So here we are, ready to go. Twelve days' food, a shedload of climbing kit, a small arsenal of anti-bear weaponry, adding up to about 30 kilos each. Hell, those bags were heavy.
From left to right we have Graham, Phil, Gareth and Ian.
We walked up onto the glacier at the head of the fjord, and set off uphill and inland. It didn't take too long before we strapped on snowshoes that we would wear for most of the glacier travel. The snow surface was soft and damp, and it was heavy going.
I shared a tent with Phil. There was no porch, so we cooked with a home-build hanging stove.
We spent a long time walking across glaciers, which was hard on the feet, but mostly passed without incident. Well, except for the time when I lost a snowshoe down a crevasse.
Photo © Phil Wickens 2009
I had to go in to retrieve it.
Photo © Phil Wickens 2009
There were some dodgy bits of crevassed ice, for which we roped up, but the glaciers were mostly benign and stable.
Shame about the mountains: they were mostly scree and rubble, either easy walking or terrifyingly loose scrambling.
