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Scary Seracs and Steep Skiing
Saturday, February 19, 2000

Hans Saari
Well, we finally had good weather in Antarctica, although it did not start that way. It was the usual scenario this morning, with bad weather and poor visibility. We motivated, somewhat reluctantly, to ski a beautiful 2000-foot face on Rongé Island.

We started through heavily crevassed terrain in two rope teams of three, darting underneath a couple of sections of hanging seracs. Soft snow made for sporty glacier travel. After an hour, Rick A., Stephen and Kris decided that conditions were solid and headed for the top. I headed down with Rick H. and Doug, calling the conditions unsafe.

That did not last long. The weather broke to perfect blue, so we decided to take another look. Following the three above us made the going a bit easier, as they had broken trail. However, the snow faded to slushy ice and slope angles reached 70 degrees at a headwall halfway up the route.

After climbing the wall of horrible ice, I set up a belay with two skis as anchors, belaying Rick and Doug up. From there we booted to the top, short-roping a couple of crevasses. At the summit we met up with the rest of the crew.

Skiing down was incredible – exceptionally steep, some sections near 60 degrees, but with soft well-bonded snow. Our 1900-foot line took us through blue seracs and hanging snow fields to the beach below.

This is the first day that we have not been thoroughly soaked. Back on the boat, Rick H., Stephen and Kris went for a swim in the frigid Antarctic water. I did not participate, being content to take a sauna and drink a beer on the Akademik.

Rick Armstrong
Last night, I was up until about 2am reading. As I got ready to go to bed, I went to pull my curtain closed and noticed for the first time since we've been here that there was a huge, almost-full moon fully visible, not impeded by cloud cover.

I thought to myself, 'Finally, a clear day tomorrow.' I wasn't sure if we were ever going to get to see the higher terrain that has been surrounding us. But when we woke up once again the sky consisted of low level clouds and a light drizzle was in the air.

I tried to go back to bed, but then our fearless leader Douglas Stoup came in and said, 'Aren't you going to get up and check out what we are going to do today? We'll meet on the bow of the boat in two minutes.'

When I got out to the bow, the clouds were just starting to lift and within a few minutes one peak stood in the sun. It had a very prominent ridge with three major ice seracs breaking its continuity to the summit. The first was at the bottom of this 1900-foot peak and had large crevasses hindering the direct route of our ascent.

The second was two-thirds of the way up and had two ramps on its 'looker's right' flanks that would have us very exposed and would not allow for any mistakes but would let us gain the summit ridge. This serac was the one we worried about dropping deadly chunks of car-sized rock-hard ice on us if we didn't choose our route carefully.

The third serac actually makes up the looker's right of the summit ridge and was made up of a 300-foot high ice wall that we would be on top of for about 300 yards until we reached the top. This would be our choice for the day.

It ended up being a great choice that made for a good day of high-angle fun, a few exciting moments, and a great technical ski. This peak politely reminded me that Antarctica is a very humbling place that cannot be taken lightly...ever.

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