McMurdo – South Pole Highway

South Pole Traverse
McMurdo–South Pole Highway
A red line indicating the path of the traverse
Route information
Length:	995 mi (1,601 km)
Existed:	2007 – present
Major junctions
South end:	Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station
North end:	McMurdo Station
Highway system
Transport in Antarctica

The South Pole Traverse, also called the McMurdo–South Pole Highway, is an approximately 995-mile-long (1,601 km) compacted snow road in Antarctica that links the United States's McMurdo Station on the coast to the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. It was constructed by leveling snow and filling in crevasses, but is not paved; flags mark its route.

After four years of development, the trail was fully traversed for the first time in 2005, with Caterpillar and Case Corp. tractors pulling specialized sleds to deliver fuel and cargo to the South Pole in about 40 days. The return trip to McMurdo Station, with less fuel and cargo, is substantially quicker. Construction started during the 2002/03 southern summer field season. It was finished in the 2005/2006 southern summer.

The McMurdo Ice Shelf and the Antarctic Plateau are relatively stable. Most crevasses occur in the short steep shear zone between them, where the road climbs along Leverett Glacier from near the southernmost point of Ross Ice Shelf to the Polar Plateau more than 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) above sea level. This section of the road needs maintenance each season. The section caused much more construction work than planned, because the ice sheets are likely to move.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) in an effort to lower cost and potentially develop a more reliable method of supplying the South Pole Station funded a new "Traverse Program". Bad weather at McMurdo some summers has reduced the total number of supply flights the NSF could make to bring in construction supplies and scientific equipment. In addition, the traverse saves an estimated 40 flights and lowers the carbon footprint over the use of aircraft. After a one-year hiatus, a traverse team re-occupied the trail during the 2007–08 season after extensive work and completed the first operational traverse in 2008–09.