Adventures in Antarctica
What do astronomers do in a perpetually illuminated landscape for several days before a big eclipse event? Explore, explore, explore, of course. In Punta Arenas, we had stayed in a hotel steps from the past adventures of Robert Scott, Roald Amundsen, Ernest Shackleton, and other explorers. Now we could go on our own version of their journeys.
Generally speaking, on our adventures away from camp, temperatures were colder and winds much stronger than we had at home. Thus, we had to be dressed in the heaviest combination of clothes we’d brought. The temps hovered around 0 to –5 F (–17 to –21 C) or a little colder, and with stiff winds, the chill could be down to –30 F (–35 C) or –40 F (–40 C).
So, bundled up, on the first whole day on the ice, we headed off to see the Drake Icefall. The sky above us was clear as a bell as we trucked some 45 minutes to get to the site. Distances in Antarctica are very deceiving. The atmosphere is so clear and the lines of sight so good that you can see a mountain 10 miles (16 kilometers) away and it looks like you could just walk right over to it. The Drake Icefall is a huge cliff of ice about 2.5 miles (4 km) wide that rolls off a height and helps to feed the slow movement of Union Glacier. It is in the Heritage Range of mountains, forming part of the Ellsworth Mountains. We hiked about an hour, assisted by tiny crampons called “microspikes,” and a ski pole for extra stability.
Expeditions over the following days took us to a variety of Antarctic locations, showing us the kinds of mountains, ice pools, glacial features, and rocks that lie scattered over the region of our camp. We next ventured to the Charles Peak Windscoop, which, as its name suggests, helps to funnel energy into the glacier, and is a treasure trove of geological features. The complex overlain terrain showed us not only blue-ice glaciers, but melt ponds, moraines, sloped mountains, and hard snowpack. Wind erosion plays interesting tricks with the surfaces, creating a dimpled ice surface to walk on, again requiring microspikes and care to navigate.
Subsequent excursions provided some higher elevation climbs, areas of concentrated rocks, and more. The next day carried us to one of the most absorbing areas, Rhodes Bluff. This bare rock bluff stands 2 miles (3.2 km) northwest of Mount Dolence and offered an area where we could walk along and examine zillions of fragments of metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, including some fossils. The day was cloudy, solidly so for the first time since we had landed, and this pumped up our blood pressure. We were now two days from the eclipse.
The day before the eclipse, I delivered a lecture on what to expect during the event. We also visited the Buchanan Hills. This cluster of mounds north of Union Glacier gave us a rugged test. Facing incredible cold and wind, we marched along a raised ridge and were told by the guides that if we went over the ridge, down onto the glacier, we would certainly be killed. Thankfully none of us did, and we imagined the high altitude paired with bitter cold and wind approximated what one might find at base camp at Everest.