Alpine Club Antarctic 2013

Very few people have landed in the Beascochea Bay and Leroux Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula, so the area is largely unexplored and hence ideal for an MEF supported expedition. Sailing from Ushuaia on Spirit of Sydney, the team cleared paperwork and other formalities at Puerto Williams and sailed east then south into the Drake Passage in relatively calm conditions to land at Clapp Point in Collins Bay, at the southern end of the Trooz Glacier. Two camps were established on the Belgica Glacier, from which first ascents were made of six mountains between 616m and 2270m by routes up to AD. Plans to attempt further peaks had to be abandoned when the forecast of strengthening westerly winds threatened to pack ice into the bays, and make crossing the Drake Passage and rounding Cape Horn potentially dangerous, so the decision was made to leave Antarctica as soon as possible. This expedition also received a grant from the AC Climbing Fund.