65:57.21N 36:11.97W

On the scale of the peaks around us this 300m lump of rock was not a real climb, almost just bouldering!. With a start directly from the inflatable this really was a start from sea level. Leaving Mike and Ollie doing boatie things, and nursing a cold respectively, we roped up in two pairs: Tracy and Gringo and Karl and John.

Not a technically difficult climb at any stage and lots of scrambling, but with the vegetation often being more firmly attached to the hill than the visible rocks the ropes stayed on all the way up, and down, even when walking over the flatter patches. We either climbed in turn or more often on parallel slightly different routes. With John and Ollie in biggish mountain boots, Karl in lightweight boots and Tracy the mountain goat in a pair of trainers, different bits were more challenging for different people.  We picked our routes over sharp rocks, sometimes loose or covered in a black moss, though patches of blue and pink flowers, over millions of bilberry berries, and past the occasional stunted juniper all clinging to the rock. After three hours with a couple of short stops to remove layers of clothing, as the sun got hotter, we reached the top. Karl left a cairn on the summit and we had lunch in the most spectacular of settings: A clear blue sky, no wind, icebergs in the fjord below us and a skyline full of 1000m+ unclimbed peaks in all directions. What an incredible place this is.

We were the only people for miles in any direction, and there were no signs of there ever having been any, although interestingly Tracy did receive a ping on her phone shortly before we reached the top, which proved the Wi-Fi from the Umiak Starlink system was best in a virtual direction!

The walk/scramble down was planned by Tracy from a photo taken the previous day and then achieved without the need for a abseil, quite a feat given the terrain. The short walk out was coordinated with a call on the VHF to summon an Uber to collect us from the beach for our return to Umiak, followed  by much needed tea and chocolate hobnobs, after which we motored for a couple of hours up the coast, through icebergs of various sizes in the sun of a long arctic day, to find our next challenge. Another good day in paradise.

John