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Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion At Victoria University College, Wellington, N. Z. Vol. 24, No. 4. 1961

Cape Royds Hut

Cape Royds Hut

Cape Royds hut, where an American chopper airlifted our camp in January, was the home of Shackleton's 1907-09 expedition, and in my opinion one of the most remarkable of Antarctic expeditions. Not only was Mt. Erebus scaled for the first time, and the South Magnetic Pole reached, but Shackleton came to within 90 miles of his goal, the geographic South Pole. The hut at Royds, smaller than that at Evans, was free of ice and snow, and in relatively good condition. We repaired it in places, however, and tidied up the large dump of foodstuffs stacked around the hut. Two or three minutes from the hut was a large penguin rookery of about 1,000 birds, and these humorous characters always proved great devourers of our film supply. Cape Royds (1000ft. high) itself is a large peninsula and was often the object of our "nightly" wanderings when work was finished. Cape Barre, five miles away, a 400ft. high volcanic plug, was also a popular tramp, and on one occasion we found a mummified seal there. Cape Bird and impressive Mt. Bird (6000ft.), with its terrific face of tumbling icefalls and glaciers extending nearly the whole of its height, was another wonderful view from the many vantage points in the area.

The panoramic vistas on every hand are certainly breathtaking in their beauty and everchanging character. The 24 hours' daylight undoubtedly lends itself to tramping and mountaineering, though care has to be exercised against the fickleness of weather, the possibility of route finding in poor visibility, and the exceedingly deceptive scale of the landscape. It is easy to overdo it, and owing to the extreme clarity of the atmosphere objects are often three times further than estimated. For example, the seemingly close and commanding 12,000ft. Royal Society Range, across the sound from McMurdo, is all of 50 miles distant, though it appears just a "stone's throw" away.