Antarctic peak done the hard way

Photo: Leo Houlding
Photo: Leo Houlding
Wanaka adventurer Mark Sedon (left) celebrates reaching the summit of the Spectre, a prominent 2000m rock spire in the Gothic Mountains, in the Antarctic.

Mr Sedon achieved the feat alongside expedition team-mates Jean Burgun (centre) and Leo Houlding (right), of France and Britain respectively.

While the team originally planned to summit the peak via the south face, conditions forced them to climb the north face instead, a feat achieved only once before, by Edmund and Mugs Stump, of the United States.

Mr Houlding said the team struggled for hours to gain altitude and would have been in serious danger had the clouds packed in and the wind picked up.

"If Antarctica snarls, it is very quickly a survival situation," Mr Houlding said.

However, luck was on their side and after a gruelling ascent, they finally reached the summit around midnight on Thursday.

The team has now switched its focus to its secondary objective, a skyline traverse of the Organ Pipe Peaks from left to right.

They will then begin to make their way back to Union Glacier Camp, from where they will depart the Antarctic in late January.

To get there, they will need to haul into the wind for 450km, kite 1000km and haul a further 100km to reach the camp. 

- Sean Nugent

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