DescriptionWhiteout to clear, Mt. Lyell and its icefield.jpg
English: Traveling from bad whiteout conditions to clear visibility in a few seconds, traversing across the Lyell Icefield on Mt. Lyell.
Dave, Linda, Kris and I had been in blinding whiteout conditions all morning, in a heavy Type 3 whiteout. We were unable to see any hint of features, except for yawning crevasses as we drew near to an area of large crevasses. Even then, the crevasses appeared to be the horizon at first, until we were almost on top of them. People behind on the rope still swore they were the horizon.
We then realised we were going off our planned track, and made a 90⁰ turn North to get around the crevasse field.
To keep traveling in a straight line in such a featureless place was difficult for me as leader. I got the others to tell me if I was veering right or left.
Then suddenly, we were out of 'the soup' and could see for miles except for behind us, where the stationary whiteout cloud bank remained.
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