By: Dr. Laurie Connell
15 November 2012
Off to Mount Erebus!
We have been getting things ready here in McMurdo for quite
some time. Our team is assembled and we
have been working with our mountaineer to hone our mountain skills. Now it’s finally time to begin our trip
up.
First we need to weigh all the gear and get it to the helo
hanger. Accurate weights are important
so the pilots know how much fuel needs to be on board. With six people and our gear we will need
several flights just to get to the acclimation camp at Fang Glacier.
We only bring what we need to rest and get used to the
altitude. Fang Camp is on a glacier at
about 9000 ft. We will be staying in
Scott tents, a kind of tent that has been shown to be very good in the kinds of
conditions we can expect.
But if we get the chance to walk around we should do some
light exercise so we acclimate better.
Below is a photo of the rock formation that gave Fang Glacier it’s name-
I guess it looks a bit like a fang.
After two nights at Fang, we will move up again to Lower Erebus hut, we
call it LEH for short. I won’t be using
email from Mount Erebus so we will post some photos and reports from back home
at the lab.
Cheerio!
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