A joint British-Russian expedition to the Watkins Mountains returned from Greenland in spring 2011. The members of the expedition were Sebastian Sloane, Mark Morrison, Warren Allen, Julian Cooper, Maxim Bouev and Andrey Pogudin with leaders Ian Barker and Mark Basey-Fisher. In the second half of May 2011, the expedition succeeded in completing two ascents in the eastern part of the biggest island on Earth - Mt Gunnbjorn (3694m), the highest mountain in the Arctic, and a nearby previously unclimbed peak rising above 3000m.
The start of the expedition was marred by inclement weather. Low temperatures, strong winds and snow had the expedition to postpone the first in the season climb of Mt Gunnbjorn for a few days. These days were spent on making the base camp habitable and on short trips into a tributary of the Woolley glacier. On the 24th of May 2011, however, making the best of a spell of good weather the expedition finally reached the summit pyramid. The stability of snow though on the western slope of the mountain forced the climbers to abandon the standard route to the top. The usual ascent route via the south-western col runs to the base of a tall rock tower on the south-western ridge and then traverses the western face of the mountain until it reaches the north-western rib. Thereafter the summit is reached via a climb along the ridge. However, 1ft-deep snow slabs prompted the expedition to avoid the dangerous traverse of the western face, and instead to climb the rock tower on the south-western ridge directly where the angle of the slope reaches 50 degrees. It is a less frequented route which had probably been attempted only once in the last 10 years. The attempt was successful, although one of the participants badly pierced his knee with an ice-axe. Two of the members of the expedition, Maxim Bouev and Andrey Pogudin, became the first Russians to summit the highest mountain within the Arctic circle.
The initial plan of the expedition also involved two further ascents of the second and third highest mountains in the Arctic, Mt Dome (3682m) and Mt Cone (3669m), located in the vicinity of Mt Gunnbjorn. However, there was a much more interesting opportunity: to make an attempt on another summit higher than 3000m. This summit was the last remaining unclimbed mountain in the middle part of a tributary of the Woolley glacier, south-east of the place where a Gunnbjorn base camp is normally placed. The mountain had previously been photographed and attempted by an expedition led by Paul Rose in 2010. He, however, had to abandon the summit attempt due to unstable soft snow conditions.
The expedition led by Ian Barker and Mark Basey-Fisher was more successful. It attempted the mountain on the 28th of May from the high camp set at 68d 54.336N 29d 37.151W. The climb was challenging as in the lower part of the ascent route it ran through a steep, heavily crevassed couloir, overhung by huge seracs. After leaving that avalanche-prone bottle-neck, the climbers reached a saddle where they faced another obstacle - a 60ft-tall rock tower, similar to the one that they managed to negotiate a few days earlier on Mt Gunnbjorn. Two hours were spent on putting friends in cracks, and getting to the top of the step with slope as steep as 60 degrees at places. Then followed an easy climb along an exposed ridge, and yet another previously unclimbed mountain top in Greenland welcomed its first visitors at 3150m!
Upon return to the base camp there was a hot debate about the name for the mountain. In the end, the decision has been reached to name the peak after Augustine Courtauld, a hero of the British Arctic Air Route Expedition in 1930-1931, and a member of the party of British geologists who were the first to climb Mt Gunnbjorn back in 1935. From December 1930 to May 1931 Courtauld lived alone in a Greenland Icecap Station, gathering meteo-data, which later turned out to be exceptionally useful in establishing a regular air-traffic between Europe and America via a northern route. Several attempts to relieve Courtauld from his duties, or replenish his food supplies from an aircraft were thwarted by horrendous weather. Only 150 days after establishment of the Icecap Station, Gino Watkins, the leader of the expedition, and other members of the expedition managed to reach Courtauld in dog-driven sleds, and relieve him just as Courtauld's food and fuel were running out.
The joint British-Russian expedition 2011 was a fruitful international effort that allowed two good ascents, first of their kind. The expedition was timely relieved from the glacier by Simon Yates (known for the mountaineering story "Touching the Void") who after a short break returned to Greenland second time within a month to lead another group of climbers to the top of Mt Gunnbjorn.
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