BRITISH-ITALIAN NORTHERN PATAGONIAN ICEFIELD EXPEDITION, 1998.

Summary acl 27394

Between 26 November, 1998 and 5 January, 1999 we traversed a c. 200 km, north-south route across the Hielo
Campo Norte from Laguna San Rafael and its spectacular calving glacier to the Baker Channel, exiting via the
Steffan Glacier. Of the 5 weeks spent on the ice, we got only four days of what could be called decent weather,
unfortunate even by Patagonian standards; the remaining days sat, usually towards the latter half, on a spectrum
with moderate winds, low visibility and rain on one end and full tempestuous condition with driving sleet or snow on
the other. Patagonia is what we asked for and Patagonia is what we got. Despite the generally appalling
conditions, we succeeded; apart from the traverse we completed our scientific objectives and managed two first
ascents snatched in the only (and laughably short) weather window available; Co. Pared Norte (3,005 m), Eric
Shipton’s original but aborted objective during his 1963 expedition, and another, unnamed peak* (2,970 m), some 2
km to the south. Neither peak was overly technically challenging (involving snow & ice up to 55°) but the latter peak
was climbed in fairly hostile conditions (on the summit we were bombarded by large blocks of airborne windslab
ripped up from the windward slopes) marking the onset of a storm which had us pinned down on a nearby col at c.
2,000 m for 5 days up to and Including Christmas day. This delay put pressure on the final 45 km out via the long
and arduously broken & crevassed Steffan Glacier, which was concluded successfully but without food. From the
end of the glacier which terminated in a large berg and brash strewn lake and two large, un-crossable rivers flowing
from it, we waited for a further three days (living off the 'fruits of the forest' and expending much energy chasing
around any local wildlife that had the misfortune to chance apon us - these efforts proved entertaining even if
spectacularly unsuccessful; not entirely surprising given our attire: plastic ski boots, salopetters and wielding iceaxes) before help eventually showed up, and we made our way out to the Baker Channel and on to Tortel by boat.
During the traverse we took 55 radio-echo sounding measurements of ice thickness and snow cover to constrain a
climate change-ice sheet modelling investigation to be carried out by AH at UBC, and 15 samples for analysis of
accumulation and transfer rates of persistent chlorinated compounds (PCCs) into the region, to be carried out by LN
and others at the Milan based environmental consultancy, Montana, sri.
The scientific findings for this expedition will be reported separately and should be with the RGS from January,
2000.