British St Elias 2013 (Canada)

The Wrangell St Elias range of mountains lies on the border between the USA and Canada, and although this team approached their objective from Alaska, their plan to make the first ascent of the North Spur of Mount St Elias (5010m) meant that the actual climbing would be on the Canadian side of the border. After being flown in to the Columbus Glacier they established a base camp at 2200m below the North Spur of St Elias, but soon realised that in this position they would receive little sunshine, so they moved it to a spot further to the west which received significantly more rays. From here, they made a reconnaissance up the glacier to look at their preferred descent line. For the next four days they were tent-bound by a terrific storm with unseasonably cold conditions, which made them realise that being exposed on the extremely long ridge was likely to result in serious frostbite. Reluctantly they therefore abandoned the expedition and headed for home.