Every Step - Alone in Antarctica: The First Woman to Ski Solo Across the Southern Ice - page 8

of travelling from one coast to the other, that appealed to me
- a chance to see an entire cross-section of this most enigmatic
of places. There was beauty in the simplicity of it but, as I was
to discover, the details of the plan were anything but simple.
Antarctica is a vaguely circular continent with the South Pole
roughly at its centre. Looking at a map it appears that two large
bites have been taken out of the landmass; the one at the top
is filled with the Ronne Ice Shelf while the one at the bottom,
almost directly opposite, is filled with the Ross Ice Shelf. The
route between the Ronne Ice Shelf and the South Pole is relatively
straightforward. Starting at a point called Hercules Inlet it is a
straight line southward for 1,100 kilometres to the South Pole.
It is a route that has been followed by dozens of expeditions
over the years and was very similar to the one I had skied with
the team. Travelling between the South Pole and the Ross Ice
Shelf was a little harder. A bit of research quickly showed that
very few expeditions ventured this side of the Pole because it
was so difficult (and expensive) to get logistical support. I began
to refer to it as the 'wrong side' of Antarctica.
The crux of the problem was getting through the
Transantarctic Mountains. This chain of peaks forms a wall
of rock that curves like an eyebrow over the Ross Ice Shelf
and marks out the edge of the continent. Ice from the plateau,
moving somewhat like runny icing poured onto the centre
of an uneven cake, glides slowly from the elevated interior
of Antarctica to its fringes. It pours through any gaps in the
barrier of mountains along its edge to form great glaciers
that trace sinuous channels to the coast. These glaciers are
the only routes through the mountain ranges but they are not
easily travelled. The ice of the glaciers is often deeply fissured
making them dangerous pathways - particularly if I was to