THE ASCENT OF EREBUS, DECEMBER 1912 
By RAYMOND PRIESTLEY 
A party of six left Cape Evans on December 2, 1912, with the 
main object of surveying the old crater, and if time pei mitted 
making an ascent to the rim of the present active crater. It was 
originally intended that in the final climb Professor David's route 
should be followed, but our researches in the old crater led to 
the adoption of quite a different way, and one where a sledge 
could be pulled to a height of considerably over 9500 feet, at 
least 3000 feet higher than the Shackleton Expedition party 
were able to reach before being obliged to abandon theirs. 
We left our Cape Royds camp (1000 feet above sea level) 
on December 4. It was not an ideal day for starting, and for the 
first 2000 feet of the ascent we groped from nunatak to nunatak 
through a thick cloud, and Debenham was unable to commence 
his plane table survey. 
We lunched above this cloud belt, and although it swelled 
slowly upwards we were, with the exception of a very few min- 
utes in the early afternoon, able to keep ahead of it until we 
camped beneath a prominent cone about 4000 feet above sea 
level, which is well seen on the sky line from Cape Evans, and 
which would therefore be an important point of Debenham’s 
survey, linking the portion of Erebus visible from Cape Evans 
and Cape Royds with the country beyond the shoulder, which 
was the last ridge visible from winter quarters. 
As we were caught by the fog in the act of camping and the 
landmarks below had been blotted out all the : fternoon by the 
belt of cloud, we were obliged to wait here until the weather 
cleared and we could fix the cone, and so persistent was the bad 
weather that it was not until 10 A.M. of the 7th that we struck 
Reflection Camp, as we had named it, and were able to proceed. 
Our first objective, the Northern Nunatak or Demetri’s Peak, 
as we afterwards named it, was within easy reach by lunch time, 
so I decided to camp at a large nunatak about a mile and a half 
