sastrugi noun, normally occurs in this form as pl. though sastrugis (see 1993 quotation) is known. Sing. sometimes sastruga, sastrugos, sastrugus
[Sastrugi is recorded in Canadian English from 1851.]
Ridges of snow (becoming ice) formed and hardened by the wind, and indicating direction of the prevailing wind because they run parallel to this. These can be from a few centimetres to two or three metres high and make travelling hell.
1906 (South Orkneys) Rudmose Brown, R.N., Mossman, R.C. and Pirie, J.H. Harvey The voyage of the "Scotia', being the record of a voyage of exploration in Antarctic Seas by Three of the Staff William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh: 343.
Walking was, however, somewhat difficult, as the surface of the whole floe was excavated by the wind into a mass of small pits called "sastrugi," some over two feet in depth.
1909 (nr White Island) Shackleton, E.H. The heart of the Antarctic: being the story of the British Antarctic Expedition 1907–1909 William Heinemann, London: 273.
Often as we marched the sledges would be brought up all standing by a sastrugus, or snow mound, caused by the wind, and we would be lucky if we were not tripped up ourselves. Small depressions would escape the eye altogether, and when we thought that we were marching along on a level surface, we would suddenly step down two or three feet. 1912 Amundsen, R. in Mercury [Hobart] 11 Mar: 5.
There were no sastrugi (ridges of snow), and only local crevasses.
1915 (Shackleton Ice-Shelf) Wild, Frank in Mawson, Sir Douglas The home of the blizzard: being the story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 William Heinemann, London: 58.
The slope was covered with sastrugi ridges, three to four feet in height.
-275 Bage, R.
In Adelie Land, even when the air was clear of snow, it was easy to bump against a four-foot sastruga without seeing it.
28 Feb 1912 Cherry-Garrard, Apsley (1994 repr.)The worst journey in the world Picador, London: 432.
I had my first upset just after starting, the sledge capsizing on a great sastrugus like the Ramp.
1949 (Heard Island) Scholes, Arthur Fourteen men: story of the Australian Antarctic Expedition to Heard Island F.W. Cheshire, Melbourne: 183.
The ski-ers said the sastrugi formations on the "flat" took the speed out of their runs.
1958 Fuchs, V. in Fuchs, Sir Vivian and Hillary, Sir Edmund The crossing of Antarctica: the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955-58 Cassell & Co, London: 242.
The two Weasels and the Muskeg ..were slower than the 'cats' over the murderous sastrugi.
1959 Siple, Paul 90 degrees South: the story of the American South Pole conquest G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York: 154.
The high altitude and the sastrugi-strewn path to the Pole had winded the not-yet-acclimated men.
1979 Kilian, Crawford Icequake Futura Publictions, London: 63.
Snow was deep and powdery in the lee of each sastrugus, and in places they waded knee-deep.
1988 Porter, Eliot Antarctica, 2nd edn Arch Cape Press, NY: 118.
Any projection object on the open plain soon develops a long sastrugos tail.
1989 May, John The Greenpeace book of Antarctica, 2nd edn Child & Associates, Sydney: 29.
[caption] The strong winter winds of Antarctica combine with the heavy coastal snowfall to produce a dramatic landscape. Together they erode the surface, sculpting it into a corrugated "sea" of irregularly shaped snow forms, known as sastrugi.
1993 Claassen, P. and Sharp, P.A., eds Draft comprehensive environmental evaluation of the proposed new SANAE IV facility ot Vesleskarvet, Queen Maud Land, Antarctica Department of Environmental Affairs, Pretoria: 2-6.
The direction of sastrugis at the site of the base indicates the prevailing wind direction.
1993 Fiennes, Ranulph Mind over matter: the epic crossing of the Antarctic continent Sinclair-Stevenson, London: betw. 54 and 55.
[caption] Sastrugi: a word from Russian meaning icy features built from snow. These iron-hard ridges were a great problem both on the 1993 manhaul journey and, even more so, on the 1980 Trans-globe Expedition. Here, on that earlier expedition, Oliver Shepard's sledge is jammed on a three-foot-high sastruga.
1996 (McMurdo Sound) Wheeler, Sara Terra incognita: travels in Antarctica Jonathan Cape, London: 171.
If you hit a sastrugi and fall off without your safety cord connected to kill the motor, the thing just keeps going till it runs out of fuel - could be a hundred miles.
sastrugi'd adjective Also sastrugized
(Of a snow surface) formed into sastrugi.
10 Feb 1912 Wilson, Edward in King, H.G.R., ed. (1972) Diary of the Terra Nova expedition to the Antarctic 1910-1912 Blandford Press, London: 242.
The snow in this neve is pitted in small cups on the east and S.E. but sastrugized with no pitting on the N. and N.W.
1986 Jenkins, Adrian and Summerson, Rupert Travel report - Sledge Golf. Glacier geophysics Ronne Ice Shelf traverse 17 Dec 1985-24 Feb 1986 British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge: 17.
The surface was good and flat then becoming increasingly sastrugi'd.
The Antarctic Dictionary, Hince, 2000; 297