Cloud shadows on the Kahutea Glacier below the summit of Mt Murchison. The Kahutea lies at the head of Weka Stream, which flows into the Wilberforce, one of the major headwaters of the mighty Rakaia River. We never found out who made the line of footprints. [Mid January 2005].All content © 2009 Pete McGregor
Oh yes! The single track footprints! Were they going into or coming out of that crevasse?
ReplyDeleteThey give the scale I was asking about previously.
I imagine being up there must be not unlike being in the desert with so little to give a sense of distance.
People prints, or maybe animal, or could you tell from where you were?
ReplyDeleteSo stark and beautiful.
Gorgeous. Totally feeds my Shackleton obsession. ;o)
ReplyDeleteRR, in this case estimating distances wasn't a problem, because this glacier's small and surrounded by well-defined ridges, peaks and valleys. The shadows are from high cloud, well above the glacier, so there was no chance of whiteout. It would have been an entirely different matter if the cloud had lowered to the glacier. Luckily, we didn't have to traverse it; our return to the hut followed our ascent route on the other side of the mountain.
ReplyDeleteZhoen, they were human footprints. Hard to tell whether they were made by more than one person (it's usually easier to step in the leader's prints, hence the single track), but crossing glaciers alone isn't recommended.
Emma, we had better luck than Shackleton ;^)