Staccato Peaks

Staccato Peaks
British Antarctic Territory
	Alexander Island
Summit:	3,085 feet 71°46’60"S, 70°39’0"W

Staccato Peaks are a series of rock peaks in the south part of Alexander Island in the British Antarctic Territory. The peaks rise from the snowfields 20 miles south of the Walton Mountains and extend eleven miles in a north-south direction, rising to about 3,085 feet at their highest point at the summit of Hageman Peak.

These peaks were first sighted from the air by Lincoln Ellsworth on 23 November 1935, and were mapped from photographs taken on that flight by W.L.G. Joerg. They were remapped from aerial photographs taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition in 1947–48, by Searle of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1960. The name, given by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee, refers to the precipitous and abrupt way in which the peaks rise from the surrounding snowfields and is associated with other musical names in the vicinity.

2012 British Antarctic Survey expedition

In December 2012, Hamish Pritchard of the British Antarctic Survey embarked on an expedition through the Staccato Peaks. He and his expedition arrived at the Shostakovich Peninsula, and trekked inland in an eastward direction, they reached Hageman Peak shortly afterwards, and marched into the central zone of Staccato Peaks, here, a two-man field camp was established at the base of Duffy Peak overnight. After striking the minor field camp, Pritchard's team continued to travel eastward before they left the geographical vicinity of these peaks, after traveling an elapsed distance of almost 25 miles, Pritchard arrived at Mimas Peak, which he climbed on 16 December 2012,

Hamish Pritchard became the first individual to reach the summit of Mimas Peak, and while climbing he examined rock samples from which he concluded that these summits must have emerged from retreating ice sheets hundreds of years ago.

References

• Gazetteer and Map of The British Antarctic Territory: Staccato Peaks