Mount Sisu is a mountain in the Antarctic. Finnish mountaineers Veikka Gustafsson and Patrick Degerman were the first people to ascend it, in 1997. It was named after the Finnish concept of sisu , meaning a sense of steadfast, rugged perseverance. The name has not been officially sanctioned by the United States Geological Survey, as it is not found on their Geographic Names Information System, [1] nor does it meet the organization's standards for geological nomenclature on the Antarctic continent. [1]
A mountain is a large landform that rises above the surrounding land in a limited area, usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is generally steeper than a hill. Mountains are formed through tectonic forces or volcanism. These forces can locally raise the surface of the earth. Mountains erode slowly through the action of rivers, weather conditions, and glaciers. A few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in huge mountain ranges.
The Antarctic is a polar region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other island territories located on the Antarctic Plate or south of the Antarctic Convergence. The Antarctic region includes the ice shelves, waters, and all the island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence, a zone approximately 32 to 48 km wide varying in latitude seasonally. The region covers some 20 percent of the Southern Hemisphere, of which 5.5 percent is the surface area of the Antarctic continent itself. All of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude are administered under the Antarctic Treaty System. Biogeographically, the Antarctic ecozone is one of eight ecozones of the Earth's land surface.
Eero Veikka Juhani Gustafsson, known as Veikka Gustafsson is a Finnish mountaineer who has ascended all 14 eight-thousanders in the world without the use of supplemental oxygen. He is also known for presenting a TV Travel Show on Finnish Television. In 1993 Gustafsson became the first Finnish person to have reached the top of Mount Everest. In the spring of 1997, he also became the first Finn to have reached the summit without the use of bottled oxygen.
Mount Sisu, reaching a height of 4300 meters over sea level, is located in the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains, also the site of the highest peak in the Antarctic, the Vinson Massif. The nearest other peaks to Mount Sisu are Mount Anderson and Mount Bentley. [2]
The Sentinel Range is a major mountain range situated northward of Minnesota Glacier and forming the northern half of the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica. The range trends NNW-SSE for about 185 km (115 mi) and is 24 to 48 km wide. Many peaks rise over 4,000 m (13,100 ft) and Vinson Massif (4892 m) in the southern part of the range is the highest elevation on the continent.
The Ellsworth Mountains are the highest mountain ranges in Antarctica, forming a 360 km (224 mi) long and 48 km (30 mi) wide chain of mountains in a north to south configuration on the western margin of the Ronne Ice Shelf in Marie Byrd Land. They are bisected by Minnesota Glacier to form the Sentinel Range to the north and the Heritage Range to the south. The former is by far the higher and more spectacular with Mount Vinson (4,892 m) constituting the highest point on the continent. Geologically, they are part of the Antarctandes which stretch from the Antarctic Peninsula to Cape Adare on the western shore of the Ross Sea. The Antarctandes form the southernmost arc of the Pacific 'Ring of Fire'. The mountains are located within the Chilean Antarctic territorial claim but outside of the Argentinian and British ones.
Vinson Massif is a large mountain massif in Antarctica that is 21 km (13 mi) long and 13 km (8.1 mi) wide and lies within the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains. It overlooks the Ronne Ice Shelf near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. The massif is located about 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) from the South Pole. Vinson Massif was discovered in January 1958 by U.S. Navy aircraft. In 1961, the Vinson Massif was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN), after Carl G. Vinson, United States congressman from the state of Georgia, for his support for Antarctic exploration. On November 1, 2006, US-ACAN declared Mount Vinson and Vinson Massif to be separate entities.
