Army team scales Pole's mountain
A British Army climbing team has scaled one of the highest peaks on Antarctica's treacherous Forbidden Plateau.
The nine ski-mountaineers reached the summit of Mount Johnston in what is thought to be only the second time it has been climbed, the first being in 1957. Mount Johnston lies at the northern end of the Forbidden Plateau, on the continent's peninsula, which the team from the British Army Antarctic Expedition is exploring.
Major James Harris, leading the climbing group, said: "It has been a good day. It's a second ascent but I think we found a new route. We got all nine people up."
The 38-year-old father-of-two, from Winkleigh, Devon, said the team was now celebrating back at base camp, at 1,800 metres, with a "tipple" from their hip flasks. Earlier in the expedition, Major Harris slipped into a 200ft deep crevasse and spent two hours dangling by rope before being hauled to safety.
The climbing team now has its sights set on Mount Walker, an as-yet unconquered peak further along the Forbidden Plateau.
With Major Harris are Major Dick Pattison, 39, from Shipton Moyne, Gloucestershire; Major Jim Wood, 41, from Caithness, Highlands; Captain Harry Scrope, 27, from Danby on Yore, North Yorkshire; Second Lieutenant Sarah Piesse, 23, from Robertsbridge, East Sussex; Captain Dom Biddick , 27, from Leicester; Sergeant Steve Ayres, 29, from Darlington; Lance Corporal Rodney Clark, 24, from Stevenage and the expedition photographer Tim Hall, 44, from Newport, Shropshire.
