Expedition Panoramas: Flowers Hills

Click and drag in the image above. Two hundred twenty miles from Patriot Hills, Flowers Hills was chosen as the starting point for the NOVA team's base-to-summit climb of the east side of the Ellsworth Range. Lying at an elevation of 3,800 feet, Flowers Hills sits just above the Rutford Ice Stream, which transects the base of the Ellsworth mountains. The NOVA climbers set up their first camp here at Flowers Hills, which has a spectacular view of Vinson and the other high peaks of the Ellsworths. From here, expedition leader Conrad Anker, glaciologist Dan Stone, and the NOVA camera crew skied down to 1,000 feet above sea level, where they dug their first snow pit for an accumulation study. The others carried loads up to what would be Camp I.