glacier – Page 2 – David Kotz

South Georgia – St. Andrews Bay

Massive glaciers and thousands of penguins.

On the sunny afternoon of 8 March, we stopped in St. Andrews Bay for a visit to shore. I joined a group that hiked quickly up across the vast glacial plain formed by the retreat of the Heaney Glacier… and then up onto the glacier itself. Led by Eric, a member of the expedition team who is a glaciologist, we had an opportunity to learn about the dynamics of retreating glaciers.

Arriving at St. Andrews Bay, South Georgia. Heaney Glacier on right, Buxton Glacier on left.

On the way back we walked to an overlook where we had a sweeping view from the bay to the Buxton Glacier and across a massive colony of King Penguins – scientists estimate 130,000 pairs, which translates to nearly 400,000 penguins. In the photo above the shore at left is speckled white: those are penguins!

Read on and be sure to check out the gallery of photos and videos.

South Georgia – Ocean Harbour

Shipwrecks, fur seals, and panoramic views – all on a hike above Ocean Harbour.

As the sun rose on 8 March, it painted the grassy slopes of South Georgia Island a deep golden color, and dropped a hint of a rainbow into the offshore mist. As I snapped a photo of this splendid sight, I knew we were in for an incredible day. Our first stop: Ocean Harbour, which had once been home to a sealing and whaling operation. In the bay is the derelict wreck of the three-masted ship Bayard, once a cargo ship that sailed the world from India to Fiji and from South Africa to South Georgia, but now home to hundreds of nesting shag; and an old hut, now home to visiting researchers.

View of Ocean Harbor, with the “Endurance” and the wreck of the “Bayard” – South Georgia.

We set out to hike up into the hills surrounding the bay. Read on and be sure to check out the photo gallery.

South Georgia – Drygalski Fjord

As the afternoon waned on 6 March, we sailed deep into a deep fjord at the southern tip of South Georgia, its walls lined with glacier after glacier. As the glaciers have receded – all too fast, in recent years – the fjord has gotten longer, and it took an hour for us to motor slowly “upstream” to the head of the fjord, where the Risting Glacier was actively calving into the tidal bay.

Glacier near the head of Drygalski Fjord, South Georgia.

Visit the gallery for more photos and a video panorama. You’ll note one tiny iceberg, recently broken off the glacier, just large enough to allow a fur seal a spot to rest while it fished for its dinner in the frigid waters of the fjord.

South Georgia – Gold Harbour

A sunrise visit shows why Gold Harbour got its name.

It was 4:30am on 6 March as a hardy group of guests quietly stopped by the top-deck café, looking for coffee, tea, and pastries. The Endurance was resting calmly in the middle of Gold Harbour, so named by the early sealers because the morning’s first rays of sun tend to paint the surrounding cliffs with a golden glow. The weather was calm but a bit misty; nonetheless we soon climbed down to the bottom deck to don our waterproofs and were launching the Zodiacs by 5:30 as the horizon behind us hinted at the coming day. Each Zodiac had a lighted pillar to aid the ship in tracking us in the morning gloom; the penguins on shore seemed nonplussed by this early wake-up call.

The mist later rose, leading to a spectacular morning on the beaches of Gold Harbour; after a return to the ship for a hearty breakfast, we made a second trip on which I joined a group for a hike up to the headlands – and sweeping views of the harbour, its glaciers, and tens of thousands of penguins.

King penguins – Gold Harbour, South Georgia.

Read on, and be sure to check out the two galleries of photos and videos: sunrise and hike.

Piz Palü

I grew up hiking in the Adirondack mountains of New York, and later the White Mountains of New Hampshire – places that are still near and dear to my heart – but ever since I was a young boy, leafing through pictorial mountaineering books from legendary climbers like Chris Bonington and Reinhold Messner, I’ve dreamed of ‘Real Mountains’ capped with snow and glacier. Yesterday, I finally had my chance and summited Piz Palü (3900m, 12,811′). Although relatively simple on the grand scale of mountaineering, it was nonetheless the most challenging mountain I’ve experienced in my 50 years of hiking. Read on and definitely do not miss the gallery – we were blessed with outstanding weather and snow conditions.