On top of the world
Maj Adrian McCallum got a frosty reception when he started a Patagonian ice trek; it was a chilling experience, with no toothfish in sight, as Barry Rollings writes.

Volume 11, No. 56, November 16, 2006

Chipper: Maj Adrian McCallum, ready for the adventure that lies ahead, on the approach to the ice cap.

Opposite poles: Maj McCallum strides out of the ice cap area.

Morning after: Despite the ice wall, snow is dumped around the tent.

Block party: A wall of ice protects the tent from the gusty winds on the ice cap.

Mountain designs: Maj McCallum scales a serac on the ice cap.

Snow men: The trekkers take a break.

THERE’S nothing like finding a fellow Aussie metres from drowning after an impromptu “backwards luge” to bring home to you the perils of Patagonian ice trekking.

Such was the experience of Canberra’s Major Adrian ‘Coach’ McCallum on his month-long (October 1–31) 300km trek across the South Patagonian Ice Cap in South America with retired Air Force Sqn-Ldr Matthew Sibree of Brisbane.

The trek, which began on October 2, was only about three days old when the duo became involved in a rescue mission for Tasmanian Glen – who shall remain anonymous – and was a member of another three-man Australian party in the area at the time.

An October 5 extract from Maj McCallum’s Patagonian diary finds them wondering – around midday – where Glen was, after the two other members of his team had arrived at Marconi Glacier without him.

About 15 minutes from their camp the men spotted a blood-stained white cloth on a rock and heard a whistle while retrieving their second load of gear.

The diary takes up the story: “Glen was lying on the rocks near the lake. He had fallen about 8m after landing on his back, which had his sled on it, then slid out of control off the rocks.

“He was lucky not to be dead. He had two big gashes on his head but otherwise was okay. He was lucky not to have landed in the water (of Lago Electrico).

“Mat and I checked he was okay and checked his head. We made him warm and comfortable and 10 minutes later his mates rocked up.

“Glen was not well but fit to walk, so the plan was to stabilise him, then move to near camp. His companions went back to the refuge to get the rest of his/their gear.

“Mat carried Glen’s pack and went to get a Thermos, down jacket etc. while I stayed with Glen.

“Eventually we decided to go to camp, erect the tent and get him in. We did this and just talked and reassured him though he was quite lucid.

“Mat came back and I swapped and went to get my pack. Once back, we put the brew on and had hot drinks with Glen.

“Then it started raining. Eventually his companions got back with big loads and Glen moved to their tent where his wounds were dressed.”

Maj McCallum and Mr Sibree covered about 300km in three weeks, including about 160km skiing on the ice cap and 140km accessing the ice cap via rock and glacial moraine. Of necessity, that included some backtracking to carry gear.

“We were initially planning to get porter or horse support at the start but unfortunately, due to our timing, we arrived just before the season had really kicked off so that was not available,” Maj McCallum said.
“We did not quite achieve everything we had set out to achieve, primarily due to having to double haul our loads, and the bad weather.

“Eighteen were bad weather days. We spent three days in the tent unable to move. We moved on a number of zero visibility days which was not necessarily wise but we had to make our distance; unfortunately we missed reaching the northernmost point of the ice cap at the Jorge Montt Glacier.

“I did plan this as a precursor to – hopefully – one day going to the North or South Pole but that’s on hold for the moment for family reasons.”

Highlights for Maj McCallum included viewing the ice cap for the first time after numerous days of bad weather and “realising you are probably the only people for a few hundred kilometres; traversing terrain only a handful of people have ever ventured on”.

The lowlights were the weather (“but that’s part and parcel of Patagonia”) and the inability to achieve their full goal (“unfortunate but part of the game”).

The surprising aspects of the trek were that the weather was worse than envisaged, as were the access to and exit from the ice cap.

At times they experienced white-outs for days on end or were knocked over by the wind and had to build a snow wall each night behind which they would erect their tent.

On October 9, while forcing their way up the Marconi Glacier in white-out conditions they were forced to bivvy due to the hazardous conditions.

They tried to build a snow cave but abandoned that after hitting rock and ice and were only able to partially erect their tent inner in a bergschrund (split in the glacier) to take shelter from the storm.
They spent a long and sleepless night as the wind buffeted the tent; hoping and praying that the poles and fabric would hold.

Around October 15-16 they discovered that their GPS, which they had been forced to purchase from their hostel in El Calafate, had decided to reset itself, wiping the position of their next cache of supplies but fortunately the duo were able to find it albeit under a metre or so of fresh snow.

The incident involving Glen and the bad weather brought home to Maj McCallum some of the dangers inherent in such an expedition.

“These incidents, and when we were forced to bivvy in the tent inner made me realise how tenuous life can be at times, and that no one is invincible.”

Perhaps the October 22 entry in Maj McCallum’s diary best sums up the trip:

“Coffee and porridge. Windy and snowing outside but it’s good to be here. Well, I think we’ve done all right. We did from Marconi to the exit in four days averaging 20km a day. The reason – good weather!

“It has been an amazing adventure. We’ve pushed the envelope a little too much at times and in hindsight maybe we could have pushed onto the Jorge Montt but we needed to keep days spare for bad weather and we’re both happy to have completed what we’ve done and to be here now.

“Would we do it again? If asked two weeks ago, then ‘no’; but now, well, probably ‘yes’! It is completely do-able – the ice travel is easy – just need time for the weather.”