An enigmatic lake and a remarkable saga

Abstract

Eventually they did reveal some, if not all, of their adventures. This is how Barrie told their story. After our reconnaissance of the valley floor basement rocks cast from Vanda, Peter and I needed to come to grips with the sub-horizontal Beacon Sandstone strata capping both the western Asgard and Olympus Ranges immediately above the big dolerite sill. To examine as much of the sandstone stratigraphy as possible we needed to push well to the west, towards the polar plateau. There would be time for us to examine the sandstones only in one range, and we chose the Olympus rather than the Asgard Range. It is less rugged, its crest essentially being 3 Beacon Sandstone platform from which isolated steep-sided peaks and mesas of younger Beacon strata rise. These spectacular but unnamed peaks we reduced for reference to dry letters of the alphabet, 'a'. 'b', 'c', and so on. (Dick and Colin had named the same peaks 'A', 'B', 'C'.) We reasoned that the sandstone platform would allow us relatively easy movement in any direction about the crest and, most importantly, to the west. On the other hand, the crest of the Asgard Range is diversified by northeast-southwest trending cirque valleys, the steep walls of which deny easy westwards movement. When installing the Upper Depot, Dick and Peter chose a location about halfway along the Olympus Range west of the col, and immediately below the southern bonds of the impressive mesa 'b'. Our plan was simple. Travelling lightly with small amounts of food and fuel, we'd climb to the crest of the range via the col, and move westwards along it as quickly is practical to reach the Upper Depot. We envisaged one or perhaps two camps en route. From the Upper Depot we intended to radiate in all directions through the sandstone country, in particular pushing and climbing to the west to gain access to the youngest sandstone horizons. From the valley floor and on paper it seemed a simple and straightforward plan but in reality it turned out to be disconcertingly difficult.