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Day 5: Team lands at Union Glacier to face lunar-like landscape

Dr. Ross, team reach Union Glacier, 864 metres above sea level

It’s only -7 degrees Celsius!

Well, the plane took off and 5 hours later we landed at Union Glacier, Antarctica, 864 metres above sea level! We are here. It's 6:45 and dinner is at 7. Our luggage so fun to call our gear that will be offloaded shortly. It’s 8 kilometres from the blue ice runway to camp. We still need to set up tents etc... will be a late night. Briefing is at 9, then we go out to set camp.

The plane is one helluva beast. It's kind of hard to describe what it feels like. But imagine something BIG with no amenities. They did serve lunch to us!

When you deplane, it feels like you have landed on a c nothing but snow, glaciers and mountains. Distance is impossible to determine – you look at a mountain and it is 20 kilometres away and the glacier is 4 kilometres wide. You can see for miles.

The camp is pristine and its location makes it ideal as the wind is minimal. We are putting up camp beside the main area. Then there are two large tents for eating – one for the ALE clients and one for clients guided by others: us and Polar Explorers.

Tomorrow we are supposed to break camp, ski out 4 kilometres and set camp, do some exercises (stove etc.), then we ski back and either set camp here or fly out to the last degree, we don’t know yet.

Dr. Heather Ross is travelling to the South Pole to raise awareness for heart disease.
Follow her Journey to the Bottom of the Earth exclusively on Yahoo! Canada.