I’m unsure what adjectives to use, none could describe what I’ve seen and felt. A continent that is still so pristine and its custodians are as precious about its wellbeing now as when the Antartica Treaty was signed so many years ago.

Antarctica is the driest continent on earth, but ironically holds 70% of the worlds fresh water. It is being affected by global warming and humanity needs to reduce or even reverse the effect on global warming that we have, and leave only nature’s natural cooling and warming cycles.

This climbing trip has been more than I dreamed of. My aim is always to enjoy these ‘ travelling trips’, but this one has affected me in a way like none of the others (I can already hear Carolynn, sighing). To get here is a marathon on its own, the cost is a good deposit on a house and the equipment required would buy the rest of it! Once you get here, though, money has no meaning and is irrelevant as one person, in particular, found out. Union Glacier is a unique transit point created by …,,, & ….. in 1985. From here you can travel nearly any part of the Antarctic continent, Mount Vinson, the Emperor Penguin colony, Ross Ice Sheet and, of course, the South Pole.

The climb on Mount Vinson was largely uneventful. It went as expected, except for the two incidents of mild frostbite on two of our team. Valentin will probably lose the sensation on the tips of most of his fingers, Michael in just two. I’ve already said my piece on this. The downside for myself was that I lost the opportunity to take more photographs from the summit, but that’s of little consequence compared to even the minor injuries of Valentin and Michael.

What’s left the biggest impression is the scale and beauty of a wilderness that’ll take many years to explore fully. There are hundreds of unclimbed peaks, hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of ice, waiting to be explored, which has left me with more questions that need answering than that have been answered! I hope this unique continent remains the untamed wilderness that it is today.

Will, I return ‘Never Say Never’