(visited by Bob Greschke, Shridhar Anandakrishnan, Don Voigt, Peter Braddock, Ash Morton, Anatoly Mironov, Matt Nolan, Leo Peters and Paul Winberry)
25-Dec-2002 -- This was the first primary confluence point of the four I visited in Antarctica (See 81S 126W for the beginning of the story). The place where this point was located seemed to me to be exceptionally flat. Although most of western Antarctica is pretty flat you can usually see some form of hill wherever you travel -- "hill" being defined as a change of 10 to 15 meters over several kilometers. This place was FLAT for as far as you could see. While the surface looked pretty smooth, the snow (making up all of the relatively small bumps and valleys) was actually quite hard which made for a bone-jarring ride on a snowmobile. The same group of guys from point 82S 131W were all there with the exception of Andy Smith, who had to be flown back to McMurdo for some medical attention from one of our work camps. Andy was there in spirit, though. Shad O'Neel left the group earlier in the season after finishing his work. Beside myself Shridhar Anandakrishnan, Don Voigt, Peter Braddock, Ash Morton, Anatoly Mironov, Matt Nolan, Leo Peters and Paul Winberry visited the point. |