Mount Sidley ascents – update

This is my annual update of Mount Sidley ascents.  ALE trip number 7 succeeded in putting two guides and three clients on the top of the volcano.  All three clients completed the Volcanic Seven Summits with this ascent.

A previous blog highlighted two of them.

This year, due to the small size of the team, a Twin Otter was used for transport to the mountain.  A second plane followed part of the way so a fuel cache could be left.  The Twin Otter with the team was unable this year to land in the crater.  Apparently snow conditions in the crater had changed since last year so a base camp was set up on the ice sheet at the foot of the mountain.

In another change from previous trips (at least when base camp had been on the ice sheet), high camp was set up via two carries from base camp and sleds were not used.  The first carry was undertaken in what became marginal conditions.  The team was then confined to base camp for two days whilst a storm blew through.

Once the storm had gone they were able to make the second carry and the top camp was set up.  After an “overnight” stay the group made the ascent.  Although the modelled forecasts looked promising, the weather was at first cloudy, then the sun came out and then (as the crater was being reached) it became cloudy again.  The wind also picked up and it became very cold.

Though Sidley is not a very technical mountain, it is a very cold one.  They were able to spend no more than about 15 minutes on top. They summited at about 1am GMT on 16th January (10pm on 15th January Chilean time).

The team was then able to make quick progress down back to top camp.

Satyarup Siddhanta was kind enough to call me using his satellite phone once they had settled back at top camp.  The three clients all seemed very cheerful, if tired.  In the meantime, back in India, there was a large group following the climb with a few Facebook Live events occurring.

The descent back down to the Twin Otter went without incident.  But the return to Union Glacier had a twist to it.  When they reached the fuel cache the weather there and at Union Glacier prevented further progress.  So they were pinned down for 24 hours at that point.  They had to set up camp and Satyarup’s description of the toilet arrangements probably do not bear repeating on a public forum!  That’s Antarctica for you.

As I write this, the team are now back safely at Union Glacier with a flight back to Punta Arenas scheduled for later today.  Even after this trip fewer than 50 people have ever climbed Mount Sidley.

Congratulations to Satyarup Siddhanta, Sanya Tóth and Vladislav Lachkarev.

The trip has received a lot of interest in the Indian press. Acouple of papers even contacted me for comment:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/kolkata-man-worlds-youngest-to-scale-seven-peaks-seven-volcanic-summits/articleshow/67561993.cms

http://cityliveindia.com/city/Kolkata/Article?CL=Proud-moment-for-all-of-us,-Kolkata-boy-become-the-youngest-climber-in-the-world-953743

I have produced an up to date list below.  This should be read together with the commentary in my previous blog here.

MOUNT SIDLEY SUMMIT LIST

(as at 18^th January 2019)

	Date	Name	Group	Nationality
1.	11/01/1990	Bill Atkinson	Panter Group	New Zealand
2.	12/01/1990	Bill McIntosh	Panter Group	USA
3.	12/01/1990	Kurt Panter	Panter Group	USA
	21/01/1994	Bill McIntosh (second ascent)	Dunbar/ McIntosh	USA
4.	21/01/1994	Nelia Dunbar	Dunbar/ McIntosh	USA
5.	21/01/1994	Thom Wilch	Dunbar/ McIntosh	USA
6.	21/01/1994	Tony Teeling	Dunbar/ McIntosh	NZ
7.	23/01/2011	Scott Woolums	ALE #1	USA
8.	23/01/2011	Aleks Abramov	ALE #1	Russia
9.	23/01/2011	Crina “Coco” Popescu	ALE #1	Romania
10.	23/01/2011	Mario Trimeri	ALE #1	Italy
11.	01/01/2012	Mike Roberts	Roberts Group	New Zealand
12.	01/01/2012	Jennifer Erxleben	Roberts Group	USA
13.	01/01/2012	John Paul O’Donnell	Roberts Group	Ireland
14.	01/01/2012	Andrew Lloyd	Roberts Group	USA
15.	18/01/2013	David Hamilton	ALE #2	UK (Scotland)
16.	18/01/2013	Olga Rumyantseva	ALE #2	Russia
17.	18/01/2013	Vyacheslav Adrov	ALE #2	Russia
18.	18/01/2013	Vitaly Simonovich	ALE #2	Russia
19.	18/01/2013	Paul Nicholson	ALE #2	Canada
20.	28/12/2013	Dylan Taylor	ALE #3	USA
21.	28/12/2013	Andre Filkov	ALE #3	Russia
22.	28/12/2013	Ilya Bykov	ALE #3	Russia
23.	28/12/2013	Sophie Cairns	ALE #3	UK (England)/ Hong Kong
24.	28/12/2013	Liana Chabdarova	ALE #3	Russia
25.	17/01/2014	Rob Smith	ALE #4	UK (Northern Ireland)
26.	17/01/2014	Jean Frederik Paulsen	ALE #4	Sweden
27.	17/01/2014	Francois Michel Bernard	ALE #4	France
28.	17/01/2014	Christian de Marliave	ALE #4	France
29.	17/01/2014	John Dodelande	ALE #4	France
30.	17/01/2014	Joachim Marte	ALE #4	Austria
31.	17/01/2014	Philipp Lehner	ALE #4	Austria
32.	17/01/2014	Alexander Svaetichin	ALE #4	Sweden
	17/01/2014	Scott Woolums (second ascent)	ALE #4	USA
33.	14/01/2017	Tre-C Dumais	ALE #5	USA
34.	14/01/2017	Christoph Hoebenreich	ALE #5	Austria
35.	14/01/2017	James Stone	ALE #5	UK (England)
36.	14/01/2017	Dan Bull	ALE #5	Australia
37.	14/01/2017	Jarryd Commerford	ALE #5	USA/UK (England)
38.	14/01/2017	Robbi Malandreniotis	ALE #5	UK (England)/Greece
39.	14/01/2017	Michael Guggolz	ALE #5	Germany
40.	14/01/2018	Nate Opp	ALE #6	USA
41.	14/01/2018	Theodore Fairhurst	ALE #6	Canada
42.	14/01/2018	Katie Sarah	ALE #6	Australia
43.	14/01/2018	Cheryl Bart	ALE #6	Australia
44.	14/01/2018	Nikki Bart	ALE #6	Australia
45.	15/01/2019	Maria Paz (Pachi) Ibarra	ALE #7	Chile
46.	15/01/2019	Fred Alldredge	ALE #7	USA
47.	15/01/2019	Satyarup Siddhanta	ALE #7	India
48.	15/01/2019	Sándor (Sanya) Tóth	ALE #7	Hungary
49.	15/01/2019	Vladislav Lachkarev	ALE #7	Russia