as the best place to
as the best place to pitch their tent. Bolstered by the sight, they quicken their pace and soon arrive at the saddle, shrugging off their packs before taking in the view. Chestnut-coloured mountains define the horizon, and a white vapour trail from a lone jet aircraft courses through the cobalt sky. Wispy clouds gather around shorter peaks in the distance, and a griffon vulture drifts above the bottle green valleys. It’s a breath-taking spot in which to spend the night. Unpacking her equipment, Phoebe explains why they’ve chosen this location in particular: “Level ground is most important for camping. We need somewhere that we can get our pegs in but is comfortable enough to sleep on, and where there’s nothing that can fall on us from above.” Avalanche risk is something that the pair have also been mindful of – these commonly occur on a gradient of 35-40°, which is at a lower gradient than where they’re camping. After a final hike to Casamanya’s summit and a mug of thawing tea, the pair pitch their home for the night, settling in to brace themselves for the cold that will set in as soon as the sun dips below the horizon. The next morning, the sun is gloriously brilliant at 9am when Dwayne and Phoebe arrive at base camp. They’re bang on time, excited and hungry. “Temperatures got down to -6°C last night, and we were lucky that the wind dropped eventually,” says Dwayne. “It was a perfectly clear night, cold but gorgeous. It’s what we’re likely to experience in Antarctica. That’ll be colder, of course, but we won’t get the sudden shift in temperature like we did last night because the continent will be in summer so there’ll be daylight 24/7. It’s crucial to get extreme training like this, because we can’t replicate it in the UK. “The other challenge was about working to monitor the conditions, manage the changes of terrain, and being efficient with our kit,” Dwayne continues as the Defender’s rear door swings wide, ready to swallow all the kit once again. “In Antarctica you’ve got to be so organised with your equipment. We will need to be able to locate and manage kit quickly – it could be the difference between a finger dropping off or not.” They’re buzzing, almost evangelical about the views from the mountain last night before hunkering down in the tent. “Every so often we could hear the reverberations of controlled avalanche explosions in the distance,” says Phoebe. “They felt so incredibly loud, like a gunshot against this eerie silence.” What does it feel like to be on the top of a mountain, completely alone? “It feels like the safest place on Earth,” she says. “You’re completely protected, sheltered. It gives you a chance to reset from the day in a kind of sanctuary, like a breath of fresh air.” As they pack the gear into the Defender, the vastness of the landscape extends in front, rays of sun strafing the powder-smooth clearing below an enormous sweep of sky. “It’s stunning,” says Dwayne, carefully positioning his razor-sharp crampons in the car’s boot. It’ll be an invaluable memory to draw upon. Roomy with a view Practice makes perfect for the Antarctic expedition EXPEDITION CLOTHING SUPPLIED BY ELLIS BRIGHAM (ELLIS-BRIGHAM.COM); TENT SUPPLIED BY TERRA NOVA (TERRA-NOVA.COM). ACCOMMODATION COURTESY HOTEL SKI PLAZA AND WELLNESS (EN.HOTELSKIPLAZAANDORRA.COM). FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANDORRA: VISITANDORRA.COM “This is a chance to reset from the day in a kind of sanctuary, like a breath of fresh air” 34
