Una Peaks

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Una Peaks
British Antarctic Territory
Unas tits 2010.jpg
Una Peaks, January 2010
Range: Graham Land
Summit: 2,450 feet 65°1’28"S, 63°46’36"W

Una Peaks, also known as Cape Renard Tower,[1] are two towers of basalt, each topped by a cap of ice, guarding the northern entrance to the Lemaire Channel on the Antarctic Peninsula within the British Antarctic Territory.

The individual towers are referred to as "buttresses".[2] With the highest summit at 2,450 feet.

They peaks were for some years known by the colloquial name of Una's Tits and were even identified as such on some navigation charts. However, the name was not approved by the Antarctic Place Names Committee of the United Kingdom, until in 2008 the Committee approved the name Una Peaks.[3] The Committee states that the peaks are:

"Named for Una Spivey (née Sedgwick) Secretary to the Governor of the Falkland Islands, Sir Miles Clifford, 1949-51, also known as Cape Renard Towers."[4]

Una Sedgwick married Major Robert Edward Spivey (1921-1994), of the Parachute Regiment and of long, illustrious service with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey,[5][6][7] and from whom Mount Spivey on Alexander Island is named. Thus Robert and Una Spivey may be the only husband and wife who between then have three Antarctic mountains named after them.

(Sir Miles Clifford has the Clifford Glacier and Clifford Peak named after him.)

The first ascent of the Una Peaks was by J Condon and R Prohaska in February 1997. The tallest tower has only been summited once; on this occasion it was by a German team in 1999.

The peaks appear on a British Antarctic Territory stamp.

Outside links

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("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Una Peaks)

References

  1. American Alpine Club (1998). American Alpine Journal. Seattle, Washington: The Mountaineers Books. p. 136. ISBN 0-930410-78-5. 
  2. American Alpine Club: American Alpine Journal, 1998 (pub. The Mountaineers Books) ISBN 0-930410-78-5
  3. Una Peaks: a long overdue Antarctic geographical naming – Cambridge JournalsPolar Record, September 2008
  4. BAS Gazetteer - Una Peaks
  5. Obituary, Daily Telegraph 25 June 1994
  6. Stewart, John: 'Antarctica: An Encyclopedia', Second Edition (McFarland & Co, 2011) ISBN 978-0786435906
  7. British Antarctic Survey

Sources

  • Antarctica. Sydney: Reader's Digest, 1985, pp. 126–127.
  • Gazetteer and Map of The British Antarctic Territory: Una Peaks