A 200-foot ice fall on the edge of the Shirmacher Oasis in Queen Maud Land.

Trekking below a 200-foot ice fall, on a frozen lake, preparing to hike up a glacier and cross a snow bridge.

A nunatak (glacial island) is an exposed, often rocky element of a ridge, mountain, or peak not covered with ice or snow within (or at the edge of) an ice field or glacier that serves as easy landmark. This one, near our base camp, always meant we were close to home.

Trekking in the Schirmacher Oasis situated in the Schirmacher Hills in Queen Maud Land, with Nunatak in the distance.

The Nunatak near our camp in the Schirmacher Oasis in Queen Maud Land was a relatively easy climb up rock and ice. If you look closely, you can see some of our group on the top.

Trekking on glaciers and ice in Queen Maud Land meant putting on campons for traction. Once I got used to them, I loved using them, but they never got easier to put on.

While trekking on this glacier at a few thousand feet altitude, we encountered a DC-3 Basler Basler at about the same altitude coming in for a landing at about the same altitude at Novolazareyskaya ice runway.

While trekking on this glacier at a few thousand feet altitude, we encountered a DC-3 Basler coming in for a landing at about the same altitude at Novolazareyskaya ice runway.

Trekking on ice and glaciers in Queen Maud Land. It’s hard to capture the perspective of height and incline/steepness when it’s nothing but white and blue for thousands of miles in every direction.

The Schirmacher Oasis, where I stayed, and the Schirmacher Hills that surround it, are so vast it was impossible to gain perspective. Enormous mountains looked like dots, and distances of hundreds of kilometers were easily mistaken for short walks.

White as far as the eye can see. In Queen Maud Land.

The final stretch trekking down a glacier, after making it to the top. Those are people at the bottom, near the melting ice that looked like a heart.

On top of a mountain looking out across Queen Maud Land’s endless vista of white.

A giant ice fall behind a frozen lake near our camp on the Schirmaker Oasis in Queen Maud Land.

Queen Maud Land is so vast, enormous mountain looked like dots, and distances of hundreds of kilometers were easily mistaken for short walks. Those are people on the right, trekking towards Nunatak.

Taking a break on the long trek up a glacier, with other members of our group bringing up the rear, Nunatak in the distance, and melting ice in the shape of a heart.