27 Dec 2007

80.77903 deg S, 44.83599 deg E, 3672 meters a.s.l.

Maximum & Minimum temperatures: - 25 to -37 °C

One thing is that studying subtle differences in the snow surface is one of our reasons for being here in the first place. But there is more to the snow than just crystal size, permeability and density.  The surface is carved and shaped by relentless and ever changing winds, and take on an immense variety in its finer details.  Snow dunes, drifts and sastrugi show all kinds of shapes – and though they do form in recognizable patterns, they are never the same.  There are wispy drifts, hollow patterns almost like woodcarvings, sastrugi formed like swans’ necks and colibris’ beaks, patchworks of dunes, interlocking layers and quilts.  Here’s a snake weaving its way to nowhere, and there’s a crocodile raising its neck in attack.  On the surface there are finely carved shapes and patterns, and suddenly the side of a sastruga appears covered in the finest of lace, formed by delicate ice crystals jutting out like fantail feathers.

On the larger scale there is also infinite variety. The Plateau itself is horizontal and white, and it is easy to believe that that’s all there is to it. But subtle differences in topography and aspect create variety where none is expected. Drifting snows, changing sunlight, passing mists, reflections from diamond dust and high clouds – the boundless variety of the sky is mirrored in the snow surface, and thus landscape is created where none exists. One day we can be led to believe that we are driving along a hillside for the entire day, even though the snow sheet is completely level. Another day we pass across hills and valleys, and yet another it is an ever changing jumble of mounds and hollows, ridges and depressions, plains and moors – and even the odd swamp on a cloudy day.

Add to this the reflections and feelings provoked by a good audiobook, music, a  conversation, or indeed by the scenery itself, and you have more than enough to keep the thoughts flying for small trip of 2700 km.  The Antarctic Plateau may indeed appear endless – but so is the scope it offers for imagination.

- Stein

Good surf on the Plateau? Or a Komodo Dragon fleeing our camp? What forces moulded this strange shape that is heading into the wind? (Photo: Stein Tronstad)