Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
228
axis of the mountains (see Fig. 4.4). On Mount Albert Markham (see Fig. 4.5), thirty
miles to the south, the second helicopter was attempting to land when it experienced
a sudden loss of power and dropped about five feet before hitting the ground and slid-
ing to a stop. Nothing was damaged, and the helo restarted without a problem, but the
rear team was then shaken by a second incident. At the highest point on Mount Albert
Markham, a large permanent drift hung at the top of a one thousand-foot cliV. As the
engineers were setting up on this cornice, a loud crack resonated beneath their feet, en-
gendering the apprehension that they were about to go sliding down the side of the
mountain on this wedge of snow and ice. They scrambled under the hanging ice but
could see no visible evidence of its letting loose, so they finished their job at the station
above, even though every fifteen minutes or so another crack would detonate.
Another notable station was the one the surveyors established on Kon-Tiki Nunatak,
the island in the middle of Nimrod Glacier (see Fig. 4.6). Surrounded by icefalls as cha-
otic as any in the Transantarctic Mountains, this fortress is assailable only by helicopter.
To the south, Mount Markham reigned at the apex of a landscape in ascendance. Whereas
the helicopters had landed on the highest summits in the Churchill Mountains, south
Figure 7.10. Satellite image
of the central Transant-
arctic Mountains and a
portion of the Queen Maud
Mountains. The magenta
dots are survey stations
established by the Topo
South party (operation
Deep Freeze 62), and the
orange dots the stations of
Topo East (operation Deep
Freeze 63). The red route
plots Scott's 1902-1903 tra-
verse, and the yellow route
Shackleton's 1908-1909
traverse.
 
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