New Route via Reedy Glacier to South Pole
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2016-11-30
Jan 07
#39: The Spell
Published at 05:55
Aside from two old rusted fuel drums we passed on the Reedy Glacier, likely from refuelling of aircraft supporting science programs decades ago, we've seen nothing of humans. On a journey such as this a spell is cast that locks you into a kind of trance, one that directs thought and energy towards the perfunctory - practicality, maintenance, locomotion, sustenance, survival and team welfare. Most everything else is superfluous or irrelevant.
On the glacier we see evidence of our movement as distant mountains and glaciers come and go. But here on the plateau we might as well be on a giant treadmill, only the GPS gives an indication of advancement. The feeling of being suspended in time and motion, together with the joy of being immersed in pure wilderness, is spellbinding,
But to the south we see a harbinger, a potion brewing. Just above the horizon sits a sheer cloud, barely visible, and unmoving in the blue windless sky. I circle 360 and nowhere else on the horizon is there anything like it. I want it to be a simple cloud but I know it's water vapour hanging above the 44km distant Amundsen-Scott South Pole station on this still day. If we wake to a knot of wind it will be gone. I want it gone. I'm not yet ready for a broken spell.
Eric
Pics of our lunch break and a selfie
On the glacier we see evidence of our movement as distant mountains and glaciers come and go. But here on the plateau we might as well be on a giant treadmill, only the GPS gives an indication of advancement. The feeling of being suspended in time and motion, together with the joy of being immersed in pure wilderness, is spellbinding,
But to the south we see a harbinger, a potion brewing. Just above the horizon sits a sheer cloud, barely visible, and unmoving in the blue windless sky. I circle 360 and nowhere else on the horizon is there anything like it. I want it to be a simple cloud but I know it's water vapour hanging above the 44km distant Amundsen-Scott South Pole station on this still day. If we wake to a knot of wind it will be gone. I want it gone. I'm not yet ready for a broken spell.
Eric
Pics of our lunch break and a selfie
- Name: Camp 31
- Elevation: 2847 m
- Latitude: 89° 36’ 31” South
- Longitude: 129° 53’ 8” West
Our lunch break.
A selfie.
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