OHYAT: Blizzard

And then there was a blizzard.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO TODAY:
The Crozier party had gotten a little bit lost. By yesterday, the temperature had improved to the point where they could pull both sledges at once and no longer had to relay (only -47°!) but they were surrounded by fog. Bill was concerned because he knew that if they got too far off track they might find themselves amongst the crevasses on the slopes of Mt Terror*, which is a bad place to be at any time, never mind in the fog and dark.

And then quite suddenly, vague, indefinable, monstrous, there loomed a something ahead. I remember having a feeling as of ghosts about as we untoggled our harnesses from the sledge, tied them together, and thus roped walked upwards on that ice. The moon was showing a ghastly ragged mountainous edge above us in the fog, and as we rose we found that we were on a pressure ridge. We stopped, looked at one another, and then bang—right under our feet. More bangs, and creaks and groans; for that ice was moving and splitting like glass. The cracks went off all round us, and some of them ran along for hundreds of yards.

Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World

*Yes, that was really its name; it was named after a ship which went on to be used on Franklin's doomed Arctic expedition, as was Mt Erebus. These Victorians seem to have been masters of applying literary techniques to real life.

So they found a sheltered place to set up camp, and then the blizzard hit.

On the plus side, blizzards are usually a lot warmer than cold weather, and this was no exception, raising the temperature as high as +7.8°F, and it gave them a chance to rest. But the downside, as Bill wrote, was that the warmer temperatures and confinement 'steamed us and our bags into a very sodden wet condition. One wonders what they will be like when the temp. goes down again.'

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH CAPE EVANS

We have had the worst gale I have ever known in these regions and have not yet done with it. ... on the occasions when I had to step out of doors I was struck with the impossibility of enduring such conditions for any length of time. One seemed to be robbed of breath as they burst on one – the fine snow beat in behind the wind guard, and ten paces against the wind were sufficient to reduce one’s face to the verge of frostbite. To clear the anemometer vane it is necessary to go to the other end of the hut and climb a ladder. Twice whilst engaged in this task I had literally to lean against the wind with head bent and face averted and so stagger crab-like on my course. In those two days of really terrible weather our thoughts often turned to absentees at Cape Crozier with the devout hope that they may be safely housed.

Capt. Scott's journal, 10 July 1911

HEY EVERYBODY LET'S GO CAMPING!