On Sunday Clive and I finally got good enough conditions to get over to Leonie to attempt the summit. We have been trying to get there since November. It requires the sea conditions to be good for a 9km boat ride to the island and then good enough summiting conditions and a forecast that is good to get a boat back out to collect us. Also it required Clive to be on base, not doing training and myself not on SAR. It all worked on Sunday however so we also took Alan (another Field Assistant) and Ian Dunn (BAS board member finance bod).

The station looked very small and insignificant from the top of Leonie. We were able to see whales (humpbacks) feeding from the summit and on the way back to base we had 30 minutes of watching them feed from 200 yards away on the boat.

It was a little bit technical crossing 5 crevasses that we could identify and many more which we didn’t see. We also had to use our ice axe and hammer at some points. There were some amazing cornices and bergshrunds with some large cliffs. All in all a great day followed by a movie and early to bed.