Images of

ANTARCTICA

Peak 1882

Photos © 2002 Seth White

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As Science Tech, one of the projects I support is for UNAVCO. They provide GPS expertise, equipment, and support for various applications worldwide, and are based in Boulder as part of UCAR. Over the course of the season I have worked a bit with Chuck Kurnik, who is here this season doing work for UNAVCO. Part of this was working on the differential GPS transmitter on Crater Hill (see here). This station is used for DGPS work around McMurdo, but also transmits to a repeater on Peak 1882 in the Dry Valleys. This repeater is then used by various science groups during the summer season. Word came in that the repeater was down. So we checked the transmitter on Crater Hill and fixed a problem there. But the repeater in the Valleys was still down. Since Chuck was in the middle of other things he asked if I would go out there with Shad O'Neel, another UNAVCO guy, to fix it. So...um, yeah. No problem there.... A few days later we took off in an A-Star with Mike, a new pilot here. Here's a view of the Royal Society Range soon after leaving McMurdo.

This is Mount Discovery, with the McMurdo Ice Shelf below. This ice shelf consists of 'dirty ice', with soil and rocks embedded in it. Very strange. You hardly notice it from McMurdo, but it really stands out from the air.
More of the McMurdo Ice Shelf, although blurrier this time.
The Blue Glacier entering McMurdo Sound. You can see this glacier clearly from McMurdo, and when the sun is at the right angle it appears as a glistening river of ice in the distance.
Front of the Blue Glacier again.
Blue Glacier, with Mount Lister in the center of the background. Mt. Lister is one of the highest peaks in Antarctica (> 13,000').
Another pic of the Blue Glacier and Mt. Lister.
Here is the Ferrar Glacier, a few miles north of the Blue Glacier. The perfectly smooth lines in the middle of the glacier are completely natural. I had never really seen a glacier before coming here. They appear much more liquid and graceful than I would have thought.
Looking out from the helo toward the Dry Valleys. (Photo by Shad O'Neel)
Me, giddy enough to take this stupid picture of myself with my screwed up sunglasses. But hey - on the way to the mysterious Dry Valleys.....impossible to take the smile off my face....good times, good times.
This is the entrance to the Taylor Valley, the closest of the major valleys to McMurdo. It opens toward the sea, and goes back miles before disappearing into the Taylor Glacier. The Dry Valleys are unlike any other places in the world. I have read about so many incredible things here that I can't begin to remember them all. Quite literally, they could have fired me the next day and shipped me home, but after being here I wouldn't have been too disappointed. It was the #1 place I wanted to visit, and I was lucky enough to get the chance.
Another view of the Taylor Valley entrance, looking west.
Peak 1882 is the high point right in the center of this picture. The open face of the ridge containing 1882 is very sheer, but the other side has a sheet of ice which gradually slopes away. The ice spills over into the valley through passes in the mountains. This is why the dry valleys have stayed that way - the mountains are high enough and situated in such a way that they block the flow of the ice into certain areas.
The Commonwealth Glacier, eastmost glacier flowing into the Taylor Valley.
The Commonwealth Glacier again. This one was the most picturesque of all the glaciers we saw along the way. Very nice lines. The nearby lake is Lake Fryxell.
The Canada Glacier. This one feeds Lake Hoare, just to the left of the Glacier.
I am not sure what qualifies as an "ice falls", but I think that's probably what this is. I don't know the name, though.
Peak 1882 is the high point on this ridge. The Suess Glacier flows into the valley on the right.
We came around the back side of the ridge for landing. The little thing sticking up from the peak is the DGPS repeater site. The landing zone was down the slope to the right.
Right before landing on the peak. I am not sure what the installation in view is...probably some other communications station. The DGPS is a 10 minute hike up the hill to the left.
The A-Star taking off. The pilot left us on the peak for a little over an hour while he went down to shuttle some cargo to Lake Hoare. These guys really have great jobs, in fact, probably some of the best jobs in Antarctica. On a daily basis, they see so many great places that most people at McMurdo never get to see. Each of my flights this year have been wonderful experiences - very smooth and uneventful rides to some great locations. So it is easy to become oblivious to the inherent dangers of flying helicopters in remote, unpredictable, and often extreme environments. But this year, a 212 crashed on Lake Fryxell with two people on board. They survived, which in itself is remarkable. But they did not escape serious injury. I do not know how well they will recover. The whole station seemed to be pretty affected by this. Many people knew the guys well.
This is the DGPS repeater site. Not a sexy, shiny new installation. Simple and straightforward....
Looking west from the peak, you see the Taylor Glacier, which is essentially the end of the Taylor Valley. This glacier feeds Lake Bonney, directly below it. To the right is the Lacroix Glacier.
Peak 1882 is about a mile above the valley floor....and this is the view looking straight down.
These are the cliffs of 1882, looking east....craggly and pocked with holes from wind and water erosion.
Mount Erebus from high over the Taylor Valley. You have to get pretty far away from Erebus before it's not noticeable!
This is Mummy Pond, on the valley floor right below 1882. I like this picture - it is impossible to tell if it was taken from one mile or fifty miles above land. It could easily be a satellite picture of a much larger lake.
