Booth Island

Booth Island
Wilhelm Archipelago (British Antarctic Territory)
Icebergs and Booth Island
Location
Location:	65°5’14"S, 63°59’46"W
Data
Population:	Uninhabited

Booth Island is a rugged, Y-shaped island, five miles long and rising swiftly out of the sea to a summit of 3,215 feet.

The island is in the north-eastern part of the Wilhelm Archipelago off the north-west of the Kiev Peninsula of Graham Land in the British Antarctic Territory. It is the largest of the Archipelago.

The scenic Lemaire Channel separates Booth Island from the mainland; a narrow passage beloved by cruise ships.

The island was discovered by the German Antarctic Expedition under Eduard Dallmann 1873–74, and named by Dallmann probably for Oskar Booth or Stanley Booth, or both, members of the Hamburg Geographical Society at that time. The Belgian Antarctic Expedition mapped the island too and named it 'Wandel Island' in honour of the Danish polar explorer and hydrographer Carl Frederick Wandel. The original name is now accepted, but as a compromise the island's peak is named "Wandel Peak.

Wandel Peak

The highest point of the island, Wandel Peak, is 3,215 feet above sea level. Damien Gildea called it "one of the most challenging unclimbed objectives on the Antarctic Peninsula". On 15 February 2006 however the peak was reached by a group of Spanish alpinists, who still avoided the last 30 to 50 feet of the mushroomlike top.

Outside links

• Atlas of Antarctic Research, U.S. Geological Survey

References

• Gazetteer and Map of The British Antarctic Territory: Booth Island
• Gildea, Damien: 'Climbs and Expeditions: Antarctic Peninsula': American Alpine Journal vol. 45 no. 77 (2003) p. 335
• Tamayo, José Carlos in John Harlin III (ed.) 'The American Alpine Journal', (Mountaineers Books, 2006) p. 294 ISBN 1-933056-01-0