Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
154
Figure 5.10. In a view close
to what Byrd would have
seen looking out the right
side of his plane on the
return leg from the South
Pole, Amundsen Glacier
funnels into a steep defile
as it cuts its way to the ice
shelf. The northern end
of Nilsen Plateau appears
from the right, sending
down a branching system
of ridgelines and spurs. On
the left edge of the glacier
is Breyer Mesa, the site of
one of the survey stations
established by the Topo
East party in 1963 (Chapter
7). At the right rear, the
Watson Escarpment peeks
beneath a layer of cloud on
the far side of Scott Glacier.
The ghostly summit stand-
ing above the left skyline is
Mount Goodale (see Figs.
5.6, 6.2).
From the vantage of the plane McKinley also photographed a major outlet glacier
unrecognized by Amundsen that funneled through the mountains on the near side
of Mount Thorvald Nilsen (Fig. 5.10). Byrd eventually named this Amundsen Glacier.
Above the spot where the glacier drops steeply into the mountains is a broad, semicircu-
lar area riddled with crevasses that feed the glacier. The irony is that the Devil's Glacier,
so named by Amundsen, is in fact a part of the headreach of Amundsen Glacier itself.
Far out to the southeast Byrd noted “what appeared to be the largest glacier that we
had yet seen, discharging into the new range we had first observed on the base-laying
flight.” This was the upper reaches of Scott Glacier, observed for the first time. Looking
back at the backside of the mountains, all but topped by the massive ice sheet, Byrd shiv-
ered at the sight of “a line of low-hung peaks standing above the swelling folds of the pla-
teau. Now, with the full panorama before us, in all its appalling ruggedness and gothic
massiveness, we had a conception of the ice age in its full tide.”
At 1:14 A.M. on November 29, 1929, the plane arrived at the South Pole, crisscrossed
it, dropped some flags, and headed back to Little America via Axel Heiberg Glacier.
McKinley continued photographing out the left side of the plane as they dropped be-
tween Mount Fridtjof Nansen and Mount Don Pedro Christophersen, and then landed at
the fuel depot at the mouth of Liv Glacier. Once the fuel was pumped, the Ford trimotor
flew straight back to Little America, to a hero's welcome but without the polar feed.
With the plane safely returned, the geological party was eager to tackle the moun-
tains. The peaks looked so close that Gould boasted, “We'll make the mountains today
or bust.” And bust they almost did. First, the distance was much greater than had been
estimated, a common problem in Antarctica, where scale is absent. Then the party was
drawn into a treacherous crevasse field, whose one saving grace was that it was in blue ice,
so the crevasses were obvious from their white bridges.
The crevasse field at the eastern portal to Liv Glacier was analogous to, but not nearly
as chaotic as, other junctures along the Transantarctic Mountains, where outlet glaciers
