Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
202
Figure 6.18. This is the view
of the mountains that
Blackburn saw while sit-
ting in camp on December
18, 1933, looking west out
the entrance to Sanctu-
ary Glacier, across Scott
Glacier to the other side.
Every exposure of bedrock
in sight was the same
blocky reddish-brown,
characteristic of granite he
had seen throughout the
region.
and Supporting Party Mountain and to the south in the La Gorce Mountains were the
country rocks into which the granites had intruded, perhaps from which they had been
melted as well. The mountains formed during this episode of granite generation were
subsequently eroded to a surface of low relief upon which the overlying sedimentary
strata had been deposited. Blackburn recorded that the erosion surface beneath the sedi-
ments now lay at about the same elevation on both sides of Scott Glacier, indicating to
him that the Transantarctic Mountains had been uplifted en masse in this region with the
glacier subsequently cutting down through them.
In the afternoon, Paine and Russell skied over to the vale beneath the Organ Pipe
Peaks. Equally awestruck, they lingered. At the head of the alcove at the foot of Altar
Peak, Russell discovered lichens in a crevice in the rock, at that time the southernmost
known life. On one of the steeper undulations in the valley, the slope ran out for about a
quarter of a mile. The intrepid pair made three runs at “a speed of 40-50 miles an hour,”
after which they took picturesque shots of the mountains, including some with Grape
Nuts and products of other sponsors as foreground interest. The fog undulated slowly
up the glacier and by 3:00 P.M. had enveloped camp. Paine and Russell were caught out
slightly higher up, but the fog hovered not much beyond camp, so they made it back with-
out a problem.
Encircled by the Gothic Mountains, contemplating the isolation and the solitude,
