Hoping for a year of bonkers adventures with skis, axes, tents...

Hoping for a year of bonkers adventures with skis, axes, tents and sticky rubber!

I’ve just spent a long (this is Scotland in December!)...

I’ve just spent a long (this is Scotland in December!) windy and snowy night camped below the mountain Braeriach. The weather was too poor to climb to the summit, but it was a very useful exercise to shake down some new gear in advance of the Homathko traverse in spring, and gave me an opportunity to practise navigation with map and compass.

Photo

Glacier calving in Patagonia.

Glacier calving in Patagonia.

Patagonia - sunset and sunrise

Patagonia - sunset and sunrise

dame-de-pique: Fridtjof Nansen - Polar Landscape with Lars...

dame-de-pique:

Fridtjof Nansen - Polar Landscape with Lars Pettersen in the foreground, 1894

Second engineer on the Fram, the only non-Norwegian on the team. These guys were far from home, both literally and figuratively. But more figuratively than literally, which is what makes for a true adventure in a wild place.

via Tumblr http://ift.tt/1C2SoBu

Carlita Bay Cabin

cabinporn:

Hut on Carlita Bay, South Georgia.
See more photos from contributor Alex Cowan.

I'm on Cabin Porn!

Newsflash: Antarctica Still Not Disneyland

There have been at least four ships already this Antarctic summer that have cancelled cruises, due to various issues (many of which were unavoidable) but the latest cancellations are, remarkably, due to a plane crash in Antarctica.

The crash happened at Eduardo Frei Base (belonging to Chile) on King George Island in the South Shetlands, which are separated from the Antarctic mainland by the Bransfield Strait. The aircraft involved was a C-130 Hercules belonging to the Brazilian air force.

The airstrip at Frei is not only used by scientific personnel but also by tourists lacking the time or the motivation to take on the crossing of the notorious Drake Passage. Their ship waits nearby, and as soon as the passengers board they’re off, making landings across the Peninsula

When cancellations happen everyone is understandably very disappointed. Who wouldn’t be, after spending all that money, taking all that time off work, and spending so long dreaming of Antarctica? Some are sad, some are angry and all are surprised. Of course they are.

When accidents occur on a ship then it turns around and heads for home — there’s no rescue out here, except by fellow cruise vessels. The best you can possibly do in case of a medical emergency is go to King George Island, ask for a plane and if the weather is good they will let you wait in the bay until the plane is there and ready to fly your patient out. When this happens the same reactions of disappointment, anger and surprise run through everyone on board.

While the disappointment is natural, sometimes I wonder if the anger and the surprise shouldn’t be. Some people (certainly not all) come to Antarctica expecting a natural Disneyland where they are guaranteed that they will gain entrance, get two landings a day most days and see a lot of wildlife. The reality, when it doesn’t all go to plan, can be crushing. I suspect to some extent this attitude comes from the tour companies running the trips and the travel agents selling them, but that might just be me projecting! Most of all it probably comes from the by now large numbers of people who have made successful trips, cocooned by the strong vessel they are travelling in and by the highly professional teams surrounding them. They go home and tell their friends and their friends expect the same or similar experience.

However at the end of the day surely what many people want to see is the raw, untouched continent, the final icy frontier. And in a truly raw and untouched continent, if something goes wrong we’ll have to turn and run because we’re far from the infrastructure and support we’re used to. Where if you can’t fix it yourself you’re in trouble. That’s the Antarctica I go south to see, and long may it last.

Antarctic Passport Stamps

Believe it or not, you can get your passport stamped in Antarctica. Here’s a small selection — can you guess which countries they represent?

Hardcore Traveller!

In the first four years of owning my current passport I travelled almost exclusively within Europe and so didn’t pick up many stamps. Then I started working in expedition cruising and after only three years it is full!

Argentina is the undisputed winner with 31 individual stamps, followed by Chile and the USA with 10 each.

I’ve upgraded to a 48 page ‘jumbo’ passport so hopefully this one will last a bit longer.

Torres del Paine Timelapse

Timelapse video of clouds scudding over the summits of the Torres del Paine as we drink a sundowner at our campsite.

Boom!!

Falling ice; The Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina calves blocks of ice into Lago Argentino http://flic.kr/p/q6EceU