Castle Rock Hike

Current Weather: -18F, windchill -51F, Mostly Cloudy



On Tuesday, Dave and I had the day off, so we took a hike out to Castle Rock. It is a 3.7 mile hike out to the rock, and then you can either turn around and head home, or continue to make about an 11 mile hike. We chose to go short and sweet, but it was a gorgeous hike indeed!


lovely, cold! The frost on my hat is from my breath!

The trailhead starts at the back side of McMurdo, and heads over the rolling white landscape towards Castle Rock. A single crest about 1/3 of the way into the trail keeps you from seeing the entire trail laid out before you, as there are no trees, and few obstacles to obscure the way. The view to the horizon in all directions is breathtaking, especially at 1am with the sun raking low across the land. Mountains, peaks, and snow in all directions! The wind was sweet and gentle for most of our travel, occasionally blowing whispering sheets across the path. It wasn’t hard to extrapolate how harsh, cruel, the wind could be if you were caught out in it at an inopportune moment!

This barren landscape holds unexpected beauty for those who are not continually scanning the horizon. Sastrugi (sounds like a Polish strudel?) are wind-carved contours in the snow. These imitate the ridges, peaks, and bowls of a mountain range, in miniature.


sastrugi: beautiful sculpture


sastrugi in the landscape


these wind-made ridges are relatively large!

We also happened upon what looked to me like an upside-down sea urchin, buried in the ice on part of the trail. An anthill of rocks, in a puddle of clear ice, radiating airy spikes towards the ground encased below.


an archipelago, caught in ice


check out those air pockets!




Castle Rock: this bare reddish rock juts from the snowdrifts, standing proud, asking to be scaled. The trail to the top is not open yet, so we had to suffice with a short traverse around some of the base, to the far side. Standing in the shadow of the rock, the wind was cold, and we did not stay long.


Castle Rock, from afar


beautiful red rock, one of the few bare formations on the island!

There are two Apples on this trail. An Apple is an emergency shelter- they are made of fiberglass, and painted bright red. We stopped into the one closest to the rock and had a brief warm-up chocolate eating session, to give ourselves strength to return to McMurdo.


little Apple, savior in a storm


Apples are attached to sleds by external cables. the sleds are burried in the snow


little igloo satellite cabin, made in Tasmania


this one had a log book for visitors, and a bubble window!


the inside floor of the Apples are covered in snow, and this one had some stalagmites


the Apple must come in pieces, which are bolted together- probably at McMurdo


escape hatch in the roof!

The other highlight of the Apple is the Pee Flag. There are no outhouses on the icy frozen trails here, only pee flags. Amazingly, and sweetly, one does not find "yellow snow" continually edging the trail...it is all clumped here, around the pee flag. Hooray for the pee flag!