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Antarctic mountains made to measure

He has led eight expeditions to the high mountains of Antarctica and two expeditions to the South Pole, so what advice does alumnus Damien Gildea have on achieving the extraordinary and learning from failure?

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For accomplished mountaineer Damien Gildea, there is personal satisfaction in looking at a map of Antarctica and knowing he determined the height of certain summits. More than that. He led teams that were the first to climb many peaks of the frozen continent, a passion that consumed every summer throughout his thirties.

So how do you measure the height of a mountain? For Gildea (GradDipASOS Hons ’91) it was a matter of patiently waiting for the right weather window, ascending a summit, setting up a GPS receiver, and letting it run for at least an hour, but the longer the better.

One of the first Antarctic mountains he measured was Mt Shinn, the third-highest mountain in Antarctica. Before his climb in 2002, no one knew exactly how tall it was.

“We climbed Mt Shinn and slept on the summit with the GPS running,” Gildea said.

“We had a satellite phone and a laptop, and sent the data back to Geosciences Australia who converted it into a PDF which contained the answer: 4,660 metres.

“We then shared the data with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the British Antarctic Survey, and they were able to incorporate the new information into their maps.”

For the next decade, Gildea and his small party of two or three other independent climbers returned to Antarctica most years. In many cases, they were the first to make ascents, or they discovered new routes.

In 2004–2005, Gildea led a trip to remeasure the highest mountain in Antarctica, Mount Vinson (4,892 metres) in the Sentinel Range. He camped on the summit for eight hours with his Chilean team, Rodrigo Fica and Camilo Rada. Temperatures dropped to a low of -46 degrees Celsius.

“No one had camped up that high in Antarctica.”

Omega Foundation teammates resting in rare perfect weather in January 2007 between sledging and climbing the western side of the Sentinel Range, seen in the background | Photo: Damien Gildea

Supported through the US-based philanthropic Omega Foundation, his work in the Sentinel Range led to detailed maps of the area. But Gildea recognises that the trips he led built on those who came before him. On his recommendation, a group of climbers from the 1960s had peaks in the Sentinel Range named after them.

“They didn’t chase the recognition, but they were chuffed,” Gildea said. The USGS Board on Geographic Names also named a glacier after Gildea himself.

But for him, the highlights are not about being the first to reach a summit. They are about planning and orchestrating a climb well, and sharing the experience.

“I remember climbs by the people I was with,” he said.

Importantly, he says you need experience and to be always willing to fail, because the consequences of even small accidents can be disastrous.

“If you break a leg and can’t get out, you’ll die. You’ve got to manage risk.”

It means that sometimes an expedition isn’t completed. But Gildea believes you learn more from failure than success.

“You refine the process.”

To talk with Gildea is to hear a staggering list of years and peaks climbed, along with their exact heights, which he has committed to memory.

Asked to pick four highlights, he chose: the personal satisfaction of leaving his farm in Goulburn with three weeks’ notice to guide a blind expeditioner to the South Pole; climbing Mt Anderson in 2007, the highest unclimbed mountain in the Sentinel Range; finding running water in a part of Antarctica where water wasn’t normally found, a sign of climate change; and, his ‘biggest’ Antarctic climb, Mt Epperly (4,509 metres) in 2008, which took 38 hours.

Damien Gilda climbing Mt Anderson | Photo: supplied

Gildea has also climbed in India, Pakistan, Alaska, South America and New Zealand, to name just a few of his non-Antarctic expeditions. He is a writer of numerous journal articles and books, including Mountaineering in Antarctica: Climbing in the Frozen South.

In Antarctica, he never stays at the government stations. Instead, he camps for two months at a time, sledding to get around. So how does he view the frozen continent? Not in the clichéd way.

“I view it affectionately. It’s not mysterious and it’s not fragile. It’s massive and powerful, on a foundation of solid rock,” he said.

“It’s not under threat from what is happening there, but from global change. It’s the things we do at home that threaten Antarctica.”

Written by Katherine Johnson for Alumni Magazine Issue 55, 2024.

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Top of page: Damien Gilda on the summit of Mt Shinn (4,660m) in 2002, setting up the GPS unit| Photo:  Rodrigo Fica