Here is Shad O'Neel, the UNAVCO engineer who I flew out with to repair the station. He also....
....brought a kite. Thankfully, we did not have "close support", where the helo stays with you the whole time. When this happens, you have to hustle to get your work done and then get going ASAP due to scheduling. As it turned out, the repair was a simple one and only took 15 minutes. So we had the better part of an hour left to do some good old fashioned boondoggling. As part of this, Shad broke out his trick kite. It was pretty windy at the top of this peak, and he had to fight to keep it under conrol.
More kite flying.
The required picture.
Top O' the World.
Looking East from Peak 1882: Suess Glacier, Lake Chad, Lake Hoare, Canada Glacier, Lake Fryxell, Commonwealth Glacier, with Mount Bird and Mount Erebus in the distance.
Looking east again.
A ventifact. The dry valleys are famous for having an incredible array of wind-sculpted rocks. The particular rocks here were pretty weak, and had been eroded into all sorts of bizarre shapes. Walking up to the top of 1882 I tried to take care not to step on anything too fragile - some of these seemed as though they would crack with the slightest pressure.
Another shot of this excellent rock.
And more. It was like hiking on the moon with these things scattered around.
Another gnarly ventifact. Mount Lister is in the background.
A wider shot of the overhanging ventifact and Mount Lister. We had nearly a free hour up here, but it seemed like 5 minutes. I tried to soak this place up as much as I could, but it wasn't nearly enough time to take it in. Just too incredible.
So the helo pilot came on over the radio and told us he'd be back in a few minutes. So I hurried back to the landing zone. We got in, took off, and caught some great views as we flew over the ridge. This was one of them...looking west over the Taylor Valley.
Looking west again, from the helo. The dark rocky peak in the near field is the Matterhorn.
Looking over the ridgeline containing peak 1882, a little bit East of the peak, with Mummy Pond in the background.
A pretty ridge on the south side of the valley, with Mt. Lister.
Another scenery shot from the helo.
View just off Peak 1882, looking east from the air.
A different view of Lake Hoare and the Canada Glacier.
Mount Erebus and the end of the Taylor Valley. Ross Island is a very interesting place and has a lot to see. But it's not the actual Antarctic Continent. The Dry Valleys are actually on the mainland, so that was another nice thing from this trip...I got to set foot on Antarctica Proper....and the soil, no less! (98% of the continent is covered in ice).
So we were on our way back to McMurdo. There was a strong tailwind, so Mike (the pilot) decided he had enough fuel to make it back with the necessary reserves - they require the pilots to return with a certain amount of fuel, a half hour I believe. But the winds suddenly changed, so he turned back around and headed to Marble Point. This is a small outpost which serves as a fueling station for helo missions to the Valleys and nearby areas. I, of course, did not object one bit to this. Marble Point is a few miles north of the Taylor Valley, and on the way we flew by part of the Wilson Piedmont Glacier. The Marble Point station is almost in the shadow of this thing. It's not that high, but it extends for miles and miles along the Ross Sea coast.
The glacier, pt II.
The glacier, pt. III.
The glacier, pt. IV.
Welcome to Marble Point. There are three or four people stationed here during the summer season. Sara, the cook here, is known for some bitchin' cookies.
The weather station at Marble Point.
Here's the whole reason for a station at Marble Point: fuel, and lots of it.
I had about 15 minutes to stroll out and take pictures. So here is the view from the point. Mount Erebus, with some icebergs frozen in the sea ice. The peak on the left hand side of Erebus is Fang Ridge, which is not visible from McMurdo.
Ditto.
After taking off, we passed close by a stuck iceberg. Sweet. You ain't been to Antarctica unless you get a closeup of a gen-u-ine iceberg. Unfortunately, we couldn't talk the pilot into landing on it....
Mount Bird, which is on the north end of Ross Island, with some icebergs.
A very white picture - Mount Erebus and Mount Terror, the snow-covered sea ice, and a glacier edge.
A bunch of .avi files from here onward, all taken by Shad O'Neel during our trip. Gracias to him for letting me use these here. This one is on the way to the valleys, looking out from the back seat.
Entering the valleys - the Taylor Valley is on the other side of the approaching ridge.
View from the A-Star, flying over the sea ice.
Flying over the Blue Glacier.
Video from the top of Peak 1882, panning from the DGPS station eastward across the Taylor Valley.
This is an awesome movie of the helo preparing to take off from 1882. The strobe effect with the camera's framing rate slows the blades way down. The pilot powered down just a bit in the middle of the video, and the blades completely stopped. Great video....especially considering how hard it is to get a good still picture when you're this close to a helicopter taking off. Snow and ice just pound your face, and you get cold, fast.
Another one of the helo taking off. This time, I'm in the left side of the field of view, taking pictures.
A clip while Shad and I were walking up to the DGPS station. The bizarre terrain of this place comes out pretty well.
More of the short hike to Peak 1882.
Panorama of Mount Discovery and the Transantarctic Mountains.
Very nice shot of the Blue Glacier and mountains.
Black and white clip of the departure from the McMurdo helopad. Nice.
Really cool movie of us about to take off. Very stylish, in black and white again.
Movie while looking west across the Taylor Valley.