Foyn Harbour
The weather caused us to change plans this morning – we were eying up a climb of Jabet Peak in Dorian Bay but the strong winds and approaching snow storm told us that we had better relocate further to the north.
So instead we devised a plan to head onto a small island near the wreck of a whaling ship factory ship, The Governorn which was scuttled in 1912 due to a fire onboard. Near here we were able to scope out a40 meter high ice face which would present us with an exciting challenge.
We first had to climb off the beach by a small snow covered rock step and then up onto the wide dome above.
Mal and Andy were able to quickly assess the best site to give us an amazing experience! We were first lowered down to near the ocean – as the first climbers neared the shore a number of penguins came out from under the overhanging ice where they must have been sheltering.
For a while we were ice climbing with the penguins swimming directly beneath us in the shallow water!
For most of us being lowered over the edge of a 40 meter high cliff was definitely a first but our confidence was bolstered by Mal and Andy’s assurances that we would be more than safe with strong solid snow anchors and steady hands at the belay as we were lowered down.
By the time we had been up and down the face a number of times were all feeling much more confident and had begun to move with style.
Iggy was on his way to pick us up so we packed up and got ourselves safely back to shore and our muck boots to await our ride but to the familiar site or Ortelius!
