Table of Contents

Foreword / Peter Barrett 8
Erebus Son of Chaos 11
1. Antarctica: Carved by ice, forged in fire 17
2. ‘Mountains of Madness’: A continent ringed by fiery islands 29
3. ‘This Splendid Burning Mountain’: The discovery of Mount Erebus, 1841 46
4. ‘Keeper of the Southern Gateway’: The first ascent of Mount Erebus, 1908 68
5. ‘Give me Erebus for my friend’: The second ascent, 1912 91
6. HMS Pemmican sails on Erebus: The third ascent, 1959, and beyond 107
7. The heartbeat of Erebus: Probing the defences of the volcano, 1970s 129
8. ‘No Latitude for Error’: Reflections on the 1979
Ross Island air crash 161
9. The darkness beckons: Roger Mear’s solo winter ascent
of Erebus, 1985 185
10. Scrambles in the heart of the Antarctic: An ascent of Erebus from Cape Royds, 1991 204
11. Tread lightly in a land of extremophiles: The unique microbial world of Erebus 219
12. The magma and the mantle: Solving the Erebus enigma,
1980–2016 . . . and beyond 239
13. Shaping a volcano: Erebus and the artistic imagination / Adele Jackson 263
Erebus chronology 286
Air New Zealand Flight TE901 302
Glossary 308
Notes 313
Further reading 317
About the author 334
Acknowledgements 335
Index 339

About the Author

Colin Monteath is a widely published polar and mountain photographer and writer based in Christchurch. He has spent 32 seasons in Antarctica, from 1973 to 1983 working as the field operations officer for the New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme at Scott Base with science parties, rescue teams and huskies. In 1978, on his third science expedition to Mount Erebus, he made the first descent into the Inner Crater. As a result of his involvement with the recovery operation after the 1979 air crash on Ross Island, Colin was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal and later the Erebus Medal. In 1982, Colin was the guide during Prince Edward’s visit to Ross Dependency.