Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
187
Figure 6.9. Shaded-relief map of the
area around Mount Weaver, showing
Mount Howe, the planet's southern-
most outcropping of rock.
Though it would take its due, this was not a mountain to challenge the body and
the will, not one to which the spirit rose for grandeur. This was more a mountain of the
mind. Here was history, succession, order, the possibility of life enshrined, preserved as
fossils through the eons. And if fossils, then the notion of time, and where this mountain
fit in the grand history of mountains on Earth.
The next morning with wind pouring down at thirty knots and the sky gray and
overcast, Russell hiked over to the moraine at the foot of Mount Weaver to see whether
he could find a sheltered campsite. He returned shortly after noon with a lump of coal,
one of many, he reported, that littered the ice, and he revealed that a suitable campsite ex-
isted. Anxiously, everyone loaded up and moved on in to the base of the mountain, laying
camp one hundred feet from the edge of the moraine.
Fifty-three days, 727 miles out from Little America, this would be the farthest camp.
With six days of food at hand before the need to start back, the men had a little time
to give the weather a chance to settle. For a shot at the summit of Mount Weaver and
a collection of the complete stratigraphic section, the party needed the best possible
conditions.
