Paying Attention - Alone in Antarctica: The First Woman to Ski Solo Across the Southern Ice - page 32

was looking at; it was the SPOT traverse. The specks were the
vehicles and the dark thread was their track. I only saw it for
an instant before the cloud once again isolated the plane from
the view below but I sank back in my seat grappling with the
consequences of what I had just seen.
I had hoped to start my expedition significantly before the
SPOT traverse was due so that I would be making a fresh trail.
Due to the weather delays, it appeared I would be following
the traverse instead. If the vehicles were already on the glacier,
the convoy would be far enough ahead of me that I wouldn't
see them at any point but would I see evidence that they had
passed through? I realised with resignation that whatever the
outcome, it was out of my hands and I would have to adjust
my expectations to fit whatever I found.
The next time the cloud cleared we had flown on past the
narrow strait of the Leverett and were heading towards the coast.
Antarctic coastlines are notoriously elusive and
controversial. The main problem is that the thick layer of ice
that covers the continent flows from land onto the sea and
forms huge floating platforms called Ice Shelves. The coast is
the point at which grounded ice over land becomes floating
ice over water but from the surface it is impossible to tell the
difference as both look and feel the same. Only by referring
to maps can the coastline be identified and, lacking detailed
data, the maps represent a kind of geologic best guess rather
than a scientific certainty.
Far beneath the wings of the plane, ice that had crept at
minute speeds from the plateau at the heart of the continent
trickled through gaps in the Transantarctic Mountains as
winding glaciers. Like rivers emptying into a delta, they drained
out onto the wide expanse of the Ross Ice Shelf to form an