ANTarctica Fourmilab South Pole Expedition January, 2013

The Beach

Because the beach is on the edge of Union Glacier, reaching it requires crossing a region of known and actively forming crevasses. We dismounted the vehicle about a kilometre from the beach to make the rest of the traverse on foot.

Before starting toward the beach we were all roped together and briefed on the commands to others. “Halt” if you see something that looks like a crevasse, “Go” if you decide it's all right to proceed, and “Arghhhh!” if you find yourself in free fall. The crossed red flags to the left mark a known crevasse; we'll see more of it later. Most crevasses have a snow bridge of sufficient depth and rigidity that walking across it is not a problem. But, on the other hand, some don't….

Large dark rocks absorb heat from the Sun and create melt ponds around them. This happens with rocks on every scale from small pebbles to large boulders like this one.

In the melt ponds, ice melts and re-freezes into bizarre shapes which look like they're the work of an abstract artist.

Crossed red flags: crevasse!

It's really deep—you don't want to go there!

by John Walker February 22nd, 2013

This document is in the public domain.