Walking on a Rope, Hiking on Ice, and Jumping Over a Crevasse

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Spent two hours traversing an icy field riddled with crevasses. I’m not going to lie – it was terrifying. Starting the walk up from the landing point was the most difficult part of the entire hike – there hadn’t been much snowfall, so we were pretty much trying to climb uphill with ice beneath our feet. As we got higher up, there was a layer of snow, making it easier to gain a foothold. IT was also around this point that we saw a lot of debris integrated into the snow/ice. This region is volcanic. Passed by our first meltwater stream, which, thankfully, was considered to be fairly shallow. Just before reaching the summit (or just the top of our hiking point) we had to walk over a crevasse. I was at the end of the rope, so I was the last to cross over. As I was nearly at the edge, my feet slipped a little bit, causing me to slide too close to the edge for my liking. The surface of the glacier is completely white, but as I got to that crevasse, I looked down and it was a deep blue. I don’t know how deep it was, but for me to see those colors meant that it was deep enough.

A curious gentoo penguin watching humans invade its space

A curious gentoo penguin watching humans invade its space

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End of the line

End of the line

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Hiking up on icy terrain

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Jumping over the crevasse

Jumping over the crevasse

On the other side

On the other side

Time to head home

Time to head home

The send-off crew

The send-off crew

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The text in this post was taken from an original journal entry made during the International Antarctic Expedition 2013, written on March 9, 2013 at 4:00pm somewhere near Brown Bluff.

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