Rivers of Ice | Expedition Patagonia » buried

Getting off the Ice

Katie-Jane — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:57:22 +0000

HI every one I hope you can hear me over the gust of wind I am buried under my sleeping bag to shield the noise somewhat. Serious change of emotions, yesterday I was in floods of tears absolutely uncontrollable yesterday pretty much all day because we have come to the conclusion that we were probably going to have to get off the ice cap without going through the Fella Rechairt and the Cero Mayo and obviously not achieve our goal of making the glacier. Which to me felt like a huge failure despite our journey already being the longest British journeys and the longest journey made by a woman. It wasn’t the goal we came here to achieve, and it felt like we weren’t getting even to have a full attempt at what we wanted. There is nothing wrong with us, we felt like we had it in use, we felt like we had the right stuff we just didn’t have a weather window. It felt like a really hard choice because if we did have a go any of these last few days it would have been suicidal and if we had waited any long we wouldn’t have any food on the other side and with these hostile conditions equally that would have been suicidal. So yesterday although we have given ourselves two extra days we have come round to the fact that we were going to be heading home unsuccessful. So I was really distraught as was Tarka. However over night 4ft of snow has fallen or blown up the valley and the storm hasn’t subsided at all and the tent was completely buried in snow even worse than the night before. So we spent this morning digging it out in 60 knot winds because the tent would be weakened by the weight of the snow. And this morning putting it back up it just fell apart with every gust of wind. I mean were in a tent a thats arguably the strongest tent in the world and we have 5 pole breakages, snapped right through the middle. The whole door is torn away we have no zips its just shredded. It doesn’t stand as a tent at also we have made a survival shelter out of it. Inside at the moment we have ski poles lifting up the roof as much as we can so we can lay in here and our bags pushing out the side. So we have a little den just to keep us warm and out of the wind the best we can. Tartka is out side at the moment shovelling because that getting buried all the time and we cant afford to let it bury us as we will literally be buried us. So big problems, the rescue services cant get us as the storm is too storm regardless. So we have lots of food lots of fuel and we’re just trying to keep warma nd make it through the night really. Tomorrow were hoping to make a bid for a glacier off on the Argentina side about 15km away and we will have to go through crevasse fields but we have no tent and if the tent doesn’t hold its not looking like a good scenario. So we are just praying the tent holds in this position till the morning and we will do our best to get out of here tomorrow. Not making the end seems completely irrelevant now we are just trying to survive. Speak Tomorrow.

Buried in Snow

Tarka — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:20:20 +0000

Right, hi everybody well incredibly sombre mood in camp today. We really had a bad day. Last night the actually wind in the tent seemed to die down quite a lot. But, when we uncover our eyes this morning we found that the main reason for that was because the tent was almost completely buried. We had about just a glimpse of the roof not buried. And, so it took us 2 hours to dig the tent out outside. It’s really been the worse storm that we’ve been in so far. We can’t hardly stand at all, the wind was just so incredibly strong and whipping snow and so fast that it was burying the tent as quickly as we could unbury and we got to dig ourselves out which is a good job that we had the shovel inside. We basically after a couple of hours manage to free the tent and all that is anchors and we moved, we relocated about 3 or 4 meters further north from it. And, since we relocated the actual leeward side of the tent is almost totally covered again, so I’m gonna have to go out in the minute and uncover the tent. So, it’s been a very, very, very low day today really. We’re very depressed and we actually to each other for the first time. And, we knew we were losing weight but we’ve looked at each other for the first time and we are incredibly skinny. We really lost an awful lot of weight now. And, as you know we really reached the end of our half rationed limit now. We really starting to push the boundaries of whether or not it’s healthy and safe to stay on the ice cap. We are discussing it very seriously and we got to see if how many more days we can realistically hold out and still hold our energy. But, there’s also there’s so much snow and I mean I can’t begin to describe the amount of snow that has fallen. When we first put our camp up 4 or 5 days ago whenever it was, there were crevasses all around us. And, now it’s almost a totally flat plain when you’re walking around. The powder comes right up to your waist when you’re walking around which is incredibly difficult. So, we do have to consider the possibility of ice fall, snow falls and avalanches, so we’re gonna be very seriously thinking about it all this evening. Sorry, that we have got any better news we‘ll chat tomorrow.

Lucky Charms

Katie-Jane — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:50:13 +0000

Hi everyone not much to report, huge storm all night and all day despite the weather map showing clear skies above us so we can’t move. Tent is still in the same precarious position its been in for the last few days. .We have a crevasse about a meter in front of us and the hole that Tarka fell down about a meter behind us. We would love to move some where else but cant so we’re stuck in this precarious position.

We’ve had so much snow in the last 24 hours that when Tarka went out to check the tent and skis were in the right place, we were completely buried. The wall has made snow whip round the side of us. Unless you went over in a plane you would have no idea that we were here. We are completely surrounded by snow right up to the roof, so he had to dig out all the ski’s and stuff!

We have laid here all day in our bags cant do any thing, dreamt of food, mapped out our lives, normal stuff when you have nothing to do. So that’s about all we have to report today really.

Couple of extra things . We were doing some visual data gathering for Camino about 4 volcanoes that we’ve past on our route so far. Only 2 of them we could see, the others we past on one of our many white out days. But the two that we did pass have had no recent activity and we’ve taken various images as requested so I hope that’s useful.

The other thing I was going to mention was I know that our kit is ultra light and Tarka has shaved down to the last gram, but I did sneak a few things in my bag. 4 of which are little lucky charms I suppose. The first is a four leaf clover that my dear friend Sadie found a few days before we left so I felt that we should take that, I also have a tiny angel pendant that my Grandma gave me for our very first expedition on the Great Wall of China to keep me safe and it did keep me safe and I’ve taken it on each expedition since and thought it was only right it came again. I also have a tiny little wooden lady bird, from one of our youngest followers Hector who is absolutely bug mad and we’ve taken photos on previous trips of bugs and spiders for him. He was mortified that we wouldn’t see any bugs on this trip so though it was best that we should bring one with us, and how can your refuse!!

The final thing I have is a small photo of my mum and dad aptly dressed as Batman and Robin, so their fully costumed incase I need to give them a call and they need to come and get me, thier ready to go.

So there all in my camera bag, my very rarely used camera bag, Tarka hasn’t kicked up too much of a fuss and he hasn’t trown them away so that’s a bonus!

Other than that I cant really report anything more for today hopefully we’ll move tomorrow