Mikkelsen Harbour, Trinity Island, South Shetlands
Sometimes, when the elements and forces of nature conspire to make things difficult, Scott’s famous quote when he had finally attained the pole in January 1912, “Great God, what an awful place,” comes to mind. The same place on a calm and sunny day quickly drains one’s vocabulary of appropriate adjectives.
Today, we felt the force of nature in the form of katabolic winds, a cold- thickened air mass, rapidly gaining weight and speed, as it tumbled down and fed on the ice-chilled slopes from which it was born. This too has its own strong beauty, and frames our picture of the immense forces concentrated at the frozen southern end of our world. A humbling experience and one to remember as we return to our comfortable human microcosm.
Sometimes, when the elements and forces of nature conspire to make things difficult, Scott’s famous quote when he had finally attained the pole in January 1912, “Great God, what an awful place,” comes to mind. The same place on a calm and sunny day quickly drains one’s vocabulary of appropriate adjectives.
Today, we felt the force of nature in the form of katabolic winds, a cold- thickened air mass, rapidly gaining weight and speed, as it tumbled down and fed on the ice-chilled slopes from which it was born. This too has its own strong beauty, and frames our picture of the immense forces concentrated at the frozen southern end of our world. A humbling experience and one to remember as we return to our comfortable human microcosm.
