South Pole via Kansas Glacier
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2017-11-27
Dec 13
#11: white wall
Published at 05:30
Although temps are topping out in the upper minus teens, with no wind we skied in thermals and sometimes bare hands.
A short day of just over 10km took us to the base of the steep climb ahead onto the plateau (we now refer to it as the wall!) and gave us a well-earned few hours rest. A long warm lunch followed by a leisurely camp setup and some philosophical discussions about what it is to be Australian took us away from our tight routine, a welcome change after our first week of expedition life.
Thanks for your messages, we are receiving them. I hear that Australia has legalised same-sex marriage - long time coming but better late than never. And my dad had a spider crawl in his ear and had it removed in hospital. Hanging out on the web too much dad! Thanks also to all those visiting the blog, over 2000 so far. And for the positive comments on my words and photos.
And while I?m on the Australia theme, I think that ours will be the first all-Australian new route to the South Pole. To clarify, we started close to the same start as my new route last year (Australian/British) and covered the same early ground up the Reedy Glacier but our ski up the Kansas Glacier is what I am broadly referring to as a new route. Once we hit the plateau we then head south and will unavoidably cross the Leverett Ice Road a couple of times. Our intention is not to use it and ski at least a km to the east. The ice road is commonly used by ski teams, including no less than three teams this year, all negating their status as unassisted expeditions. We have no intention of using it but it is a convenient fallback if we are severely behind schedule.
Tomorrow we climb the white wall.
Today my pics are converted to black and white to bring out the contrast in Antarctica?s dynamic range. 1. Clouds over Kansas. 2. Rest in front of Alaska Canyon 3. A panorama of (L to R) Phleger Dome, an unnamed peak, Mount Doumani Kirby Cone and Michigan Plateau. 4. The white wall from my tent.
Eric
A short day of just over 10km took us to the base of the steep climb ahead onto the plateau (we now refer to it as the wall!) and gave us a well-earned few hours rest. A long warm lunch followed by a leisurely camp setup and some philosophical discussions about what it is to be Australian took us away from our tight routine, a welcome change after our first week of expedition life.
Thanks for your messages, we are receiving them. I hear that Australia has legalised same-sex marriage - long time coming but better late than never. And my dad had a spider crawl in his ear and had it removed in hospital. Hanging out on the web too much dad! Thanks also to all those visiting the blog, over 2000 so far. And for the positive comments on my words and photos.
And while I?m on the Australia theme, I think that ours will be the first all-Australian new route to the South Pole. To clarify, we started close to the same start as my new route last year (Australian/British) and covered the same early ground up the Reedy Glacier but our ski up the Kansas Glacier is what I am broadly referring to as a new route. Once we hit the plateau we then head south and will unavoidably cross the Leverett Ice Road a couple of times. Our intention is not to use it and ski at least a km to the east. The ice road is commonly used by ski teams, including no less than three teams this year, all negating their status as unassisted expeditions. We have no intention of using it but it is a convenient fallback if we are severely behind schedule.
Tomorrow we climb the white wall.
Today my pics are converted to black and white to bring out the contrast in Antarctica?s dynamic range. 1. Clouds over Kansas. 2. Rest in front of Alaska Canyon 3. A panorama of (L to R) Phleger Dome, an unnamed peak, Mount Doumani Kirby Cone and Michigan Plateau. 4. The white wall from my tent.
Eric
- Name: Camp 8
- Elevation: 1770 m
- Latitude: 85° 57’ 29” South
- Longitude: 137° 52’ 13” West
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