Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
163
FINDING CAIRNS
Anyone who travels to deep-field Antarctica experiences setting foot in places
where no human previously has traveled. Even if several field parties have
worked in an area, there are still many ridgelines, moraines, tributary glaciers,
and drifts that are virgin surfaces with no footprints. I have always felt a certain
thrill, along with privilege, good fortune, and satisfaction, when I see a new
perspective and frame a camera shot of a new location. I have climbed many
mountains in places other than Antarctica and have often wondered if I was
the first to reach some lonely spot. But I could never be confident that some old
prospector searching for gold or a herder chasing goats into high country had not
previously climbed a ridge on which I was standing. In most of the Transantarctic
Mountains, however, the travelers have been precious few, and those who have
gone before have typically left maps and scientific reports of exactly where they
went.
Nevertheless, I must admit that after thirteen expeditions into deep field
Antarctica, the excitement has faded somewhat. Now, what gives me an even
greater thrill is the knowledge that I am standing exactly where members of a
previous field party have been and I am gazing over the same vista. I imagine
their approach and wonder how it felt to them to be the first. I feel a connection,
especially when I discover a cairn left by a field party as a marker of its achieve-
ment, and sometimes even a written record of who the men were and what they
did.
For instance, in the early seasons after the International Geophysical Year in
the late 1950s and early 1960s, when topographers were scouring the Transant-
arctic Mountains to prepare their maps, they built cairns at many of their survey
stations. Perhaps a half-dozen times over the years, I have come upon these
robust, chest-high constructions built from whatever stone the bedrock offered.
Invariably they are placed at some high point overlooking a spacious panorama.
Some might say that they are blemishes on pristine wilderness, but to me any
cairn is an apt monument to the human history of this frozen land.
The most memorable cairn I found was left by the Gould party on Supporting
Party Mountain in 1929 (Fig. S.10). During the 1977-1978 field season, my party
was working in the area to the north of Leverett Glacier. From Gould's writings,
we knew that his party had built a cairn at the summit of the mountain there
at the easternmost reach of the exploration. In it the men had left a note claim-
ing the territory to the east of longitude 150 in the name of the United States
of America. From Blackburn's writings, we knew that his party had visited the
cairn at the beginning of its traverse up Scott Glacier, had left a note of its own,
copied Gould's note, and carried the original back to him. I was determined not
to miss this remnant of the heroic era, and planned a day of mapping that would
