Back in Porto Williams

Published on 05.12.2010 - Yacht Australis 2010

Now that the Yacht Australis is back to South America, Doug Stoup makes a global recap of what adventures and great moments he and his clients have shared during this Australis Ice Axe Ski Cruise 2010.

Here are some excerpts of the diary : "We skied a ramp on the northeast side of Livingston in sloppy, wet snow and whiteout conditions, and topped out around 1200 feet. We visited Half Moon Island. We decided to move south, and did a ski tour on Charlotte Bay, but were turned around due to whiteout conditions. In the afternoon we skied the Northern flank near Portal Point (1000 ft.) and did several laps in good snow conditions. The next day we skied 2 Islands near Wilhelmenia Bay: Eastern Ridge of Delaite Island (1500 ft. technical skiing on hard snow) and the prominent face of Emma Island (1500 ft.) Emma offered us classic Peninsula skiing with a beautiful summit and views of water on all sides. ... "

"We attempted to go through Anvord Bay but were turned around due to the think sea ice that had moved in and blocked our passage further south, and this was a theme throughout the expedition. We went north through the Neumeyer Channel and moored at Port Lockroy, A scientific base that is funded through the British Heritage trust and home of a large Gentoo penguin colony. There are about 320,000 pairs of Gentoo’s, but only several thousand at Port Lockroy. The Gentoo gets about 2 feet tall and can weigh up to 13 lbs. The Gentoo will return to the same colony where it was hatched and the chick will take about 25 days before it will be able to feed itself. After a visit at the Port Lockroy station we went for a ski tour on Wienke lsland and climbed a route on the southern side on Jabat Peak. We also skied 2 couloirs further north which we named Wintervention (which was featured in Warren Miller’s new movie called Wintervention). It was a steep couloir that topped out at 2200 ft. and was about 48 degrees at the top for 600 ft. The other couloir was named The Russian Way, and was 50 degrees and technical grade 4. Both defined true ski mountaineering and both offered great snow conditions all the way back to our landing. Some skied another lap and picked their way through a crevasse field on the eastern flank of Jabat Peak. ..."