Karabiner Fjeld 2018
By Alan (L) Jones
Newer members of the KMC are probably unaware that there really is a mountain named after the Club. It was named by Lord Hunt during an expedition to Greenland in 1960 when he was the Club’s Honorary President. Karabiner Fjeld (1797m) is situated at the head of the Leo Glacier (24° 59′ W, 71°37′ N) in the Staunings Alps of East Greenland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stauning_Alps). It has only had a few ascents since first climbed by Hunt and his colleagues. What better way could there be to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Club than to have a KMC ascent? I am sure that this could be coupled with some new routes and glacier exploration.
I had proposed a KMC ascent to commemorate the Club’s 50th Anniversary (see Newsletter June 1992). During the correspondence I had with Lord Hunt about this possibility, he sent me a photograph which he thought (but was not certain, something to be verified) was Karabiner Fjeld and this is reproduced in the 2004 60th Anniversary Journal and the cover of the Newsletter for June 1992. Unfortunately, this project turned out to be expensive and impracticable, so the 1994 KMC Expedition explored the Pourquoi-Pas Glacier area instead. This is described in Jim Gregson’s book and some of my photographs appear on the KMC web site http://www.karabiner.org/expeditions/1994-greenland/index.php. I think the full Report is still in the Hut Library and a brief report is shown on the KMC web site. The photographs give some idea of the scope of mountaineering in Greenland. The view from Peak 11 has only been seen by Graham Harkness and myself, but a similar one will have been seen by the others as they climbed Peak 10. As far as I have been able to establish, there is not a single mountain in this picture which has ever been named or climbed.
Since then, access to the Staunings Alps have been opened up by a refuelling station at Constable Point and Tangent Expeditions (who arranged the logistics of our trip in 1994) http://www.tangent-expeditions.co.uk/ have now set up a snowmobile centre there. This service would make a KMC ascent of Karabiner Fjeld a much more practicable, but still expensive, proposition. However, the cost may be reduced a little as EasyJet now run a service from Manchester to Reykjavik, Iceland, http://www.easyjet.com/en/cheap-flights/iceland/reykjavik. Luggage will need to be freighted by another route or the excess baggage cost will be prohibitive.
Even if Greenland does not appeal to the younger members of the Club, I hope that they will be inspired by the various expedition reports on the KMC web site to set up some kind of a mountaineering trip to some little-explored area of the World. Planning will need to start now, including saving up, as projects like this cannot be done on the cheap. For many people there will also be a need to save up annual leave or to negotiate leave of absence, as an expedition is likely to take at least 3 weeks and 5 weeks is probably preferable for a very remote area requiring a long trek in. For general ideas see https://www.thebmc.co.uk/find-an-unclimbed-mountain?s=4. Grants are available for well-planned expeditions, see https://www.thebmc.co.uk/how-to-get-expedition-funding?s=4. Also, a potential leader needs to be identified at an early stage, which may mean looking outside the Club for someone with the appropriate experience.
Unfortunately, I am no longer fit enough to undertake an adventure of this kind, but I would support the plans in any way I can.
