Damien Gildea (born 1969 [1] ) is an Australian mountaineer and Antarctic explorer who has climbed extensively in Antarctica, Nepal, Tibet, Pakistan, Bolivia, Alaska, New Zealand and elsewhere. [2] [3]
His Antarctic ascents include Mount Vinson, Mount Shinn, Mount Craddock, Mount Gardner, Mount Bentley, Mount Anderson (first ascent), [4] Mount Ryan, [5] and several other peaks in the Vinson Massif, Craddock Massif and northern Sentinel Range between 2001 and 2007, as well as Mount Friesland and Mount Bowles on Livingston Island in 2003. The high-precision GPS data collected by his team was used in subsequent American and Bulgarian mapping.
In 2012 Gildea led a team following in the footsteps of Robert Falcon Scott, in order to raise money for charity. [6] Gildea has collected data during his Antarctic expeditions for scientific analysis. [7] [8]
Gildea is the author of The Antarctic Mountaineering Chronology. [9]
In 2007 Gildea published the new 1:50,000 colour topographical map Vinson Massif & The Sentinel Range, including a number of new features named by the USGS. [10]
In November 2010 published Gildea's new book Mountaineering in Antarctica: Climbing in the Frozen South. [11]
Gildea Glacier in Craddock Massif, Antarctica is named after him. [12]
Vinson Massif is a large mountain massif in Antarctica that is 21 km (13 mi) long and 13 km (8 mi) wide and lies within the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains. It overlooks the Ronne Ice Shelf near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. The massif is located about 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) from the South Pole. Vinson Massif was discovered in January 1958 by U.S. Navy aircraft. In 1961, the Vinson Massif was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN), after Carl G. Vinson, United States congressman from the state of Georgia, for his support for Antarctic exploration. On November 1, 2006, US-ACAN declared Mount Vinson and Vinson Massif to be separate entities. Vinson Massif lies within the unrecognised Chilean claim under the Antarctic Treaty System.
Mount Tyree (4852m) is the second highest mountain of Antarctica located 13 kilometres northwest of Mount Vinson (4,892 m), the highest peak on the continent. It surmounts Patton Glacier to the north and Cervellati Glacier to the southeast.
The Sentinel Range is a major mountain range situated northward of Minnesota Glacier and forming the northern half of the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica. The range trends NNW-SSE for about 185 km (115 mi) and is 24 to 48 km wide. Many peaks rise over 4,000 m (13,100 ft) and Vinson Massif (4892 m) in the southern part of the range is the highest elevation on the continent.
Livingston Island is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60° south latitude in 1819, a historic event that marked the end of a centuries-long pursuit of the mythical Terra Australis Incognita and the beginning of the exploration and utilization of real Antarctica. The name Livingston, although of unknown derivation, has been well established in international usage since the early 1820s.
Mount Craddock is a large, bold mountain forming the south extremity of Craddock Massif in Sentinel Range, the ninth highest mountain in Antarctica. It is linked by Karnare Col to Mount Strybing in the southern Sentinel Range. The ninth-highest mountain in Antarctica was first climbed in January 1992.
Lyaskovets Peak is the easternmost peak of Friesland Ridge in the Tangra Mountains, eastern Livingston Island and has an elevation of 1,473 m. The peak is bounded by Catalunyan Saddle on the west and Shipka Saddle on the east, and is heavily glaciated and crevassed, with precipitous western, southern and eastern slopes. It surmounts Huron Glacier to the northwest and northeast, and Macy Glacier and Brunow Bay area to the south. Its northern offshoot forms Zograf Peak, and is linked to Lozen Nunatak, Erma Knoll and Aheloy Nunatak in Huron Glacier.
Tangra Mountains form the principal mountain range of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The range had been nameless until 2001, when it was named after Tengri, "the name of the ancient Bulgarian god."
The Tangra 2004/05 Expedition was commissioned by the Antarctic Place-names Commission at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, managed by the Manfred Wörner Foundation, and supported by the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgarian Posts, Uruguayan Antarctic Institute, Peregrine Shipping (Australia), and Petrol Ltd, TNT, Mtel, Bulstrad, Polytours, B. Bekyarov and B. Chernev (Bulgaria).
Mount Anderson is a high mountain in the northern part of the Sentinel Range in Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. Probuda Ridge is trending northeast of the peak, and Embree Glacier and Ellen Glacier's tributary Fonfon Glacier drain its northeastern and eastern slopes respectively. It is part of the same massif as Mount Bentley and Mount Sisu.
Mount Epperly is a 4,359-metre-high (14,301 ft) or perhaps 4,512-metre-high (14,803 ft) mountain in the Sentinel Range, Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica. It overlooks Cervellati Glacier to the northeast and Ramorino Glacier to the east-northeast. The peak was first climbed by Erhard Loretan, solo over the 2,100-metre-high (6,900 ft) south face, on December 1, 1994. Loretan returned the next year and reclimbed the route for a film. In 1999, the American climbers Conrad Anker and Jim Donini failed in their attempt over the west ridge. The third successful ascent was by the Chilean Camilo Rada and Australian Damien Gildea via a new route over the south face in December 2007. Their GPS measurements on top suggested a height 153 m above the official one. This mountain is named after Robert Epperly who spent time during the International Geophysical Year of 1957–1958 in Antarctica. Bob served in the US Navy at that time. He lived his latter years in Worthington, Massachusetts and is interred there.
