UK Training
Met training in Cambourne
Climbing masts in Taunton
Abseiling in Derbyshire
First aid in Derriford
Fire training

The Voyage South
Crossing to America
Montevideo
The Falklands
Sub- Antarctic Islands
The Brunt Iceshelf

Halley Research Station
Living on an ice shelf
Summer
Winter
Recording the weather
Holidays

The really talented and fit people can ascend ropes with bits of string resembling shoelaces - the rest of us use jumars - a handle thing with teeth that you push up the rope and dangle off. Rather embarrasingly, I managed to get stuck about 2m off the ground, which rather alarmed me slightly as I didn't want to get marooned at the bottom of an ice cliff in Antarctica. Later I found out that it's actually considerably easier to get up and down an ice wall because you can dig your feet in.

The silliest thing we had to do was to pretend to be in a snow blizzard and search for a lost colleague. Jenny pretended to be the body and the rest of us were blindfolded, tied together and then we walked round in ever increasing circles trying to find her. I told everyone that to make sure we didn't miss her we had to sweep our arms and legs around. Jenny thought we looked so funny that she kept moving further away to make it last longer.

Alpine walking
If you are walking in a crevassed area you have to walk in pairs joined by a rope.

If your partner falls down a crevasse and needs help getting out - you have to make a Z-pulley system with the rope and several pulleys.

The Z shape gives you a mechanical advantage so that you can pull your partner up - no matter how heavy they are.