An exceptional adventure,” Borge Ousland and Vincent Colliard call this Chugach Mountains Icecap crossing from Columbia Glacier to Grasshopper. En route they summited Marcus Baker.
The summit had been way harder and more technical than anticipated, with their limited equipment, reported the men from Alaska. Crevasses and rubble ice, and more challenging terrain off the ice, were with them all the way to the end.
14-hour summit bid
Lars Ebbesen from the home team in Oslo reported on Day 19, August 8, “They called in 05:30 (Oslo time) after a grueling 14-hour summit bid. They had started out 04:00 (local time) but the conditions were not good with high winds and bad visibility. They returned to the tent to wait for the sun and by sunrise the summit pyramide of the mountain cleared so they set out. Though the wind was still hammering them, the conditions were ok. But closer to the summit they came upon a 200m, 60° ice wall. They just had enough equipment to scale it, but it was tedious and very hard work and Børge was very complementary about Vince’s sure hands in doing most of the leading in a very safe way with the limited equipment they had.”
Descend
After two days of hard work to summit, the men had a good rest at their camp and descended to where they have left their sleds at the Marcus Baker Glacier. From there they continued through the rubble part of the glacier to get to the Grasshopper airstrip. Off the ice was not easier. The easy path down the valley turned into a real fight, reported Lars. “The ground was very rocky and the sides were covered with extremely dense bush vegetation. Another small mountain path added to the challenge as the pushed like crazy to get all the way out.”
Pickup
The men reported a pickup on Day 23, August 13, 2017.
Norwegian Børge Ousland and Frenchman Vincent Colliard together attempt to cross 20 of the largest glaciers in the world on skis, in a nearly 10-year epic journey that will take them from Russia to Alaska, and from Patagonia to Pakistan.
Follow Borge and Vincent’s daily updates in the Dispatch Stream on pythom.com
Ousland Polar Exploration Website
Previous on Explorersweb/Pythom
Chugach: Crossing steep mountain passes and crevassed glaciers
St Elias – Wrangell Mountain Range Icefield: Interview with Vincent Colliard (2016)
Exweb interviews Vincent Colliard; Borge Ousland duo’s Alaska Icefield crossing (2015)
Borge Ousland debrief: across North East Land, Svalbard (2012)
Vincent Colliard’s Profile on Pythom
Fruit Cake and Volcanoes: Hidden in The Ice
#polar #columbiaglacier #chugachmountains #borgeousland #vincentcolliard #icelegacy
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