(a) Event 12/12A

Most of the first half of the season was spent on the Taylor Glacier. This glacier is fed by the polar plateau and stretches about 80 km to Lake Bonney. From the Lower Finger Mountain icefall down there is virtually no permanent snow covering the ice. Virtually continuous snow cover exists between the two icefalls near Finger Mountain but above the upper icefall snow cover is intermittent. Bare ice continues to west of Depot Nunatak. US Navy aerial photos indicate that these conditions are much the same every summer.

Sledge travel is easy on the ablation dimpled bare ice and also on the virtually sastrugi free snow. Some slight crevassing near Cavendish Rocks and other places near the glacier sides provides rough going, but most routes up and down glacier completely avoid these. Crevasses become more of a problem above the upper Finger Mountain icefall. These were very obvious and generally well bridged in mid November 1976.

Route finding on the glacier is fairly obvious. Scott, in "The Voyage of the Discovery" states the importance of taking wide sweeps around corners and this was found to be true. Routes can generally avoid steepish slopes. Getting on and off the glacier was almost always easy although aerial photos were used a lot to find the easy places. The glacier margin is very steep in many places, and ropes were used occasionally.

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Event 12A sledged between Mt. Morning and Mt. Discovery and the Koettlitz Glacier. Aerial photos were used to help choose the route, which was fairly obvious on them. Several areas of crevasses were negotiated with no problems. Most of the route is snow-covered, and much sastrugi, up to 1 metre high, though generally less than 0.3 metres high was encountered. Some small areas of soft snow were met on the way up Mt. Discovery. The descent off Mt. Discovery was very steep in three places where the toboggan and sledge had to be belayed. Travel beside the Koettlitz Glacier gave a few problems with meltwater. However the toboggan was easily able to negotiate a 1.5 m wide by 0.4 m deep meltstream.

(b) Event 36

The following is a brief outline of camp sites used, sledging conditions and routes around the Fry Glacier region.

From the snout of Northwind Glacier (put in site), steep and almost bare ice made conditions hazardous and camp was shifted to 76°42′S, 161°05′E (altitude 800 m) with some difficulty up glacier. The route lay towards the northern side where the grade was less and a little snow cover was present.

Travel between camp 1 and camp 2 (76°42′S, 161°08′E; 1000 m) was fairly easy. At the time (24 November) a thin snow cover existed in places which aided traction. Crevasses were no problem as they were narrow and easy to see. By January the snow cover had totally disappeared and travel with loaded sledges would have been difficult.

Camp 3 (76°43′S, 161°28′E; 1400 m) was about 0.5 km west of the summit of Flagship Mountain. The gradient between Dotson Ridge and Flagship Mountain, behind Flagship Mountain, is very steep and frequently bare ice. It was often necessary to use ice screws and a rope and pulley system to get loads up. The more obvious routes are heavily crevassed and not recommended. Closer to Flagship Mountain is soft neve snow and sastrugi.

Camp 4 (76°47′, 161°17′; 1250 m) was approximately 2 miles north of Mt. Razorback. Travel from Flagship Mountain to Camp 4 was easy, on neve snow with some sastrugi. As Mt. Razorback is approached, more and more ice appears, and the grade steepens. The blue ice is cut by meltwater channels, some of which were very deep and bridged by snow in December. Between Dotson ridge and Larson Crags is steep bare blue ice, and similarly near Mt. Razorback down on to the Benson Glacier.

Camp 5 (76°38′S, 161°39′E; 850 m) was on the southern side of a prominent nunatak 10 km north of Flagship Mountain where the Atka Glacier meets the Fry Glacier. Access to the Atka Glacier from the neve south of Flagship Mountain is difficult because of ice and steep slopes. It is possible to select a snow-covered area and drive straight down, especially approximately 2 km east of Flagship Mountain. Once down on to the Atka Glacier, travel by toboggan presents few problems. No crevasses were apparent in December, and there was good snow cover with little sastrugi.

