Page 27 - 2017 AMA Summer

hell. At that point, the decision to continue from the comfort and relative civilisation of the South Pole seemed like madness.
After a very challenging 16 days of hard slog we eventually reached the top of the Transantarctic mountains on the far side of the continent. This was the point where Henry had ground to a halt and was a very poignant time for the team. We scaled a nearby mountain peak that had spectacular views back across the plateau and down the Shackleton Glacier and conducted a memorial service. All rounded off with a tot of whisky and one of Henry’s favourite cigars, although lighting it in a howling gale at -53c was a challenge. It was a fitting tribute to a great man who many counted as a friend.
We were then pinned down in the tents
for 36 hours in a full-on blizzard before we
could begin the final stage of our journey.
We had now covered over 1,000 miles
in 9 weeks and arrived at the top of the
Shackleton Glacier, our gateway to the coastline of Antarctica below. We had hoped that the 90 mile descent would be a straight forward finish to our journey, but how wrong we were. We had very little information as no one had ever descended via this route. The glacier proved to be a jumbled mass of disturbed ice, crevasses and moraine. Skis were swapped for crampons and suddenly the pulks became out of control - accelerating downhill on the slightest gradient to smash into the backs of the legs of the unwary and wipe them out. We were falling into snow-covered hidden crevasses up to 20 times a day and regularly having to send out recces to try and find a route through. Finding campsites on the diamond hard blue ice with sufficient snow to melt for our drinks and food became a real issue. The utmost patience and perseverance was required to navigate this alien-like terrain.
But, in the words of the great Polar explorer, Shackleton, ‘through endurance we conquer’, and after 6 punishing days the somewhat battered and bruised team emerged out of the mouth of the glacier and onto the Ross Ice Shelf. Here we had to select and mark a suitable runway to get the ski plane in for our pick up. Finally, after 68 days out on the ice we spotted the small black dot in the sky that
signalled our taxi ride home. It had been epic!
The expedition was a resounding success and we were the first British team to traverse the continent and the first ever to complete our specific route. The expedition generated
a huge amount of positive publicity for the British Army across a range of media channels including appearances on Sky News, BBC’s The One Show and BFBS/Forces TV channels and feature stories in national and regional press. It also served as a fitting tribute to the late Lt Col Henry Worsley MBE. To date we have raised over £35k for the Army’s national charity, ABF The Soldiers’ Charity. We would like to pass on our thanks to the AMA for their support.
ARMY MOUNTAINEER 25