Hielo Norte 1998

This team made a 200Km north-south ski traverse across the Hielo Campo Norte (Chile) from Laguna San Rafael and its spectacular calving glacier and exiting via the Baker Channel where they were to be picked up by a boat and ferried back to Tortel. The Patagonian weather lived up to expectations, with only four decent days during the five weeks spent in the field. Despite these appalling conditions, the traverse was completed and two first ascents were snatched in the only weather window available: Co. Padre Norte, 3,005m (Eric Shipton's original but aborted objective in 1963) and another, unnamed peak (2,970m) some 2Km to the south. The final stretch - accomplished, in the best tradition, without food - was via the very complex Steffan Glacier. The scientific programme carried out during the traverse included radio-echo soundings to measure ice thickness and the collection of snow samples for the determination of persistent chlorinated compounds (PCCs).