The British Antarctic Survey has just announced today that they have remeasured the mountains of Palmer Land and they are higher than we thought. More than that: the highest mountain in the British Antarctic Territory is actually Mount Hope, not Mount Jackson as we always thought.
We have been getting it wrong all this time the about the territory top. I feel sorry for the BAT team who reached the summit on 23 November 1964, thinking they had reached the highest point in the British domains. Will their children now be kitting up to scale the new top?
I know this is a bit further than most mountain walkers will go, but it is a British mountain, an impressive part of the Further Wild. Mount Hope rises to 10,626 feet, two and a half times the height of Ben Nevis, wind-scoured and ice-bound: beyond the reach of the everyday hiker. Still, as Sir Ranulph said, there is no bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.
I have listed the county tops of the United Kingdom, but what of the territory tops? It may have to be the next endeavour to wander the heights East Caicos and Cayman Brac, but the BAT? Not this year.