|
 |
... continued
On the opposite side of the Frames mountains is the David Range. From our stopping point we had a magnificent view along the David Range which I captured in a small panorama. Tomorrow we were heading off to Fang Peak and Mt Parsons (marked) and later I would be able to take a panorama from the location pointed to by the arrow. The
plateau ice is not flat, rather it rolls into large waves and troughs.
At the peaks of the waves, the ice is under expansion stresses and
crevasses form. Crevasses ("Slots") range from the very
small (10mm wide) to the huge (10metres wide). Generally a thin
plug of snow forms across the top of them so they are easy to spot
if there is ice around them, but they become invisible if the snow
covers the ice completely. We then continued on, back towards our campsite. As we approached the campsite what really struck me was the "sheerness" of the hills around the melt lake. I have put an arrow on the following picture to help you spot the Hagg and the tents at the edge of the melt lake with the peaks behind the campsite.
Sizing up the Fearn Hill Camp site - Tents are pointed to by the arrow
That evening we re-heated some meals and retired to sleep in the pyramid tents. With the sun still up, and never setting, I found it difficult to sleep, but I improvised an eye mask by putting a balaclava on backwards. Luckily there was no wind so the tent didn't flap in the wind. This meant that we could hear the ice in the melt lake crack and groan every few minutes, lulling me to sleep after a really full-on day :-)
back to part 1, part 2, part 3
|
Every
where we walked the views just got better ! The view back from the
top of the saddle was awesome - but was eclipsed by the view from
the top of the ice sheet plateau. At the top of the walk behind
Fearn Hill we stopped and did some navigation exercises. These exercises
involved taking compass bearings from known peaks, and then later
plotting them onto a map to determine our location. We also then
compared these compass readings to that taken by a handheld GPS
unit. This photo shows us stopping to do
some navigation exercises behind Fearn Hill.
Where
we were walking, there were some crevasses about 300mm wide - large
enough to swallow my foot (and break an ankle). To test them out
I poked my ice axe down into them to see how deep they were - but
only to find that they were deep enough for me to fall into up to
my waist!
