Sledging Routes and Camp Sites

Sledging routes and camp sites are summarised in figures 6-9 and are detailed below.

The route from Scott Base to the mouth of the Skelton Glacier is relatively simple the main difficulty being route finding, the mouth of the Skelton is very difficult to see when approaching from the north east or east. Prominent land marks are Cape Teall, Teall Island and the mouth of the Mulock Glacier.

An extensive set of wide (<8 m), northwest-southeast trending crevasses (rifts) occurs approximately 25 km southeast of White Straight and is centred about 78°20′S 167°30′E.

A rift field extends for approximately 5 km in a southerly direction from Fishtail Point and isolated rifts occur up to 10 km from the point. Parties intending to travel up the Skelton should not attempt to head up the Skelton until Clinker Bluff is open on the true left wall of the Skelton.

Rifts and extensive crevasses occur around the southern end and eastern side of Teall Island these extend out at least 7 km from the southeastern corner of the Island.

Travel up the Skelton was easy, due mainly to a thick snow covering which smoothed out any pre-existing sastrugi. Crevasses occur in isolated fields along both sides of the glacier.

Towards Clinker Bluff large flow-parallel rolls occur, although mostly covered with snow patches of blue ice suggest than under normal snow conditions these could be difficult to cross page 64 and parties travelling this route towards the Lower Staircase should exercise care to make sure they are in the correct "lane"! Isolated crevasses were observed in this area.

From the Lower Staircase to above the Upper Staircase we generally followed the route taken by the 1958-59 Victoria Land Traverse, avoiding those areas where they encountered crevasses. This route is largely a matter of going up those slopes that are not too steep and avoiding the obvious crevasse fields. The rolling topography and abundant crevasse fields makes travel difficult in all but the best lighting conditions.

Travel across the Skelton Névé to Mt Metschel provided no special problems, with rolling ground and good snow conditions. Isolated large crevasses occur off the south face of Portal Mountain, in an area which extends about 2 km out from the face.

A number of crevasse fields occur in the tower Lashly Glacier, both the one extending east from spot height 2320 m and the one extending west from the corner of Mt Feather are easily located and avoidable. A field in mid-stream is harder to see and on the ground can be confused with the one leading off Mt Fleming.

Extensive areas of blue ice occur in the upper Lashly Glacier. Travel very close in on the eastern side of the small unnamed nunatak mid-stream was easy, care should be taken to pick up the crest of a roll which extends for some distance down stream of the nunatak. North of the nunatak the route on to the Plateau is on snow patches over blue ice, with less snow cover this route could be difficult, care must be taken to avoid extensive crevasses to the north and south, small crevasses occur in the blue ice but are easily seen. The route down towards depot Nunatak appeared to be almost entirety blue ice.

Once on the Plateau, travel to Horseshoe Mountain is straight forward, and a prominent ice roll plateauward provides a useful landmark in good light. Patches of blue ice occur south and southwest of Horseshoe Mountain and it is necessary to swing slightly west to avoid these.

There are no problems approaching Mt Fleming from this side.

A roll extends for at least 20 km west from Mistake Peak, with heavy sledges is was necessary to swing westward to avoid this roll. Although time consuming and requiring extra travel this wide route from Mt Fleming to Mt Bastion also avoided an area of blue ice, rolls and crevasses which forms a poorly defined area of confused ground north and west of Shapeless Mountain.

From the plateau Mt Bastion is surprisingly inconspicuous. The large flat topped peak first seen on rounding the rolls is Robinson Peak and the prominent pointed peak, Skew Peak.

North of Mt Bastion travel to Robinson Peak is easy. A crevasse field extends for at least 400 m east of the small unnamed nunatak between Mt Robinson and Mt Dearborn. Access to the Mackay Glacier look possible via this route. The Glacier between Robinson Peak and the Willett Range is very broken.

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