Latest Update

Expedition Postponed Till 2009

Monday, 03 March 2008 00:00

Bad news! With less than 2 weeks before we fly to China, we received notice from our agent in Xinijang Province that the Government had rescinded our permits. Essentially because China has been experiencing it's worst winter in decades, the army has blocked our permit because the Chinese government has made an order to stop events in remote areas.

It doesn't get much more remote than where we are heading! We needed permission to enable us to pass through military checkpoints on our journey from Kashgar to the mountains.

This week we made representations to the Australian Government to see if they could offer any assistance. To their credit the Foreign Minister's office did done some background work in China with the Australian Embassy and the Chinese Foreign Office. They confirmed things, including indicating that because of the 08 Beijing Olympics, China is keen to avoid anything that gives rise to bad PR. Obviously for us, more snow is not an issue and in reality any rescue from where we are headed was something we needed to effect for ourselves knowing that there is no rescue facility available in that area in any case. However that would not stop the media reporting negative stories should something go wrong.

As you might imagine we were hugely disappointed by the news after a year working on the project.

The traverse has us hooked and we are all committed to the expedition in 2009. Also with 2 months booked away from work and stuff, we're keen to do something as a consolation. Everything was open from Japan to Alaska, Russia to Pakistan. Obviously we need to be able to organize something pretty quickly. In the end we've plumped for the Indian Himalaya in April/May. Huw has spent a lot of time there including quite a number of ski trips and has sketched out a journey which will get us into some interesting high country and the possibility of skiing a mountain or two along the way.

Thanks to our sponsors for their understanding and backing this exciting project for 2009