post, and I am happy to say that it is good news. I was proud to be asked if I would be an ambassador for Lifeboat Tea and their new “Extreme Tea Campaign”. Unsurprisingly, the response was an immediate, YES!

Lifeboat Tea directly supports the RNLI which is the charity I will be climbing Everest for in 2011.

Being part of this campaign is such an honour, it really is. The RNLI is such a brilliant charity, and if buying this excellent tea supports them then it seems like a win-win situation. A good cuppa as well as supporting the extremely courageous volunteers that make The RNLI such a distinctive and invaluable charity.

Every pack of Lifeboat Tea gives 7p to the RNLI.

So go on then…next time you are thinking about buying some more tea, think Lifeboat.

www.lifeboattea.co.uk. I cannot recommend it enough.

First of all I want to direct you all to my Everest 2010 video. It is a compilation of some of the video clips / pics from my expedition and I hope it gives you a good insight into what life is like up there. If nothing else, you can listen to the demise of my voice!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZL1OLMt8H8 (it is in 3 parts – this is the link to Part 1)

I just wanted to write another blog having returned to the UK and had time to reflect on, I suppose, “what might have been.”

The past week hasn’t been the most tasking of my life I have to admit. The skies are blue, the sun is shining so unlike in the past two months I can relax outside without the fear of being blown away. Plus, there is actually grass here – I know, unreal!!

It would obviously have been nicer and probably more relaxing to have made the top but sadly things just don’t always go to plan. It is about how one reacts that is the key. On my other mountains I have been fortunate in many ways and always had success so I suppose it is a shock to the system that I am now facing the inevitable reality of not succeeding in the original objective.

I am purposefully avoiding the terms, “failure” or “lack of success” because I do not see it that way.

I gave it my all, yes, and did not make the top, yes. Saying that though, the lessons I learned from the exped will assist me in any other ventures I choose to undertake. Human life is way way more important than the summit of any mountain. Peter Kinloch’s family (Scottish climber who died on the mountain a few days after our ascent) will, i’m sure, testify to that. I said in my last blog that it would take a cold person to pass teammates who are altitude sick and delirious, but sadly some people, in their selfish pursuit of the summit, do precisely that. Rather a sobering thought I must admit.

It was an incredible experience, it really was. Yeah, Everest has changed a lot. It isn’t the purists dream it once was. The North is much better than the South but still, it isn’t great in a commercial sense. Hypocritical I know…I suppose I am part of that conveyor belt. Still though, being up there, alone in the dark on the Northeast ridge is, I can assure you, an immensely lonely place and one that I won’t forget. Passing bodies on the edge of a rock face with a mile long drop either side is again, not something i’m going to forget.

I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to go to such amazing places.

So, the question I am being asked a lot right now is….what next? A fair question I agree, I would probably ask it as well…in fact, I do ask myself it, a lot. Everest is still there. It will be there next year, it will be there in 2012 and guess what, it will be there in 2020 as well. You get the drift.

What i’m saying is, yes, I will go back, I have no doubt at all about that. Having got so close, having not made the top for reasons outside my control, means that Everest is unfinished business. I know for sure that I can do it, more now than before in fact. It has only increased my desire in fact.

2010 on Everest wasn’t my year but I hope and believe that one day, hopefully sometime soon, I will stand on top of the world.

Thank you again to my sponsors for all their support. Thank you for all the messages I have received in the past few weeks, hearing such sound advice and kind words from so many people I respect is touching. Thank you also for following my blog and giving me so much support – in the meantime, if you are interested, check out the video I made.

All the best,

Geordie