Transantarctic Mountains

On November 17, Amundsen began ascending through the Transantarctic Mountains via the 30-mile long Axel Heiberg Glacier (a shorter, and therefore steeper, ascent than the Beardmore Glacier).

Amundsen and Scott at the South Pole 2009

In late 1908, Shackleton used ponies to pull sledges of supplies 400 miles across the Ice Barrier and ascended the Beardmore Glacier for 100 miles through the Transantarctic Mountains to reach the high Antarctic Plateau.

Amundsen and Scott at the South Pole 2009

Scott and Evans fall into crevasse - Transantarctic Mountains near Beardmore Glacier sighted.

Chronology of Amundsen and Scott Expeditions 2009

Maintaining a faster pace that achieved six years earlier, and able to use the ponies that succumbed as food, the four men reached the edge of the Great Ice Barrier/Ross Ice Shelf 440 miles from Cape Royds at the start of December and discovered the Beardmore Glacier carving a path through the Transantarctic Mountains.

The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration 2009

It is bordered by the Ross Sea to the north, the Transantarctic Mountains to the west and south, and by the King Edward the VII Peninsula to the east.

Ross Ice Shelf 2009

Pass 88°S - Clearer view of Transantarctic Mountains convinces Amundsen that "this chain transverses the Antarctic continent".

Chronology of Amundsen and Scott Expeditions 2009

The scattered ice-free areas of the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica west of the Transantarctic Mountains are characterized by low temperatures, high aridity, and a short growing season.

Antarctic Peninsula 2009

Maintaining a faster pace that achieved six years earlier, and able to use the ponies that succumbed as food, the four men reached the edge of the Great Ice Barrier/Ross Ice Shelf 440 miles from Cape Royds at the start of December and discovered the Beardmore Glacier carving a path through the Transantarctic Mountains.

The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration 2009

Reach 85°S with land at the end of Ice Barrier nearby (peaks of 2,000 - 10,000 feet ahead - the Transantarctic Mountains) - estimate 683 miles to South Pole.

Chronology of Amundsen and Scott Expeditions 2009

Eight glaciers flow down from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (Antarctic Plateau) through the Transantarctic Mountains feed into the Shelf and gradually add bulk to it.

Ross Ice Shelf 2009