Fry Glacier, east of Camp 5, is heavily crevassed with large steep patches of blue ice. However access to the lower Fry Glacier is provided by a snow "chute" between the nunatak and hills to the south, which has good snow cover. From here on, access, at least down to the Albrecht Penckt Glacier, should be possible. In December 1976 the glacier was snow-covered with sastrugi.

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Camp 6 (76°36′S, 161°04′E; 1000 m) was 9.5 km NNE of Flagship Mountain. Although very level, there are large patches of bare blue ice crossing the Fry Glacier from Camp 5 to Mt. Naab. Melt-out pools were developing in the glacier surface and quite a bit of water was present in December. In January the condition of this part of glacier had worsened and the surface became very rough with large melt-out pools. Closer to Mt. Naab, on the Towle Glacier, there was good snow cover in December and good sledging conditions.

Camp 7 (76°32′S, 161°11′E; 1300 m) was approximately 4 km southwest of Mt. Douglas. Between Mt. Naab and Mt. Douglas are some steep slopes, some of which were becoming icy by mid December. Flatter areas, especially below Fry Saddle, are heavily crevassed though there was no trouble crossing them. Closer to Mt. Douglas the snow became very soft and powdery in places but travel conditions were generally good.

Fry saddle appears to be very steep blue ice. However on December 22 a route was found up the eastern side, close to Mt. Douglas ridge which presented few problems.

Camp 8 (76°38′S, 161°04′E; 1050 m) was on the southern side of Towle Glacier approximately 3 km from the end of Elkhorn Ridge. In mid December sledging conditions were very good between Mt. Naab and Camp 8. However by mid January much of the snow cover had been removed and only snow patches were left making sledging rougher.

Camp 9 (76°40′S, 160°48′E; 950 m) was at snout of Towle Glacier on a small patch of moraine. The snout of Towle Glacier, though not as steep as the Northwind, also has large areas of blue ice. We picked a route down the northern side of the glacier and then straight down the snout, which is quite steep. However a better route may be along the southern side of the glacier and down on to the apron which is a string of lakes. The glacier sides are rounded rather than cliffed. The lakes, however, thawed a few days later and became covered in water, leaving only a snow apron between them and the glacier. This area is swept by strong katabatic winds funnelling down Towle Valley from the polar plateau (over 70 knots were recorded) which strips the snow from the snout of Towle Glacier and for some considerable distance back. By mid January there is mainly bare blue ice back almost to Mt. Naab.

Camp 10 (Sullivan and Anderson: 76°26′S, 160°42′E; 1400 m) was 2 km southeast of the summit of Trinity Nunatak. Once up Fry Saddle snow conditions were good all the way to Trinity Nunatak with large patches of level bare blue ice and some snow sastrugi. Good snow cover existed (late December) between Trinity Nunatak and Chattahoochee Glacier which made travel to Camp 11 easy (76°35′S, 160°36′E, 1700 m).

Camp 12 was in approximately the same position as Camp 8. However in the space of 2 weeks the snow cover had been substantially removed. Sledging conditions from the Chattahoochee Glacier to Fry Saddle were good.

Camp 13 (Palmer and Frost: 76°43′S, 161°04′E; 560 m) was set up at the snout of Northwind Glacier, mainly by foot. A toboggan was taken from the snout, 4 km along the southern side. By this time there was a lake between the glacier apron and the moraine of Elkhorn Ridge. However the snow apron was wide enough to allow access. It is possible to cross Elkhorn ridge on foot, beside a prominent stack of dolerite.

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6th January, 1977.

The shift to Camp 14 (Palmer and Frost: same location as Camp 12) entailed tobogganing around from the Northwind Glacier to the Towle Glacier. The Northwind Glacier was inaccessible for approximately 3 km back from the snout because of steep gradients and bare blue ice. By January the whole of the Northwind Glacier was bare ice, far out into the Fry Glacier. At the end of Elkhorn ridge is an area of melt-out pools and sastrugi that could be difficult to cross in January.