From the top of Ross Island....

Mt. Erebus - the crater rim

Greetings from the top of Ross Island! I’m spending my holiday season up at 11,400ft in elevation, just a thousand feet below the top of Mt. Erebus, the world’s most southern active volcano. There are 16 of us here on this Christmas Day – 9 vulcanologists and geochemists, 3 BBC crewmen, and 4 “randoms” of which I belong. This mountain is a truly amazing place, and the people on this mountain rock. These are the two reasons that the top part of this mountain is probably my favorite place in Antarctica.

Skidooing up towards the top

This is what Mt. Erebus looks like from just outside of camp on a clear day. Today is not a clear day and the scenery is remarkably reminiscent of a blank piece of paper, so I won’t bother posting a picture of the “view”.

A fumarole.

Our camp is located a thousand feet down the north flank of the crater, and the landscape is beautifully volcanic. There are old lava flows all around, and peppering the landscape are ice towers (called fumaroles) formed by escaping steam from cracks in the volcano. Below the ice towers, there are usually complex cave systems – the BBC crew loves these (one of the guys here told me it was in the top 5 most amazing things he’d seen) and they’ve been filming these ice/lava caves religiously.

The camp itself is not exactly spectacular, but I’m very attached to it. There is a main hut that is heated where we can all pile into for meals, which are cooked by Anna, our do-it-all camp hand. It’s got a lot of personality as people have added their personal decorations over the years.

Lower Erebus Hut

There is also a shed, so to speak, and it houses scientific equipment, the toilet, a generator, and a small workshop.

Personal accommodations are tents. Here is a part of the tent city out back.







Skidoos are the main mode of transportation here.


So what am I doing up here? I am helping out with both the LiDAR and GPS aspects of the project, and fixing a couple of our permanent GPS stations that are located up here.




Scanning the crater



Before I sign off, here are a few pictures of our Christmas celebration. Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate… and happy winter and end-of-year celebrations to all!



Santa visits LEH






The winning stocking - people get
very creative!





The table is set.


Not your average nativity scene, but we'll take it...




The team preps the Xmas meal


The BBC crew films the exotic behaviors of the
elusive Erebus penguins.