December 7, 1996

Crevasse Field on the Slopes of Mt. Erebus

December 7, 1996
After having such an extraordinary experience the night before, recording in the Adelie colony, I decided to leave early. The weather was not improving and another 4 Kiwis were due in camp--time to make room for others. I had mixed feelings about leaving, but also knew that I had a lot of work to do back at McMurdo, with my scheduled departure for Christchurch looming on Wednesday. I radioed Robin Abbott, the Helo Operations coordinator and she said that the helo bringing the Kiwis out would be empty on the return flight--so, no problem.

My dorm neighbour, Bob Brown, touched down on the beach at 10:00am, as I was hauling my gear down from the hut. He was in no rush, which was a good thing as I still had a few trips to make. Sue and Fiona walked down to the helo with me and we said goodbye. Peter Coville came to check that some distilled water he had requested had, in fact, arrived. As we lifted off and veered up over the ridge, I could glimpse the colony below--what an amazing place to have had the privilege to visit.

The flight home was spectacular. As we rose up over the ridge behind the hut and turned back toward McMurdo, Mt. Erebus stood before us in a shroud of swirling clouds. "We may have to ride this out on a rock somewhere," Bob's voice crackled over the intercom and he looked ahead to the clouds. We flew parallel to the shoreline over crevasse fields (see above) and then along the pack ice, which looked like scattered white tesserae from a lapis blue mosaic. The sky cleared as we approached Erebus, and the wind cascaded snow off the edge of the crevasse fields into the sea. Confident of visibility, Bob warned me that the winds would be strong. The helicopter lurched and we bounced as he quickly adjusted our angle; we flew in a crab-like fashion into a 30 knot head wind, keeping a course towards the Dellbridge Islands. Passing over the seal camp at Big Razorback Island, I asked Bob to angle in for a photograph. The descent into town was smooth and easy.

Mt. Erebus	Bob Brown at the controls
Pancake ice in McMurdo Sound	Big and Little Razorback Islands