Table Mountain

In the three remaining days of our programme, we had been scheduled to join Event K12 at New Harbour. Since they had already completed their programme we instead moved to Table Mountain in order to complete our sampling of the Beacon sandstones, which, in this region rest at the Kukri Erosion Surface, which is cut in plutonic basement rocks.

On Friday 15 December, we arrived at Table Mountain. Karen Williams replaced Peter Garden, who had twisted his knee on the final sampling day at Beacon Heights and returned to Scott Base as a precautionary measure.

The remainder of the 15th and part of the 16th were spent surveying the section. Then the motor malfunctioned and the rest of the day was used in repairing it.

Consequently, Sunday 17th, the last day began at 0100. We started at the bottom of the section, about 1 1/2 hours' walk from the camp. Although clear, it was very cold. The petrol hose froze stiff and fractured, but after being retained and restarted, the motor ran for about 15 minutes and stopped, due to no spark. We returned to camp, stripped the motor, to find a short at the contact breaker and returned to the top of the section by 1200. It had started to snow, but this time we worked down. We completed our sampling near the base of the section at 1900 hours. By this time approximately 300 mm of snow had fallen and visibility was very restricted.