Dispatch #34 - South Pole via Kansas Glacier

South Pole via Kansas Glacier

Dispatches

Jan 03

#34:
snow quake

Published at 06:15

Finally. An entire day of low to no wind and mostly blue sky. The rejigging of sled weights worked a treat for the first couple of hours but Paul steadily deteriorated, trashed from yesterday?s haul and swollen toes on his right foot. We still managed a solid 17km.

While in the tent we experienced a startling phenomenon. I?ve heard them on many occasions but never from the tent and nothing like this. We could hear a deep rumble to the west approaching as fast as a jet. I knew immediately what it was but held my breath as it hurtled towards us. Within seconds the noise was upon us and I instinctively ducked, despite knowing the effect would be a slumping below us, while looking at the tent walls for fear it might be some violent wind event. The Doppler effect was intense, like that of a fighter jet flying through the tent and the rumble continued for some time to the east. It was a snow quake like no other. From my understanding these are caused when a hoar frost develops just below the surface, likely due to temperature change though I suspect the recent winds may also have had some contributing effect. A trigger can make the upper layer slump through the frost and with boundless acres of this structure the result is like a horizontal avalanche.

Tomorrow we cross the 89th parallel.

Pics
1. Selfie
2. The team heading south

Eric

Name: Camp 29
Elevation: 2922 m
Latitude: 88° 52’ 7” South
Longitude: 137° 24’ 59” West

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Comments

2024-10-01 12:00:32 SMM Panel says: This is such a well-written article. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. provider smm panel
2018-01-03 19:11:20 Willylipsschipper@gmail.com says: Hi Eric, today no message from the Pole? Do you have an off-day? Goes all still good? Ik really hope so. Greetings from me too you and team. Xxx
2018-01-03 11:06:49 Doug Stoup says: I have had woomfing (snow quake) while skiing many times the entire surface drops and can go for miles! Scary but nature is very powerful and am humbled by this occurance!
2018-01-03 10:43:09 Issy says: Wow- just reading that was so intense, can only imagine what it would have actually been like! Safe travels, you're doing great xx
2018-01-03 06:29:42 Kim Gale says: well done, much easier to ride a cafe racer