The three boys threw their hockey gear to the top of the hill and tried crawling up the path, but the sleet had created a smooth glacier with nothing to hold on to.

Arriving home at midnight after a recent Top Gear Live event, Clarkson worked on a rough edit of the new series and called Wilman with his notes at 8am the next day.

The process begun Saturday has two major phases: removing equipment currently on top of the leak and installing new gear designed to fully contain the flow of oil.