Antarctica 1959

A blog reader, Barry Smith, who has been following the progress of My Antartcia, recently sent me these photos that he took of the Beardmore Glacier in 1959. He says, 'we were part of a NZ Alpine Club expedition and spent about four months down there surveying, geologising, biologising and climbing... in mainly good weather.'

Barry took this triptych of photos 'looking up the Beardmore from near its exit into the Ross Ice Shelf. We were the first there since Scott. I was so staggered by its immensity.'

Shackleton was the first to climb the Beardmore in 1908, reaching the Polar Plateau but turning back when just 100 miles from the South Pole. In 1911 Scott used this broad river of ice as his pathway Pole (Amundsen took the then-untried Axel Hiedelburg Glacier as his route to the Plateau).

Thank you Barry, for letting me post these wonderful photographs.

All images (c) Barry Smith