Antarctica Classic

Places To See

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station

The U.S.'s new Elevated Station, built at a cost of 165,000,000.00 and due for completion in early 2008, replaces 'the Dome', as the old station, housed under a geodesic dome built from 1971 to 1975, was known.

The new 128m/420ft-long building, raised on 36 stilts 4m (12ft) above the snow surface, is designed so that it can be jacked up by a full storey - two times - to avoid the destructive snow drifting that has crushed two previous stations at the Pole. The 5,575 sq m (60,000sq ft) structure will accommodate its 150 summer and 50 winter residents in decidedly better comfort: amenities include labs, conference rooms, music practice rooms, a two-storey basketball court and a hydroponic 'food growth chamber' (greenhouse) to raise the 'freshies' (fresh veggies) cherished by the station's winter residents. A huge gleaming aluminium stairwell - known universally as 'the Beercan' - links the Elevated Station to a sub-ice complex of storage tunnels, garages, warehouses and the station power plant.

Mawson Station

Australia's Mawson Station was established in February 1954. Named for Douglas Mawson, an Australian Antarctic explorer, it is the oldest continuously occupied station south of the Antarctic Circle. Mawson is approached through Iceberg Alley, a channel lined with huge tabular bergs that have run aground on underwater banks.

Horseshoe Harbour is the best natural harbour for thousands of kilometres, protected by two projecting arms of land. Mawson's high-altitude location makes it a good place for studying cosmic rays. This research is done in an underground vault in solid rock, 20m (66ft) below the surface. Also notable are the three 34m/112ft-tall) wind turbines that supply up to 80% of the station's power needs.

Lemaire Channel

This steep-sided channel - just 1600m (5250ft) wide - runs for 11km (7mi) between the mountains of Booth Island and the Peninsula. So photogenic that it's been dubbed 'Kodak Gap', the passageway is only visible once you're nearly inside it. The channel was first navigated by the Belgian de Gerlache in 1898 and named after a Belgian explorer of the Congo.

Unfortunately, ice sometimes blocks the way, so ships may be forced to retreat and sail outside Booth Island. At the northern end of the Lemaire are two tall, rounded and often snowcapped peaks at Cape Renard.

Pre-Departure Information

When to go?

Tourists do not visit Antarctica during winter, when the pack ice extends its frozen mantle for 1000km (621mi) around most of the continent, barricading it against all ship traffic. In any case, few people would pay thousands of dollars to experience the Antarctic winter's near round-the-clock darkness and extreme cold. At that temperature, boiling water thrown into the air freezes instantly - and noisily - into a cloud of snow.

The Antarctic tour season is short - about four months, with each offering its own highlights. November is early summer: the spring pack ice is breaking up, and birds - especially penguins - are courting and mating. December and January, when penguins are hatching eggs and feeding chicks, are the height of the austral summer, bringing warmer temperatures and up to 20 hours of sunlight every day. In the late summer month of February, whale-watching is best, penguin chicks are beginning to fledge and adult penguins are ashore molting.

There are other factors to consider in deciding when to travel: cruises later in the season may be less crowded, so you may not spend as much time waiting around for Zodiacs (motorised dinghies) and station tours. However, the longer you wait to go, the greater the risk that much of the wildlife will already have headed out to sea. For those wishing to see Ross Island's historic huts, your best bet is to go as late in the season as possible. Even with an icebreaker, it may be impossible to penetrate the pack ice that far south earlier in the season.

Travel Visa Overview

Since no-one owns Antarctica no-one needs a visa to visit it. However, shipping schedules are at the mercy of the ice and elements, so even if you are travelling directly from your home country, you will need to bring a valid passport since your vessel could possibly pull into the port of another country. You will need visas for any countries that your ship visits en route to Antarctica.

Health Information

Sunburn

Sunburn

You can get sunburned quickly and seriously, even through clouds. Use a strong sunscreen, hat and barrier cream for your nose and lips. Calamine lotion and aloe vera are good for mild sunburn. Protect your eyes with good-quality sunglasses.

