Wild weather creates havoc with Shackleton Epic expedition
by Biarta Parnham 8 Feb 2013 17:39 GMT
8 February 2013
12 hours into crossing of South Georgia - 45 knot winds knock climbers off their feet
Support crew and film crew evacuate themselves from mountain
Twelve hours in to the mountain crossing leg of the Shackleton Epic, South Georgia's notorious wild weather has played havoc with the expedition.
The expedition support team of Paul Larsen and Seb Coulthard and the accompanying film crew of Si Wagen and Joe French have come back down from the mountain, leaving expedition leader Tim Jarvis and Royal Marines mountaineer, Barry Gray camped up on the glacier at Shackleton's Gap.
Jarvis and Gray have hunkered down on the mountain with tents and sleeping bags providing some shelter from the extreme conditions. The support team said it is raining and snowing 'horizontally' with the wind gusting at 45knots. Paul Larsen said it was so windy that several of them were knocked "clean off their feet" and that visibility is very poor.
The support vessel, Australis is now anchored on the other side of the island at Possession Bay and the team is gathered there awaiting further updates from Jarvis and Gray.
The mountain crossing is the second and final leg of the Shackleton Epic re-enactment of Sir Ernest Shackleton's survival voyage and trek of 1916. Earlier in the week, the crew of Shackleton Epic successfully completed leg one – an 800nm crossing of the Southern Ocean from Elephant Island to South Georgia.
www.shackletonepic.com