Horizon

by Barry Lopez

To bolster my chances of getting approval from the lead NSF representative at McMurdo for such a trip, knowing some were sure to declare it too risky, I selected a group of highly qualified friends and acquaintances with backgrounds in search and rescue, and then added in McMurdo’s head snow-machine mechanic. I presented my case to the NSF supervisor in his office on a Saturday afternoon, a few minutes before his office closed (and, I knew, just before he and his staff would be gathering at one of McMurdo’s bars to socialize). I handed him a list of names with each person’s credentials, along with all the required paperwork describing several tasks we intended to perform and signed forms from each person’s supervisor, releasing them for the trip. Everyone in the group, I told the NSF representative, had read the guidelines governing entry to Specially Protected Area Number 6 (Cape Crozier) and had signed a form I’d prepared saying that they had. As for the route there and back, it had been flagged by a New Zealand group some weeks earlier and the flags were still in place. I’d checked. The supervisor nodded thoughtfully at all the paperwork and finally said okay. Early the next morning, long before any supervisor might reconsider and ask for further discussion, we were gone.