Mount Shinn is a mountain 4,661 meters in elevation, standing 6 km (4 miles) southeast of Mount Tyree in the Sentinel Range, Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica. It surmounts Ramorino Glacier to the north, upper Crosswell Glacier to the northeast, Goodge Col to the southeast, and Branscomb Glacier to the south-southwest. Mount Shinn is thought to be the third-highest peak in Antarctica.
Mount Friesland is a mountain rising to 1,700.2 metres (5,578 ft) in the homonymous Friesland Ridge, one of the two summits of Tangra Mountains and Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica along with neighbouring St. Boris Peak. Its north rib is connected to Pliska Ridge by Nesebar Gap on the west, and to Bowles Ridge by Wörner Gap on the north. On the east, Mount Friesland is connected to Presian Ridge and further on to Catalunyan Saddle and Lyaskovets Peak. On the south-southwest, it is connected by a short saddle to ‘The Synagogue’ a sharp-peaked rock-cored ice formation abutting St. Boris Peak. The peak is heavily glaciated and crevassed, surmounting Huntress Glacier to the west, Perunika Glacier to the north-northwest, Huron Glacier to the northeast and Macy Glacier to the southeast. The local weather is notoriously unpleasant and challenging; according to the seasoned Antarctic mountaineer Damien Gildea who climbed in the area, 'just about the worst weather in the world'.
Mount Rutford is a sharp peak that rises to 4,477 metres (14,688 ft) and marks the highest point on Craddock Massif in the Sentinel Range, Ellsworth Mountains. The peak stands just north of Bugueño Pinnacle and 2.1 mi north of Mount Craddock, with which this naming is associated. Prior to 2006 the peak had no name, but was visually identified by Camilo Rada and Damien Gildea as being higher than Mt Craddock, during their time on the summits of both Vinson (2004) and Craddock (2005). Thus they returned in 2006 and, as part of a larger GPS program, measured the height of this unnamed peak.
Great Needle Peak is the summit of the central Levski Ridge in Tangra Mountains on Livingston Island, Antarctica. Rising to 1,679.5 m, it is the third highest peak of both the mountains and the island after Mount Friesland (1700.2 m) and St. Boris Peak (1685 m). Great Needle Peak surmounts Huron Glacier and its tributary draining Devnya Valley to the north, Magura Glacier to the east, Srebarna Glacier to the south, and Macy Glacier to the southwest.
Gildea Glacier is a glacier 10 kilometres (6 mi) long and 5 kilometres (3 mi) wide flowing southwestward from Craddock Massif between Mount Slaughter and Mount Atkinson into Nimitz Glacier, in the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. The upper portion of the glacier also receives ice from Hammer Col and southern Vinson Massif.
Galicia Point is the peak rising to 4480 m in Vinson Massif, Sentinel Range in Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica, and surmounting Jacobsen Valley to the east and Branscomb Glacier to the north and west.
Mount Slaughter is an ice-free peak, rising to 3,444 metres (11,299 ft) on a spur trending southwest from Opalchenie Peak on Vinson Plateau, Sentinel Range, in the Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. It is surmounting the head of Donnellan Glacier to the northwest and Gildea Glacier to the south. It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and U.S. Navy aerial photographs from 1957 to 1960. It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) in 1982, after John B. Slaughter, the director of the National Science Foundation from 1980 to 1982.
Opalchenie Peak is the peak rising to 4,503.5 metres (14,775 ft) at the south extremity of the ice-covered Vinson Plateau, Sentinel Range in the Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. It is of low topographic prominence, just 63 metres (207 ft), with parent summit Fukushima Peak. The feature has a partly ice-free summit and south slopes, where two parallel ridges descend steeply southwestwards with Donnellan Glacier flowing in between and Mount Slaughter rising on the more southerly ridge. The northerly ridge was climbed up to the summit plateau by American Robert Anderson in November 1992, and subsequently used to establish a new route to Mount Vinson in 2003. Opalchenie Peak overlooks Vinson Plateau on the north, Craddock Massif on the southeast and upper Nimitz Glacier area on the southwest.
Bender Glacier is a glacier that flows from Mount Atkinson and Mount Craddock southwards between Chaplin Peak and Krusha Peak, and joins Nimitz Glacier just south of Gilbert Spur in the southern Sentinel Range, Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica. Receiving ice influx from its left tributaries Severinghaus Glacier, Brook Glacier and Bolgrad Glacier.
Silverstein Peak is a prominent, 4,790-metre-high (15,720 ft) peak on the west edge of the ice-covered Vinson Plateau in the Sentinel Range of Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. It surmounts Roché Glacier to the north and Zapol Glacier to the southwest.