We think we've got a weather window

by Larry, Monday Oct 21

We spent the day around the boat, better than snowbound in a tent getting blown off the Trident Ridge. Half the group went up to check on the equipment cache and see if the snow routes had been washed away in the hard rain low down last night. They found the cache and made a GPS waypoint for it before the hail storm set in. It was blowing hard all day and most likely quite difficult to travel up high. I've been reading Shackleton's account of the his crossing in "South". We've been able to identify most of the landmarks here in King Haakon Bay and up the first ridge. We'll be up at 3am (local time) tomorrow morning and get going right away. Just at dinner time we were treated to a half hour white-out snowstorm snd then a beautiful evening light shining on all the new snow in the mountains around us.

We had a really nice and quite day exchanging stories, reading, learning from each other experiences. Julian and Ed hvae been many tiees to Tibet which is fascinating to me. Amy and I tried to go to Tibet in 1983 but only made it to China and Nepal but not through Tibet. I could listen for hours to them talking about things they've seen there. We've also been interested in learning about the exploitation of the wildlife here in South Georgia. Like the whales that were driven completely from South Georgia along with the Fur seals and King penguins. Its amazing to think of the amount of industry in such a remote area of the world in the late 1800s and early 1900s that drove such plentiful species nearly to extinction. Its a testament to the strength of conservation efforts that these species are on the rise again.

Its ten o'clock now and its just getting dark, so we'll go to bed and be ready and rested in the morning. Magnus may relay some news from us as we're crossing the island over the next few days.

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