Dehydration

Dehydration

This can be caused by any condition that leads to an excessive loss of body fluids, including heat, fever, diarrhoea, vomiting and strenuous physical activity. Signs of dehydration include nausea and dizziness, headache, dry eyes and mouth, weakness and muscle cramps, passing small quantities of dark urine, and raised temperature. The treatment is to drink lots of fluids: take oral re-hydration salts if available, otherwise any fluid will do.

Hypothermia

Hypothermia

This occurs when the body loses heat faster than it can produce it and the core temperature of the body falls.

It is easy to progress from very cold to dangerously cold due to a combination of wind, wet clothing, fatigue and hunger, even if the air temperature is above freezing. If the weather deteriorates, put on extra layers of warm clothing immediately: a windproof and/or waterproof jacket, plus wool or fleece hat and gloves, are all essential.

Weather Information

Antarctica is synonymous with cold. Mean temperatures in the Antarctic interior range get down to -70°C (-94°F) during the coldest month, and -35°C (-31°F) during the warmest month. On the coast, temperatures are considerably warmer: -15°C (5°F) to -32°C (-25°F) in the winter, and from 5°C (41°F) to -5°C (23°F) in the summer. The Antarctic Peninsula experiences the highest temperatures year round. The interior of Antarctica is the world's driest desert, since the extreme cold freezes water vapour out of the air. Annual snowfall on the polar plateau is equivalent to less than 5cm (2in) of rain. Antarctica experiences some of the strongest winds on the planet: the katabatics can achieve velocities of up to 320kmph (199mph). The winds on the polar plateau, by contrast, are usually very light. Antarctic whiteouts and blizzards - which can be extremely dangerous - are common.

History and Culture

Pre-20th Centure History

Unlike other continental land masses, Antarctica's existence was postulated long before it was discovered. Indeed, both Pythagoras and Aristotle felt that the globe would be top-heavy and topple over if there weren't a sizeable land mass to balance it.

James Cook became the first person to cross the Antarctic Circle in 1773, but he circumnavigated Antarctica without once sighting land. Cook's observations on the huge seal and whale populations encouraged sealers and whalers to arrive in droves: nearly one third of the Southern Ocean and subantarctic islands were subsequently discovered by sealers.

In January 1820 Fabian von Bellingshausen of the Russian Imperial Navy became the first person to see the Antarctic continent. He described it as 'an icefield covered with small hillocks'. It wasn't until nearly 120 years later that his achievements were properly appreciated - the Soviet Union was then keen to establish Antarctic claims.

In 1819 and 1822, Scotsman James Weddell discovered the South Orkney Islands; in 1823 he landed on Saddle Island where he took six skins of an unknown species of seal (today known as the Weddell seal). By February he had reached 74°15' south, a new southing record. He named the sea after sovereign King George IV, but in the 20th century it was renamed the Weddell Sea.

Frenchman Jules-Sébastien-César Dumont d'Urville set forth from Toulon in 1838 hoping to reach the South Magnetic Pole (magnetism was then one of science's biggest conundrums), but ice stopped him well short. He did, however, discover Louis Philippe Land and Joinville Island at the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, although sealers had probably already landed on both. In January 1840 he finally sighted land. Sheer ice cliffs prevented a landing on the mainland, so d'Urville landed on an island a few hundred metres offshore and claimed the Great Southern Land for France.

Belgian navy lieutenant Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache de Gomery's expeditions left Punta Arenas, Chile, very late in the season in December 1897. Some speculate that de Gerlache knew this would mean the Belgica would become beset with ice and that he would be the first to command an expedition that endured the Antarctic winter. By March the Belgica was stuck in heavy ice and the ship did not budge for 377 days. The crew ate fresh seal and penguin meat to prevent the onset of scurvy and elaborate games were organised to prevent madness. By January 1899 the situation was desperate: for a month the crew hewed a canal through the ice, but when they were nearly finished the wind shifted, the pack ice tightened and the channel closed up within an hour. Just two weeks later another shift in the wind reopened the channel and the Belgica was freed. The real achievement of the expedition was that it provided proof that permanent bases could be established on Antarctica, and that humans, with good provisions and equipment, could survive the Antarctic winter.

