Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
188
During the first afternoon the men ambled through the moraine, collecting. Here
was a varied sampling of the rocks cropping out in the bedrock above, a potpourri du
Mount Weaver, evenly mixed and thinly spread over gray ice. The main ingredients were
sedimentary rocks, sandstone, shale, limestone, coal. For flavor, boulders of dolerite and
granite were scattered throughout. But the most delectable morsels of all were bits of
fossil plants, impressions in dark shales and carbon films in some of the sandstones. The
farther the men walked, the more they found. Most was pretty scrappy material, but here
and there part of a rare leaf was preserved. The moraine was huge and deserving of a thor-
ough look.
In the evening the party celebrated its farthest south with a feast of goodies carried
all the way for just this night. Blackburn recorded the menu: “Beef hamburger, tea with
lemon, hoosh with pemmican & hamburger, chocolate ice cream, bacon, biscuit & a bot-
tle of Sherry (also a little alcohol).”
Blackburn: “Dec 8/34. 8:45 PM. Spent the day collecting on north side of Mt. Weaver,
mostly on moraine. Will this infernal S.E. wind ever quit?”
The following day the sun broke through, but the wind remained a miserable twenty-
five knots. The party lay in for most of the day writing letters to family and friends, but
turned out for some group photos with the flags flying in the afternoon. In the evening
Blackburn again was out collecting fossils. The wind had not changed. When he thought
back over the Scott Glacier traverse, it seemed to him that precious few of the days had
been calm at all. In fact, perhaps the calms had been a matter of place, and the wind, after
all, was a constant. The steadiness of the wind at Mount Weaver was unsettling. Seldom
if ever were there gusts, just an unrelenting draft from the plateau, down the rocky face
of the mountain and over its flanking icefalls. Perhaps here the wind never did stop. Little
time remained to find out. So enough of this waiting. Tomorrow Mount Weaver would
be climbed . . . and the wind be damned.
The next morning, December 10, 1933, Blackburn, Paine, and Russell were ready.
The temperature was 1° F, the skies were clear, the wind blew at twenty to thirty knots.
Dressed in an extra layer of everything, and toting a light tent, Sterno cans, medical kit,
compass, barometer, thermometer, climbing rope, ice axes, and several hundred sample
bags, the party trudged out to conquer the mountain. The northeast ridgeline oVered the
best route, although it was dreadfully exposed to the wind. At times the men were blown
oV their feet, and had to cling to the rocks to avoid being tossed down the face below the
ridge crest. Worse still, the intensity of the wind increased as the men climbed, peaking
about halfway up the mountain.
Beyond that, mercifully, the wind dropped oV, even though the men could see that
drift was still swirling around their tent far below. At the summit the air was almost
calm. For the first time since the ice shelf the men had risen above the layer of inversion
winds that pour oV the plateau and down the tributaries into Scott Glacier. Even though
the temperature was minus 14° F, the cold did not penetrate. The peacefulness gained
through the ascent intensified the vista. On the far side of the summit the men glimpsed
for the first time over the edge of the plateau, out onto the vast whiteness that spread to
the southern horizon.
