January 1st Castle Rock hike

Hello all my devoted readers!

Thank you very much for letting me know you exist ;)

I have been busy with getting my trainings done and I haven’t updated for a while. I will try to catch up now.

The last thing I mentioned was the New Years celebration, which was a lot of fun. The Icestock concert lasted till 1 am, and afterwards people were still celebrating for a few more hours – parties here and there ;) Waking up the next morning was a little painful, but I had a big day planned ahead – a hike to Castle Rock.

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This is one of the most spectacular hikes in McMurdo (and the only long one that is open so late in the season, since other long ones involve going on sea ice). Castle Rock is a relatively small (~200m high?) piece of volcanic rock with really steep slopes, sitting on top of the glacier. It is an easy climb, and there are ropes to help you in steeper parts, which become especially useful during the descent. The top provides breathtaking 360-degree view of the mountains surrounding us: Mt Erebus, Mt Terra Nova and Mt Terror on Ross Island; White island and Black island with Minna Bluff in the middle (that’s where we get the nasty weather from, so everyone is always on a look out for those islands) and the Royal Society range.

January 1^st was an amazing day weather wise – it was sunny, clear and the visibility was the best I’ve seen so far. We planned to meet at 11am for breakfast – it was six of us going on the trail (not counting Zozo ;).  After a leisurely breakfast, we packed some snacks + water for the road and checked out radios from the fire station at about quarter to 1pm.

(McMurdo and Ob hill are behind me. You can also see Mt discovery in the distance)

To get to Castle rock you need to hike for about 3.5 away from McMurdo. First you hike about half a mile up dirt road and then the snow trail starts.  All snow trails are marked with flags – red and green colors are used to designate a trail. There are also black flags you sometimes see along the way (off the trail) – these mean danger – a cravas in the glacier or some other type of unsafe terrain.

(Royal Society range from the Castle Rock trail)

(Obs hill is now much smaller - rock triangle on the photo. Mt Discovery and Black island are in the background. You can also see the trail - marked with flags)

(View of Castle rock from the trail. Mt Erebus is on the left and Mt Terror is on the right)

(Jenny, Mitch, Masha and Zozo posing with Royal society range in the background)

The hike goes uphill, so it usually takes about ~1.5-2 hours to get to bottom of the rock, the climb takes about 20 minutes or so. Since the weather can change fast there are two emergency shelters on the trail.

(Zozo sitting in the snow with the red apple - emergency shelter - in the background)

These red capsules remind me of TV series “Lost”. Inside the red capsule you can find everything you need to survive for a few days in a white out conditions – food, stove, sleeping bags, covers. There is also a telephone to call McMurdo and let them know you are stuck.

As we were curious to see how it actually looks from the inside, we used the second apple as a shelter for our snack stop.

(Zozo and Devin inside the shelter)

We were told that McMurdo takes their rescue operations seriously – at check out you give an estimated time of arrival (ETA). Rescue mission will launch within minutes of you missing your ETA – so radios are there for you to call in and let the fire station know you’re safe, just running late. I have to admit all these precautions seem a little overboard on a gorgeous day like January 1^st, but in remote and dangerous places like Antarctica one should always prepare for the worst.

Finally we made it to the bottom of the rock. Although by that time my hiking boots got soaked, I was really happy I was wearing them once we got to steep rocky part – cold weather boots would have been painful to climb in.

Ross Island is made of volcanic rock – highly porous and somewhat crumbly pieces are found all over McMurdo. Castle Rock is steeper and in general easy to climb – there are good natural “handles” and “steps” everywhere.  However, wet shoes do become slippery and the ropes that are available along the trail are quite handy.

After a short and fun climb you get to the top – and if you lucked out with the weather like we did – it just takes you breath away.

(Mt Erebus)

 (Zozo and I on top of Castle Rock with Royal Society range in the background)

(All of us: Masha, Jenny, Eric, Kevin, Devin, Mitch on top of Castle rock with Mt Erebus in the background)

On the way down we were going against the sun, but still couldn’t help but pose for more pictures. Here’s me with Mt Erebus in the background.

(Devin posing with Mt Erebus)

(Masha hanging on the rope)

(Mitch is really happy. The Royal Society range is in the background.)

And now we are getting to the most exciting part of the hike. There is a steep snow-covered slope off Castle Rock that is really fun to slide down. I was wearing snow pants, so I did not even need any special equipment. We have also met a couple of guys on top of the rock, who borrowed cafeteria trays to sled in – these are so much fun! The key thing, though is not let your cafeteria tray go – we watched a girl lose one and the tray went down for a good 500 m without stopping. Considering that the tray can also veer off the safe trail - chasing it might be quite dangerous.

I am happy to report that we successfully used our blue cafeteria trays as sleds without loosing them! It was so much fun – made me feel like a kid before – I guess I haven’t sled down the mountain for a long time.

If you are adventurous enough you can take the long way down to McMurdo – the trail loops around for about 6 miles or so and comes back along the Kiwi base.  We decided return the way we came and hurry up for dinner – during Sundays/holidays dinner is served till 7pm and it was about quarter to five when we were done sledding.

On the way back we met a “Google-maps” guy carrying a 360-degree camera going uphill to take photos of the Castle rock trail. So I am guessing the trail will be online soon. We were circling around the guy for a good 15 minutes to make sure his camera takes pictures of us on the trail.  I suspect, however, we will not make to Google view… Oh maybe, who knows ;)

Thanks for reading!

M