Carsten Egeberg Borchgrevink headed the first venture to establish firm bases on the continent. In 1899 this expedition left two simple huts, 10 men, 90 sledge dogs, kayaks for sea travel and a new Swedish invention - the Primus stove - in Antarctica. Despite one death, some near disasters and an ambivalent reaction on returning to England, this exercise was the start of modern Antarctic research.

Modern History

Captain Robert Falcon Scott's well-financed expedition in the Discovery left England in August 1901, crossed the Antarctic Circle in January 1902, penetrated the Ross Sea and discovered King Edward VII Land. Scott's men endured the winter with the comfort of windmill-powered electric lights, their own Royal Terror Theatre and the production of Antarctica's first magazine, the monthly South Polar Times.

With spring came the real work: Scott and two others, with 19 dogs and five supply sledges, took off for the South Pole. None had skied or driven sledge dogs before and their inexperience was telling. Despite this, they reached 82° 16.5' south before they turned back, but the return trip was awful. As the dogs weakened they were shot and fed to the others. They made it back to the Discovery to find that the relief ship Morning had arrived. Scott sent eight men home and spent another winter in the Discovery, leaving the following summer.

Norwegian Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen, who had been part of the de Gerlache expedition that wintered in Antarctica, set sail from Christiana (modern-day Oslo) in 1910 in a bid to become the first man to reach the North Pole. When he heard American Robert Peary had already reached the North Pole, Amundsen did a literal about-face. Aware of Robert Scott's rival expedition, Amundsen secretively headed south. Setting out from his Ross Ice Shelf base on 19 October, 1911, Amundsen and four others headed for the Pole. The planning was meticulous: Amundsen took three or four backups for every critical item and set up 10 well-marked depots down to 82° south. On 14 December, 1911, Amundsen and his party reached the South Pole, claiming it for Norway. Amundsen left a tent at the Pole with a note inside for Scott to read.

Meanwhile, Scott was preparing another sortie and was desperate to beat Amundsen to the South Pole. He sailed from New Zealand in November 1910, and a team of five made a final push to the Pole on 2 October the next year. The journey was very difficult, and they reached the Pole only to find that Amundsen had been there 23 days earlier. Scott's disappointment was enormous, and the party turned around to begin the return journey. Two men died within two months, and the surviving three pushed on for another month until, just 18km (11mi) from a major supply depot, the weather pinned them down. Scott's last journal entry was 29 March and their frozen bodies were found eight months later by a search party.

After WWII only governments could afford to mount Antarctic expeditions, and in 1943 the British began the permanent occupation of the continent. In 1946, the US Navy Antarctic Developments Project, or 'Operation Highjump', was launched. It was the beginning of the Cold War and the exercise was designed to give US troops experience in polar conditions - 4700 men, 33 aircraft, 13 ships and 10 caterpillar tractors were deployed, and helicopters and icebreakers were used for the first time in Antarctica. In February 1954, the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) established Mawson station. This was the first permanent scientific station and the only one outside the Peninsula.

The International Geophysical Year (IGY), which lasted from July 1957 to December 1958, brought together the research activities of 66 countries. As part of this, 12 countries - Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the UK, the USA and the USSR - established more than 40 bases on the Antarctic continent and a further 20 on the subantarctic islands. It was the spirit of international cooperation promoted by the IGY that lead directly to the signing of the Antarctic Treaty, which has administered Antarctic affairs since 1961.

Recent History

In recent years, Antarctica's history has been characterised by international scientific cooperation and increasing concerns about the continent's future. While for the moment the Antarctic landmass has been spared mining activity, chunks of ice bigger than many (admittedly small) countries are breaking off the ice shelf, adding to fears that the effects of global warming are already starting to take effect.