The Home of the Blizzard: Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914Mawson, Douglas, Sir
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The Home of the Blizzard: Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914
Mawson, Douglas, Sir
Antarctica -- Discovery and exploration; Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914)
We waltzed a'down the silvered slope,
Connected by an Alpine rope;
"Madi" in front with ice-axe armed,
For fear that we should feel alarmed.
Glad was the hour, and--what a lark!
Explorers three? "Save the mark!"
The mystery of the nunatak was about to be solved. Apparently it rose
from the level of the glacier, as our descent showed its eastern flank
more clearly outlined. It was three miles to the bottom of the gully,
and the aneroid barometer registered one thousand one hundred and ninety
feet. The surface was soft and yielding to finnesko crampons, which sank
through in places till the snow gripped the knees.
Ascending on the other side we crossed a small crevasse and the peak
towered above us. The northern side terminated in a perpendicular face
of ice, below which a deep basin had been "scalloped" away; evidently
kept clear by eddies of wind. In it lay broken fragments of the
overhanging cliff. The rock was a wide, outcropping band curving steeply
to the summit on the eastern aspect.
After a stiff climb we hurried eagerly to the rock as if it were a mine
of inexhaustible treasure. The boulders were all weathered a bright red
and were much pitted where ferruginous minerals were leached out. The
rock was a highly quartzose gneiss, with black bands of schist running
through it. Moss and lichens were plentiful, and McLean collected
specimens.
The rocky strip was eighty feet wide and three hundred feet high, so,
making a cache of the primus, provisions and burberrys, we followed it
up till it became so steep that it was necessary to change to the snow.
This was in the form of hard neve with patches of ice. I went first,
cutting steps with the ice-axe, and the others followed on the rope. The
last ten of more than one hundred steps were in an almost vertical face,
which gave a somewhat precarious foothold.
At 11.30 A.M. we stood on the summit at an altitude of one thousand
seven hundred and fifty feet, while across the valley to the north-east
rose Mount Murchison, one hundred and fourteen feet higher. The top of
the ridge was quite a knife-edge, with barely space for standing. It
ran mainly north and south, dipping in the centre, to curve away sharply
westward to a higher eminence. At the bend was an inaccessible patch of
rock. The surrounding view was much the same at that on Mount Murchison.
The Union Jack and the Australian flag were erected on a bamboo, and
photographs taken. At the same time, low, threatening clouds rapidly
emerged from the southeast, covering the sun and creating the
"snow-blind" light. This was rather alarming as the climb had been
difficult enough under a clear sky, and the descent was certainly much
more difficult. So we hastily ate some chocolate and discussed the best
way down.
Prospecting to the north, in search of a long snow ramp which appeared
to run away in that direction, we scrambled down to the edge of a wide
snowy crevasse full of blue chinks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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