Antarctica: Land of Snow, Ice and Penguins

Antarctica is in the news because Russian research ship Akademik Shokalskiy remains stuck in ice since Christmas Eve, along with the Chinese ice breaker Xue Long, which tried to rescue it.

Happily for my husband Eric and I, our December exploration of Antarctica on the Norwegian ship MV Fram, negotiated the ice safely. We chose Hurtigruten’s 19-day Antarctic Expedition to “not only” visit and learn about Antarctica, but also to experience the Falkland, South Georgia, and South Orkney islands.

Ice rules

Despite it being summer in Earth’s southernmost continent, ice rules. Antarctica’s “balmy” summer temperatures (high of +5C; low of -5C) cannot melt the ice covering the lofty peaks of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Indeed, even as hardy Pontiacers used to ice, snow, -40 temperatures and all things in between, we discovered the white continent is beyond impressive.
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Published in The Equity, January 8, 2014.
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