Ice Stories: Dispatches From Polar Scientists » climbing http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches Mon, 15 Nov 2010 20:40:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Climbing Castle Rock http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/climbing-castle-rock/ http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/climbing-castle-rock/#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:51:55 +0000 Mark Krasberg http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/?p=2089 MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA– Today we flew to McMurdo station. This is the first time in six years that my flight to McMurdo has gone ahead on schedule – weather delays are common when flying to Antarctica.

Nathan Whitehorn, a coworker of mine, and I flew down on a US military heavy cargo aircraft called a C-17 “Globemaster”.


The C-17 “Globemaster.”

The spacious interior of the C-17. It’s large enough to hold four Black Hawk helicopters.

The views from the plane as we flew over the mountainous interior and icepacks are always spectacular.


The mountainous interior of the continent.

An aerial view of the sea ice.

It is always pretty awe-inspiring when you get off the plane and one of the first things you see is Mount Erebus with its volcanic plume.


Arriving at McMurdo. In the background is Mount Erebus.

After we arrived in McMurdo, the first thing we did was get checked out safety-wise to climb Castle Rock. Every time I go to McMurdo I have wanted to hike this famous spot, and this year I finally got my chance. We were able to get checked out, and the weather was good.


It is a 4-mile hike to Castle Rock across the ice.

Castle Rock with Mount Erebus in the background.

Castle Rock (with a warming hut in the foreground).

You actually climb Castle Rock with the help of some prepositioned ropes.


Me climbing up Castle Rock.

Nathan climbing.

The view from the summit is amazing.

Nathan climbing back down.

Another one of Nathan climbing back down.

The path back towards McMurdo.

The two of us after we had climbed the Rock.

It was a really fun day. We returned from climbing Castle Rock at 1:15am (at this time of year, it never gets dark).

]]>
http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/climbing-castle-rock/feed/ 1