22 January 2019 Poor Weather Strands Us At Lake Bonney. Time To Hike.

Journal

Today started off for me with a hike, at about midnight, up on the mountainside above camp. There are several beautiful glaciers up above camp that I was aiming for. Also, an area I had heard about called, "The Rock Garden". I grabbed a radio, so I could check in to camp at regular intervals, and headed up the mountain. The scenery was spectacular! Some of the most unique boulders I have ever seen. The glacier was also spectacular. It really made me feel very small when I walked up to it. I turned my GoPro on and did a time warp video on my run back down to camp. This was around 1am this morning. Great way to start a day. The scenery goes by fast, thus the name "time warp", so if you see something you'd like a closer look at, just push pause and check it out. Looking at the boulders will easily convince you of the power behind Antarctica's weather. Powerful katabatic winds rip through these valleys. They start from the South Pole, almost 10,000 feet above these valleys. The cold, dense air races downhill at speeds well over 200 mph. These winds pick up sand and blast these holes into these boulders.

Hike To Blood Falls

After returning from my hike to the glacier above camp, and the Rock Garden area, at about 1am, I got a few hours of sleep and woke up ready to fly out to McMurdo. Weather closed in and we got word that all flights were cancelled. I was not sad. That meant another hike could be done. One of the Dry Valley's best sites was within hiking distance from the Lake Bonney Camp. It is called Blood Falls.

Blood Falls is at the toe of the Taylor , where it dumps into Lake Bonney. Under Taylor (subglacial) is a massive amount of very briny (salty) solution. That brine solution, which also has iron dissolved in it, gets pushed out of the glacier at that location. As soon as the solution hits the air, it oxidizes (rusts), which gives it that distinct blood color.