Antarctica’s Dry Valleys; Rock FA Opportunities?

[RokIzGud]

Pretty interesting article. I wonder if there is any goo rock climbing here. Maybe a few cool FAs.

Lots of the rock pics look like s**t though...

 

Antarctica’s Dry Valleys

 

"Most of Antarctica has about 2 1/2 miles of ice covering it, and that cold, white wasteland is what most people picture when they think of our south pole. But as I discovered last week, when I posted about its mysterious Blood Falls, there is a series of dry valleys in Antarctica, about 4,000 kilometers square, that have no ice on them at all. The world’s harshest desert, the moisture is sucked from the dry valleys by a rain shadow effect — winds rushing over them at speeds up to 200/mph — that leave this bizarre and fascinating landscape, much closer to that of Mars than the rest of our planet, open to exploration.

Lacking the resources (or cojones) to go there myself, these photos are by scientists and researchers who’ve been there, and are included as part of galleries on the McMurdo Dry Valleys Management Area website"

 

Edited February 6, 2010 by RokIzGud

[ivan]

FA's for rich white guys!

[G-spotter]

Dry Valleys rock is total choss. the good rock is in Queen Maud Land

 

 

[G-spotter]

^^ Ulvetanna and Holtanna

 

Rakekniven

[olyclimber]

global warming will popularlize these fantastic climbing destinations

[Stonehead]

cascadeclimbers.com----collapsing probability space into the most (un)likely futures

[Bug]

Get yur drilz out boyyz...............

[davidk]

Queen Maude Land is where it's at for rock, but it already receives a lot of attention.

 

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are an Antarctic Specially Managed Area (ASMA), meaning the region is highly regulated and restricted. You pretty much can't go there unless as part of the lucky handful of science grantees or necessary USAP support staff. Aside from a professional photographer once in a while or the few Distinguished VIsitors (senators, heads of state, etc.) who might get flyovers or a short walk at one of the camps, no one gets to go for reasons other than science.

 

The only steep rock in the Dry Valleys is crumbly dolerite (essentially intrusive basalt, with columnar jointing) and soft sandstone. There is granite throughout the valleys, but it is low angle and very weathered.

[JoeR]

FA's for rich white guys!

 

What you got against rich brown guys?

 

[ivan]

FA's for rich white guys!

 

What you got against rich brown guys?

snow makes brown people cry

 

it does improve watermelons tremendously though

[JoeR]

Nicely played sir.

[G-spotter]

 

they do look pretty white

[G-spotter]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DgbsVsRrRGE/SYC0GqzkMPI/AAAAAAAABUE/Xlfrh3w17mM/s1600-h/176R6675.jpg

[j_b]

Lots of general mountaineering/ice moderates to be had in the Dry Valley region of the Transantarctic but climbing is essentially illegal to the people who go there (can't justify mobilizing rescue) and it'd be difficult to know what has been done.

[j_b]

Crazy pics G-spotter (btw, did you hear English scientists recently denied your name sake existed). Is that sedimentary?

[G-spotter]

It's GRANITE

[j_b]

Nuts! Like a blade of granite in cold ice.

[rob]

Nuts! Like a blade of granite in cold ice.

 

COLD ice?

 

NO WAY!!!!

[tvashtarkatena]

They're called Nun Attacks.

[j_b]

Si Senor, by opposition to temperate ice.

[G-spotter]

i bet some badass giant penguins seiged that shit back in the pre-Shoggoth days.

[Choada_Boy]

The Mountains of Madness range has some cool climbs, but it's pretty hard to get to, even for the region. PM me for more information, I'm not willing to post more here, now, the implications of the effect of unleashing even partial knowledge of this sprawling void of cosmic climbing horror upon the consciousness of the human race is almost too much for my still fragile psyche to bear.