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

4 ft., banking up snow behind some wooden boxes. It required a further snowfall to
consolidate it and then it was ready for use. In July the surface wasn't good and my
skis were initially very sticky as they were freshly tarred, burning Stockholm tar into
the wood with a blow-lamp. Also the wind had blown the snow into drifts and in
places there was an icy rain-thaw crust. Another day I went skiing as a sea fog came
in. I did half a dozen runs over the jump, covering about 10 ft or more horizontally. I
landed well four times and carried on down the slope, but the other two times I
landed, the skis shot forward and I sat down with a bump! Ralph tried it and landed
with a crash; he wasn't keen to try again. Looking back we were very foolhardy, but
in the flush of youth didn't consider the likelihood of accidents; a broken leg would
have set us back pretty badly though.
One night at the end of June when the moon came up it appeared to have a green
rim, due to the very deep blue of the sky. There were golden clouds behind it and
silver-edged cloud maps above and below. It laid a hazy track on the water. A few
days later at the Stone Chute cairn we were entranced by a good solar halo with
mock suns. There were ice prisms in the air, sparkling in the sunlight.
Derek and I took a typical airing later in July; we went up to Observation Bluff in
fresh, floury, powder-snow and some deep drifts. The sun was low and casting
beautiful shadows, the snow in sunshine sparkling in myriads of tiny points. We
went down towards the Point but it proved tricky in sealskin boots, especially where
there was an underlying layer of hard ice. So when we came to the first step in the
ridge we turned back, glissaded some of the way down and cut steps for the icy
parts.
Another July morning we walked through the hummocked sea ice to a berg
which we had named ‘the floating dock’ for obvious reasons - it had a kind of crater
in the centre with two turrets of ice at either end. We took some photographs and
walked further on so that we might photograph Paal Harbour. I found a small icecave
formed by blocks in one of the pressure ridges and, lying down in it, tried to
analyze the colours, but came to the conclusion that they were much too beautiful
and subtly different, to describe adequately. The colours in one small ice-cave were
wonderful: green-blues of the ice and delicate pinks, mauves, blues and creams of the
snow surface. At one end was a small opening and the blue ice within was sharply
contrasted with the the snow which looked a purplish-blue, almost mauve, whereas
normally the eye registers it as a deep pure cobalt!
On the first day of August we went onto the ice cap via Elephant Flats. Deep
snow covered the Flats, which made for heavy going. We had a close look at the cliffs
of Orwell Glacier and then went up the valley between Jane Peak buttresses and
Snow Hill. It was good in there and an excellent slope for skiing; we climbed up a bit
and I sketched the Jane Peak view; then on to the Snow Hill summit. Enveloped in
the blizzard, we made our way down, with visibility reduced to 20 yards at times,
and so back across the sea ice to base. In mid-September Ralph went to Gourlay
Peninsula and came back with an emperor penguin which he had shepherded across
the ice. I went out to see it and then it escaped, tobogganing down the hill. While I
went in for a camera, Ralph chased it and recaptured it.
Another day in September, after the early jobs were done, we climbed up to the
top of Roberts Bluff. Ralph said he would follow on and Derek and I set off across the
slope – geologising - and made our way slowly to the top. There was one tricky pitch
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