LOO-JW - Alone in Antarctica: The First Woman to Ski Solo Across the Southern Ice - page 42

vibrant ochre. It was more orange than anything I had seen
at either Rothera or in the Ellsworths and the colour seemed
to leach outward so that the snow beneath them reflected a
soft pink. Most impressive of all was the sheer extent of the
range. It stretched from horizon to horizon connecting east
to west and appeared to be an impenetrable blockade. Any
gaps between the summits were filled with immense jumbles
of ice that were breathtakingly beautiful and yet radiated a
ferocious, hostile menace. I turned slowly trying to take it all
in, my breath forming vapour trails in the air. Not many people
have the fortune to see these mountains. Gazing on wonder
after wonder I could feel a swelling exhilaration that tightened
my throat and filled my eyes with tears. Soon I was sobbing in
joyous disbelief that I was actually standing on the Ross Ice
Shelf looking at the Transantarctic Mountains. It was as if I
had been allowed a glimpse of something sacred.
'I'm here!' I shouted to the mountains, laughing.
'I'm here!' I shouted louder, aware that my voice was instantly
diluted into nothingness by the space around me.
I shivered in the silence that echoed back.
It was time to move on.
I struck camp and took a picture of my two sledges, now
connected one behind the other. The backdrop of mountains
seemed to shimmer like a mirage in the harsh blue light.
I strapped on my harness for the first time and took a deep
breath before pushing forward on my skis. Despite a combined
weight of some 85 kg, the sledges glided obediently at my heels
with very little resistance.
With the Transantarctic Mountains on my right I took my
first steps away from the coast. My route was obvious, I simply
had to follow the line of peaks until I found the narrow gap