The
Beardmore Glacier in
Antarctica is one of the largest glaciers in the world, with a length exceeding 160 km (100 mi). The glacier is one of the main passages from the
Ross Ice ShelfThe Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica . It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than 600 km long, and between 15 and 50 metres high above the water surface...
through the
Queen AlexandraThe Queen Alexandra Range is a major mountain range in East Antarctica, about 160 km long, bordering the entire western side of Beardmore Glacier from the Polar Plateau to the Ross Ice Shelf. Alternate names for this range include Alexandra Mountains, Alexandra Range and Königin Alexandra...
and
CommonwealthThe Commonwealth Range is a north-south trending range of rugged mountains, 100 km long, located on the continent of Antarctica. The range borders the eastern side of Beardmore Glacier from the Ross Ice Shelf to Keltie Glacier...
ranges of the
Transantarctic MountainsThe three largest mountain ranges on the Antarctic continent are the Transantarctic Mountains , the West Antarctica Ranges, and the East Antarctica Ranges. The Transantarctic Mountains compose a mountain range in Antarctica which extend, with some interruptions, across the continent from Cape Adare...
to the
Antarctic PlateauThe Antarctic Plateau is a large area of Central Antarctica, which extends over a diameter of about , and which includes the region of the South Pole and the Amundsen-Scott Station...
, and was one of the early routes to the
South PoleThe South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...
. Beardmore Glacier has a steep upward incline.
The glacier was discovered by
Ernest ShackletonSir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE was a notable explorer from County Kildare, Ireland, who was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration...
during his
Nimrod Antarctic ExpeditionThe British Antarctic Expedition 1907–09, otherwise known as the Nimrod Expedition, was the first of three expeditions to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton. Its main target, among a range of geographical and scientific objectives, was to be first to the South Pole...
of 1908. Although Shackleton turned back before reaching the South Pole, he had discovered the first proven route to the pole, and in doing so, became the first person to set foot upon the great polar plateau. In 1911–1912,
Captain ScottCaptain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...
and his
teamThe Terra Nova Expedition , officially the British Antarctic Expedition 1910, was led by Robert Falcon Scott with the objective of being the first to reach the geographical South Pole. Scott and four companions attained the pole on 17 January 1912, to find that a Norwegian team led by Roald...
successfully reached the South Pole by climbing the Beardmore. However, they reached the pole a month after
Roald AmundsenRoald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912 and he was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. He is also known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage....
and his
teamThe first expedition to reach the geographic South Pole was led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He and four others arrived at the pole on 14 December 1911, five weeks ahead of a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott...
, who had climbed the previously unknown
Axel Heiberg GlacierThe Axel Heiberg Glacier is a valley glacier, long, descending from the high-elevations of the Antarctic Plateau into the Ross Ice Shelf between the Herbert Range and Mount Don Pedro Christophersen in the Queen Maud Mountains....
.
Beardmore Glacier is named after Sir William Beardmore, a
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
industrialist and expedition sponsor born in 1856.