Top at the bottom of the world

It was 9am on January 4, 2010, when I made the gut-wrenching decision to turn around on Antarctica's highest peak, Mt Vinson, after suffering superficial frostbite to seven of my fingers.

Two hours later, I made another decision: I promised myself that I would return to Antarctica in 12 months and this time climb all the way to the summit.

And so it was that on January 7, 2011, I touched down in Chile's southernmost city, Punta Arenas, ready to complete the journey I had started some 12 months earlier. My frostbitten fingers had healed after three weeks of hyperbaric treatment, and this time I was determined to see it through.

Unbeknown to me, this year the problem wasn't going to be frostbite. Just after our Antarctic briefing by Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions, Punta Arenas would be forced into a state of lockdown.

A massive protest against proposed increases to the price of natural gas in southern Chile would make world headlines and leave us barricaded inside the city.

Over the next several days, the protest gathered momentum and turned ugly with the death of three people not far from our hotel. The Chilean army started evacuating tourists and the US Government flew in officials to deal with stranded American residents.

Our group were at various stages along our Seven Summits journey - climbing the highest peaks on all seven continents.

Steven, an ex-air force colonel from Seattle, would be aiming to complete his Seven Summit journey today.

Jane, the first Singaporean woman to reach the Everest summit, was on her fourth summit. Peter, a toxicologist from Holland, was also attempting his fourth summit as was Roland, a Search and Rescue police officer from Sydney.

Our final team member, Johan, a recently retired businessman from Spain, was attempting his sixth summit. And joining them would be me, attempting to reach the fifth of my Seven Summits.

On January 15, we took a decision to attempt to walk the 17km through seven barricades to the airport. We nervously approached the first barricade just on the outskirts of town, unsure as to whether we would come up against any resistance from the protesters. Luckily, we were allowed through, and it was on to the next.

Some three hours later we had somehow made it through to the airport and were ready to board our Illushin 76 Jet, that would carry us the 3000km to the ice at Union Glacier.

However, our luck would take a turn for the worse yet again when our Russian flight crew discovered a faulty fuel regulator.

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