Page 21 - RAFMA Winter 2003

couldn't be given away and were clearly breeding as they kept turning up in the most unlikely places, inside the pulk runners being one of their favourites. Dinner time was a sociable highlight with the standard fare of noodles and tinned fish relieved every fourth day by a special - a big tin of ham with a cook-in sauce. All of this was washed down by the whisky we had each brought, although Mike Palmer's West Highland I
blended (strained through the socks of those completing the long distance walk?) proved less popular than the Macallan, Bowmore and Laphroaig.
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Martin Bohl in front of the Pyramid (1895).
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Laptop-watching in Bob's tent became a favourite
pastime each evening as the day's track logs were
downloaded from the GPS and our tentacles slowly
spread out to enfold the surrounding peaks. In the week
that we: spent at Camp 1 all but two of the peaks that
flanked the glacier fell to the tentacles. That
represented ten first ascents plus one re-ascent of the
only previously climbed peak in the area. It is a real
thrill to stand where nobody has ever stood before and to admire a view that only you and your climbing partner will probably ever enjoy. Naming peaks is also great fun and a little unimaginatively it became a roll call of individuals' families as Lornasbjerg, Remlapsbjerg (think about it), Adamsbjerg, Erinsbjerg and Jansbjerg were added to the map. Even Bob's dog got in on the act with Maggie's Mound, but the rest of us vetoed immortalising the Appleyard rabbit and guinea-pig.
Most of the ascents were technically undemanding with some ski ascents and several ridge walks. Even the face routes _______
were no harder than Scottish 111, although the soft
snow conditions could make them hard work and the
exposure could be considerable. We never found any f water ice and the technical term for the rock is chose. 'I
Aspect became all important in the quest for good hard , ft.
neve and many hours were spent trying to predict snow t• conditions with northeast slopes being favourite. Not , '.'W P
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At the end of the week we celebrated Mike's birthday R W? mi Bra
one of the routes climbed was pitched; most were _ila'joI ■ji climbed unroped with some climbed moving together BY , . on a rope.
with cake and jelly. The whisky was all but finished ft (oddly, only the West Highland was left) so it was time K
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' aroun<t f° ar|8 there was no guarantee of good conditions when we got there. We could spend two days pulking for no reward. Pulking was low on my list of
to move on. Half the group now planned a long tour taking in a circuit of the mountains to the east and north around to the landing zone. The other four planned to move back across the main glacier to
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■»T-favoured activities. Decisions, decisions. I had faced a ■ M M similar dilemma in Canada over Mt Assiniboine and the __________ | decision to go that time had proved the right one. O h
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establish a camp in a cirque of mountains to the west. We said our farewells and the intrepid pulkers set off to the east. At this point Mike fell ill with chest pains, although the rest of us suspected the whisky and cake had played their part. We postponed the pulk across the glacier for a day (shame!).
The move to Camp 2 was enlivened by the runaway pulk incident. Halfway down the slope we had laboured up o week earlier Bob's pulk tipped over. It was like a scene from one of the old black and white movies. As Bob removed his skis and righted the pulk it was
obvious what was going to happen next. You could just imagine the audience shouting "Look behind you!" and "It's moving!” Unfortunately Bob couldn't hear them and even though everything seemed to happen in slow
motion by the time he fumed the pulk was already on its way. Bob got his skis bock on and caught up with his now stationary pulk about a kilometre onto the glacier
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. luckily there had been no crevasses en route.
Camp 2 gave access to mountains ripe for ski ascents. One particular tour meant the skis did not have to be removed as three separate summits were reached and there was a mind-blowing downhill run from the final summit all the way back to camp. Great fun, but not enough for Mike who was now fully recovered and had his eyes on the highest mountain in the whole Rignys Bjerg area, a stunning peak marked on the aerial photo as 2680 metres. We had sat and admired this peak's dominance from today's high points, but the only problem was it was about three valleys away and would require a move of H some twenty kilometres just to get in position to climb it.
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Earlier in the exped we had decided that it was too far out on a limb to be a realistic objective, but suddenly it was back on the agenda.
Bob and Rob immediately dismissed the idea for the madness it clearly was. I went back to my tent to mull it over and spent the next eight hours wrestling with my
conscience. Peak 2680 had always "been one of our prime objectives as the only previous attempt on it had ^a'lec*8(3 metres short of the summit. It also looked like a magnificent climb - but then again, it was a long way
Journal 2003