Transantarctic Mountains

Journey to the Transantarctic Mountains can be the most vivid, complicated and impressive adventure of your life. There are many unclimbed peaks and fantastic landscapes. Most of mountains in Antarctica are not active volcanoes, and they are not very dangerous. Climbing in the Antarctica mountains can be daunting at times, however, because to the often frigid temperatures and strong winds. Here the largest scientific continent base station McMurdo is located, where many of the expeditions starts. In fact it's a real town - it has buildings, roads, cars and even lampposts and post-office. Antarctica might not be the most highly visited destination in the world, but the few tourists who manage to make it here every year would likely recommend it without delay.

The Transantarctic Mountains are one of the longest mountain system on Earth and the most dominant mountain system on the continent. They are considerably older than other mountain systems of the continent, and mainly volcanic in origin. The system includes a number of separately named mountain groups, which are often subdividing into smaller ranges. Many of the peaks in the chain are over 4000 meters (13000 feet).

The Transantarctic Mountains stretches from one side of the continent to the other between the Ross Sea and the Weddell Sea and essentially serves as a division between the eastern and the western side of Antarctica.

At least two active volcanoes can be found in Antarctica, and one of them erupted in January 2008. Before this recent eruption, Mt Erebus the southernmost active volcano on earth on Ross Island in the McMurdo Sound, was the continent's only active volcano.

 

The summits and dry valleys of the Transantarctic Mountains are some of the few places in Antarctica not covered by ice. The Dry Valleys lie near McMurdo Sound and represent a special Antarctic phenomenon: landscapes that are snow and ice free due to the extremely limited precipitation and ablation of ice in the valleys.

 

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