Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
117
Figure 4.10. View from the
summit of Mount Hope
up Beardmore Glacier. The
bottom panel is a photo-
graph taken by Shackle-
ton's party in December
1908. The upper panel is a
rephotograph taken from
precisely the same spot at
the summit of Mount Hope
in December 2010. Mount
Kyffin is the sharp horn
on the left skyline; Wedge
Face is the dark buttress
immediately to its right;
The Cloudmaker is at the
center skyline; and Granite
Pillars is the rocky buttress
on the right side that casts
a long shadow. Note that
touch-up omits Wedge
Face on the lower panel
(see Fig. 4.11). Rephoto by
John Stone.
gave way to a snow surface higher up, followed by a short rocky stretch to the ridgeline.
In a flash, apprehension melted into deliverance, as the party topped the ridge and looked
upon a great causeway furrowing through the mountains on a direct line to the pole
(Fig. 4.10).
After a short scramble to the summit, the men surveyed their new domain. The
height of the mountain was measured by both aneroid and hypsometer at 3,350 feet (al-
though today's maps gauge it to be about 2,740 feet). The glacier appeared to extend far
inland and to merge there with high, inland ice. At the foot of the massif, where the gla-
cier entered the ice shelf, great pressure ridges rose up and deep ruptures extended for
many miles into the ice shelf. But upstream, at least from this vantage, the glacier seemed
relatively smooth and crevasse free, especially along the western margin.
From this high vantage the mountain front continued even farther to the southeast,
Shackleton speculated to 86° S, dissolving into the Barrier at the horizon. On either side
of the glacier, ridge systems rose abruptly, with those to the east largely bare of ice and
those to the west largely glaciated. In the distance, maybe sixty miles up the glacier, the
mountains formed bluVs, with the appearance of horizontal stratification, as had now
been seen at numerous places throughout the Western Mountains. And out beyond that,
vague semblances of even more mountains strained the eye to see.
However, that day the most intriguing discovery was on the west side of the glacier
maybe fifty miles away. Shackleton relates, “In the far distance there is what looked like
an active volcano. There is a big mountain with a cloud on the top, bearing all the appear-
