(Image: Andrzej Krauze)
OF ALL the hills I have climbed, the one I remember most vividly is Observation hill in Antarctica, a mound of volcanic rock a mere 250 metres high. It was December 2007 and the summer sky was a clear, deep blue. From the summit I could see the frozen McMurdo sound and the sprawling McMurdo Station, the US base on the Antarctic coast. In the other direction lay the Ross ice shelf, a glistening expanse of white that stretched interminably towards the horizon, beyond which lay the South Pole.
Near the summit stood a
