The bigger challenge, though, is the ice cracks. The ice cracks are getting wider and the snow over them is deeper. In some cases, it doesn't help to have the ice ax. It would be better to have a bamboo pole. Bamboo poles are used to flag the routes that are safe to travel.
Teams go out on a regular basis to keep track of ice cracks and their changes.
The routes are then marked every 40 meters, or 120 feet, by green or red fags attached to bamboo poles. When we travel back and forth to McMurdo, we follow the green flags. Black flags mark danger or hazards. We have yellow and orange flags marking our communication lines to the solar unit that are lying across the ice so we don't drive over them. The travel out to Barnes Glacier and Cape Royds is now becoming resricted because of the changes in the ice cracks in that area.