The lower flanks of the peak of Cloudmaker on the western flanks of the Beardmore Glacier reveals a thick sequence of Neogene glacial sediments (the “Sirius Group”), which forms the bench above the glacier surface. Shackleton on his pioneering journey in 1908 towards the South Pole (which he did not quite reach), correctly recognised these deposits as evidence of much older glaciation than was believed at the time.