Mont Forel and Schweizerland, 1986. On the evening of July 9, 1986, Duncan Bond, Greg Englefield, Jim Lowther and I departed by boat from Angmagssalik to the head of Tasilaq Fjord where our Base Camp was to be located a few kilometers up the valley. On July 14, we pulled away with loaded pulks at snowline. The first three days as far as Conniats Pass were trouble-free over smooth snowfields. The fourth day brought our first serious obstacle, the crevasses of Midgaårdgletscher. We could finally use skis again from the top of Midgaårdgletscher onto the Glacier de France and into the Femstjernen. Crevasses there forced us to leave the pulks there and to push forward to Mont Forel backpacking. We progressed up the Paris Gletscher and onto Bjømegletscher until at the end of Day 10 we were camped beneath the bulk of Forel’s southern flank. Good weather enabled us on July 25 and 26,1986 to make the first British ascent of the mountain (the eighth in all) from the south, using Roch’s 1938 first-ascent route. We then skied along the edge of the icecap before descending through Døren down the length of the Paris Gletscher to recover our pulks and continue into unexplored Schweizerland. Our initial route lay down the chaotic Franche Conté Gletscher, where we were forced to continue backpacking. After the difficulties of the Franche Comté, we found a relatively easy route taking us further west into Schweizerland. After a three-day storm, we made five first ascents in this virgin area before commencing our return to the coast. The ascents there follow: P 1950 (66° 32' 40" N, 36° 59' 20" W) on August 6, 1986 by Englefield, Jones, Lowther; P 2100 (66° 33' 10" N, 37° 15' 00" W) on August 11 by Englefield Jones; P 2050 (66° 31 ' 25" N, 37° 06' 00" W) on August 12 by Jones, Lowther; P 1910 (66° 32' 00" N, 36° 05' 00"W) on August 13 by Bond, Lowther; P 2250 (66° 32' 20" N, 37° 01' 30" W) on August 14 by Bond, Englefield, Jones, Lowther.

Lewis Jones, Royal Geographical Society