Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

idge was silhouetted against a dark blue-black sky. In places were subtle bluepurple
tints and Mount Noble peering over the white curtain of the ridge was a
touch green in hue. A few snowies had been about that day and by nightfall were
chattering as usual on the crags. The bay was bathed in bright moonlight but
Coronation was shrouded in a checkerwork pattern of diffuse cloud shadows. The
moon reflected from the bay ice had a double intensity; and the ice slopes of Robin
Peak and the central ice cap sparkled like tinsel as it shone on the many discrete
patches of bare blue ice. There was a mystical quality about the scene which kept me
standing in my shirt-sleeves with the thermometers registering 7°C of frost. It was
only the cold that eventually drove me indoors. The snowies by then were silent and
the only sound outside was of the ice creaking and groaning.
A few days later the moon came up and after dinner Derek and I went up onto
Observation Bluff, where we sat companionably for half an hour. The moonlight lit
up the snow and made it sparkle like diamonds. The stars were very bright in a deep
blue sky and snowies were flying close about us. Low fog banks condensed over the
pack and moved in. Coronation Island was draped with cloud, but the peaks rose
above it and in places the layer was so thin that one could make out the moonlit
details of glaciers and ridges through it.
At the end of May Derek and Ralph went down to the shore near the digesters
and ventured out onto the floes just offshore. They brought in three excellent fish and
solved my difficulty as cook of producing a novel dish for dinner. Later we skied,
but the rain had made the surface crust very icy and very unpleasant for skiing, as
one cannot edge at all.
At the start of June a blizzard moved quite a depth of snow onto the slope and
we all three spent a large part of the morning skiing, all three having more or less
painful mishaps. Derek fell and twisted his wrist, spraining it. I did the same to my
knee when one ski came free, as I was enjoying an exhilarating, fast run down the
snow gulley and Ralph fell a few times. We rubbed afflicted parts with oil of
wintergreen.
Next day the snow surface was excellent and Ralph and Derek were skiing most
of the day, doing Bilgeri exercises to the gramophone. (The Polish Army
ski manual, written by a Colonel Bilgeri, was our bible, translated into English by the
father of my Cambridge friend Norman Holme who had given me a copy). They
made quite an amusing sight practicing ‘dipping-and-swinging’ to a very fast record.
I took some photographs of them 'skiing on the spot' and then went in to work in the
lab. as my knee was very painful. We all went onto the 'nursery' slopes another
morning after a new fall of snow and I was up to some good Telemark turns and
jumps and jump turns. Later in the day we had several runs down from the col and
Ralph and I stayed out until after dark. Next day in the evening we all skied until
after dark though Derek had to go in to see to the evening meal. I had now more or
less mastered the Telemark swing to the left, and I also did some jump-turns at rather
greater angles than before. We spent several more happy hours during June
improving our performance.
Towards the end of June Derek and I skied on the fresh snow, a covering of
about 2 ins. on top of the hard icy surface, and consequently when turning we
skidded. It was rather fun coming down the slope at speed and side-slipping for
some 20 yards. I built a small ski jump at the foot of the slope, with an elevation of 3-
170