AMUNDSEN CLIMBED AXEL HEIBERG; HIS STORY CONFIRMS BYRD’S.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18937, 6 December 1929, Page 1

AMUNDSEN CLIMBED AXEL HEIBERG; HIS STORY CONFIRMS BYRD’S.

Livs Glacier was the route taken by Commander Byrd through the Queen Maud Range on his flight to the'Great Polar Plateau, whereas Amundsen climbed AxeJ Heiberg Glacier. Otherwise the route to the South Pole taken by Commander R. E. Byrd appears to have coincided fairly approximately with that taken by Captain Roald Amundsen. The Axel Heiberg Glacier, which was Amundsen’s route, and up which Professor Gould is now climbing, lies between the Queen Maud Range and the Commonwealth Range, but there are two other huge glaciers between it and the latter range, which in turn reaches the Beardmore Glacier (Scott’s route), 100 miles distant. Byrd apparently took one of the other two glacier valleys which are only separated from Axel Heiberg by narrow mountain ridges. From the floor of the Barrier, which is only about 200 ft above the sea level, the Queen Maud mountains start with long, easy, snow-covered slopes until about 7000 feet have been attained. Thence they are stern, precipitous and rocky. The glaciers, according to Amundsen’s account, were not moving, nor was the going particularly difficult, though the crevasses were many and deep. Nevertheless, Amundsen - averaged fifteen miles a day over the 863 miles that he travelled to the Pole, his best day’s march being one of nineteen miles, on the glacier, when he climbed 5700 feet. In addition, his party were drawing sledges containing large quantities of food. The greatest height attained by Amundsen was 11,024 feet, when he reached the rim of the central Antarctic plateau. The top of the glaciers, where the three already mentioned united, was 10,800 feet, with the peaks on either side going up to 16,000 feet. He then descended to 8200 feet and climbed again to 9350 feet to reach the top of what he termed the “Devil’s Glacier”, from which he went on to the plateau. The width of the glacier varied from twenty-five miles to ten miles, though he described the pass at the top as “the comparatively narrow space” between the peaks. His journey up the glacier took nineteen days out of the fifty-six he took on the outward trip, including several halts, one of which was for four days. The whole journey from the Bay of Whales to the Pole and back was accomplished between October 20 and January 25. He established his position at the Pole on December 16, after making very careful observations from a position about five miles away on the previous day. Amundlen in his report remarks several times upon the magnificence of the mountains from a scenic point of view, and generally speaking it upholds the tenor of Commander Byrd’s storied It appears that if there is any point of Byrd’s flight that is open to question it will be due to the difficulty of taking accurate observations from a - fastmoving ’plane. Tie would be certain to insure that he circled the Pole, though he could not, as Amundsen did, fix the position to within a few yards, the measurable accuracy of his instruments.