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HomeTri­plogs & pho­to gal­le­riesAnt­ar­c­tic sea­son 2012/13 → Ant­ar­c­ti­ca (Ross Sea) 2013/01/16-02/17

Antarctica (Ross Sea), January 16-February 17, 2013

Advanced Antarctica: with MV from Ushuaia to the Antarctic Peninsula, Peter I Island, the Ross Sea, Macquarie Island and New Zealand.

A long and unu­su­al jour­ney to desti­na­ti­ons that may be descri­bed as remo­te even for Ant­ar­c­tic stan­dards! Thou­sands of nau­ti­cal miles to reach rare­ly visi­ted desti­na­ti­ons, that have been most­ly out of reach even for well-sea­so­ned polar tra­vel­lers: Peter I Island is among­st the remo­test and most deso­la­te islands on Earth.

Ope­ra­ted by Ocean­wi­de Expe­di­ti­ons

Oceanwide Expeditions

The his­to­ri­cal huts of Shack­le­ton and Scott are sacred ground for all inte­res­ted in the histo­ry of Ant­ar­c­tic explo­ra­ti­on. Tho­se few bles­sed ones who make it into the Dry Val­leys can get an impres­si­on of a see­mingly other­word­ly part of our world. The Emper­or pen­gu­ins on the fast ice of McMur­do Sound were a case of luck and a pri­vi­le­ge for tho­se who hap­pen­ed to be out on the ice. The impres­si­on that Scott’s hut at Hut Point made on us suf­fe­r­ed great­ly from the pre­sence of the noi­se and dirt of near­by McMur­do Base, a dark point of zivi­li­sa­ti­on in the sup­po­sedly pris­ti­ne Ant­ar­c­tic wil­der­ness. The fine views from Obser­va­ti­on Hill over McMur­do Sound and the Ross Ice Shelf made up for it to some degree, and fol­lo­wing the Gre­at Bar­ri­er, the front of the Ross Ice Shelf, for seve­ral hours was a final high­light in the Ross Sea pro­per.

Gen­too pen­gu­ins on Ple­neau Island. Booth Island and the Ant­ar­c­tic Pen­in­su­la, with the famous Lemai­re Chan­nel bet­ween them, in the back­ground.

The tiny and very inhos­pi­ta­ble Scott Island offe­red at least the chan­ce to see a dot of solid ground within a long open sea pas­sa­ge. During the fol­lo­wing days, the Sou­thern Oce­an pre­sen­ted its­elf from its – well, not real­ly its wild side, but it is not exag­ge­ra­ted to descri­be it as unta­med.

Click here for the Tri­plog (10 MB, eng­lisch).

The fol­lo­wing map shows the itin­era­ry as plan­ned before­hand:

Map

As so often in polar are­as, rea­li­ty is always some­what dif­fe­rent from plan­ning, as will beco­me clear from a quick view at this ice chart:

Antarctic SSMIS 2013/01/27

The sea ice made a detour of seve­ral days neces­sa­ry to enter the Ross Sea, some­thing that cost us seve­ral days of our pre­cious time. As the Bal­le­ny Islands, any­way of les­ser prio­ri­ty in com­pa­ri­son to the Ross Sea sites, were locked away behind lar­ge, den­se ice fields, we soon gave up every thought of pay­ing a visit to them. The screa­ming six­ties and furious fif­ties, howe­ver, lived up to their good repu­ta­ti­on.

Loo­king at such an ambi­tuous voya­ge, every per­son has to deci­de him- or hers­elf if it is worth the effort, as quite a bit of time and money have to be spent on it. The ratio from days spent at sea to tho­se with landings is less favoura­ble than on most other polar voy­a­ges. But for tho­se who dream of see­ing Mount Ere­bus, a Ross seal, the Dry Val­leys and the Ross Ice Shelf, not to men­ti­on the sacred grounds of the ear­ly explo­rers’ his­to­ri­cal huts, the­re is obvious­ly no way around an Ant­ar­c­tic Odys­sey, the long trip into the Ross Sea … as this is the pro­mi­sed land for tho­se drea­mers, and not­hing else.

I would say: advan­ced Ant­ar­c­ti­ca. But as such, cer­tain­ly uni­que.

The fol­lo­wing pages have indi­vi­du­al texts and pho­to gal­le­ries, giving impres­si­ons of the various legs of the voya­ge. I have also been able to do some pan­ora­ma pho­to­gra­phy, so I hope that I can soon include some 360 degree pan­ora­mas, inclu­ding sphe­ri­cal pan­ora­mas of the inte­ri­ors of the his­to­ri­cal huts. But the­se files still need some pro­ces­sing, so plea­se visit again later if you are inte­res­ted.

Pho­to album with sto­ries and pho­to gal­lery

  • start­sei­te-neu-4

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

We did not mana­ge to squeeze the who­le Ort­eli­us crew into the tent, but here we are:
Juli­an – Chris­ti­an – Ninet­te – Ser­gio – Greg – Seb­bi – Rolf – Elke – Ben – Rue­di

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last modification: 2021-03-22 · copyright: Rolf Stange
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