Transantarctic: Mount Kirkpatrick

0 ft

Elevation

Antarctica

Country

Days

Variable

Difficulty

Early Dec

Start

Late Mar

End

About the Mountain

WHY CLIMB IT?

Few adventures can parallel climbing in the Transantarctic Mountains. Stretching over 2,100 miles across Antarctica, the Transantarctic Mountains separate the continent into East and West. Glaciers pass over them, carrying ice from the East Antarctica Ice Sheet to the Ross Sea while carving deeper into already-jagged rock. Temperatures there drop as low as -34˚F in the winter and -5˚F in the summer. It’s as harsh of an environment as you could imagine, but it’s equally as magnificent.

“Antarctica is otherworldly, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Stark, cold, beautiful desolation.”

- Mark Hoppus

While many climbers will be deterred by the cold alone, it’s manageable if you stick to the western side of the Transantarctic Mountains, where temperatures rarely fall below 14˚F and summer temperatures often stay above freezing (32˚F). Even better, the sun shines 24 hours a day in the summer, meaning you can climb to your heart’s content! Since few climbers visit Antarctica and even fewer look past Vinson Massif to other mountaineering objectives, you’ll have a rare opportunity to chart new paths and have a ‘one-of-a-kind’ experience, whether you take on Mount Kirkpatrick (14,856 ft) or one of the many other interesting peaks in the Transantarctic Range.