Taking advantage of the windless afternoons and longer clear blue sky days that have presented themselves this week at Mawson, three expeditioners — Mark Savage, Michael Brill and Donna Wightman — packed up a Hägglunds and took off to the windiest hut on the plateau, Henderson hut. The plan was to stay the night and the next day to scramble up Mt Henderson (951m) in the afternoon once the daily katabatic wind eased.
Arriving at the hut late afternoon with very little wind gave us the opportunity to take in the amazing views looking around the plateau. The night was filled with the usual talk of home, station, family, spending money, holidays and work. During the wee hours of the night as ‘mother nature calls’ Michael witnessed the aurora lights and manage to capture them on his camera.
The next day we woke up to clear blue skies and strong katabatic winds, but knew it was likely to ease off in the afternoon. So plenty of time to read, fall back to sleep, and relax. The afternoon wind did ease but not as much as we had hoped. We got ourselves ready for our hike up Mt Henderson and set off slow and steady. The higher we got the more the wind abated and the views were spectacular. After ascending almost 300m elevation over scree the final 50m required some roped scrambling to reach the rocky summit. Once at the top we had time for a few photos of “we made it”, before heading back down again. The wind had started to pick up again and it was time to keep going.
Once down and back into the hut a sense of achievement was had by all.
Donna Wightman
