Submitted Friday, Nov. 16, 2007
Altitude: 2400m
Air temperature (23:00 local time): -21 degrees C

It was the long awaited day for us all, the departure of our traverse from Troll Station. At 10:10, the traverse train started rolling under a beautiful Antarctic blue sky. Emotion of team members were a mix of the excitement of embarking on a journey we have been preparing for more than 2 years, and sentimentality, to say good bye to people of Troll station who were so generous and provided us with all the helping hands we needed.

Today we gained almost 1200m in altitude, from ~1250m at Troll to 2400m at the camp site. At some of steep climbs we had to get through today, one vehicle was caught in soft snow and needed a towing support by another one. But no major problems were encountered and we made a progress as planned.

Along the way we enjoyed some final views of the starkly beautiful mountains and glaciers. We are heading into the vast interior of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and will soon lose sight of anything but the sky, flat ice sheet and ourselves. But we are looking forward to that too actually!

This contribution is from the log of the Norwegian-US Scientific Traverse Team, who are en route from Troll Station to the South Pole Station. Much more information can be found here.