Photo on National Geographic Traveler

The first of what I hope to be several photos from Antarctica was published yesterday on National Geographic Travelers Travel 365 feature.  It is located here:

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/365-photos/erebus-glacier-tongue-antartica

The photo published by NG.

The cave was located in the Erebus Ice Tongue near Ross Island, Antarctica.  An ice tongue is simply a glacier that continues past the edge of the land and is floating in water.  This was the second time we had been to the cave after finding it the first time two days earlier.  At that time we did not enter it because we did not have the equipment or time to determine stability and overall safety.  This photo was shot as Cory and I entered the cave and assessed the roof stability.  The original intent of entering the cave was so it could be used as a recreational trip for people working at McMurdo Station.  Ice conditions and transportation issues unfortunately did not allow this to happen.  The New Zealand program did end up using it for this purpose and used it as a side trip on Cape Evans and Cape Royds recreational trips.  

The cave and as much as two kilometers of the ice tongue are now gone.  Sometime in mid February the floating tongue broke off and floated out into McMurdo Sound.  

Here are a few more photos of the cave.  

The Barne Glacier

Here is a pretty picture to start your post election day morning.    

Weddell Seals

Each day we are on the sea ice there seems to be more and more seals.  It is birthing time here for the seals, and we have already seen one baby.  The seals can be found at cracks in the ice, where they work to keep holes open by chewing on the ice.  We watched one seal attempt to get out of a hole three times before it started to make the hole bigger by scraping the ice with its teeth.  Many of the seal holes have blood around them from the males who guard their holes from other males.  It is not uncommon to see bloodied male seals outside the holes covered in snow having not appeared to move for many hours.  These seals are exhausted from fighting for their holes.   As soon as they are rested they return to the water to continue to guard the hole.  Below are a few photos from one of the hole we saw the other day.

Mother and pup.

An exhausted male.

A seal looking up through its hole.

This seal took four tries to get out of the hole.   The one in the background had a blood trail from the hole to where it was laying.  There are several large wounds on its back flipper and around its genital areas, which is where the males bite each other.

A seal rolling in the fresh snow after getting out of the hole.

A seal carving the hole with its teeth.

Resting.

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