On my first day in Antarctica, I was shipped off to survival training. This was a great idea because I’m not much of a survivalist and I could do with a bit of training. We spent most of the day building an ice-block kitchen to block the wind so we could cook some food, set up some blizzard-proof tents, and digging out an ice-cave to sleep in. Now, I didn’t dig out most of this cave, but I definitely got down inside to enjoy its benefits. By the way, in the winter it never gets dark there, so this is what it looks like around midnight.
Daily Photo – Morning in the Ice Folds in Antarctica
Of all the crazy things I did for the month I was in Antarctica, probably one of my favorite nightly rituals was a hike out on the ice fields. Sometimes those nights would go all the way into the morning. It’s hard to tell since it’s bright all the time and my watch was often under layers of coats! But it’s a good place to let time drift away and take photos forever.
After being stuck out in the Dry Valleys for days longer than expected, our friend Hef finally came in with a pickup. There’s actually a ton of equipment that has to be picked up too in addition to all our poop and pee. They take poop and pee very seriously out there… not one drop left behind.
Here’s another one of the images from my 1000 Stories from 1000 Places NFT drop. It sold out in minutes, but they are now available to trade on OpenSea and X2Y2, etc so be sure to check them out.
We got to spend the day here after a helicopter dropped us off from the main New Zealand base. It was amazing to be here and I can’t imagine living here 100 years ago. It has been meticulously re-done by an incredible group of people committed to showing exactly how it was during the time of those original explorers. It’s too bad that it is almost impossible to visit… but hats off to the tremendous work that went into it!
Here’s another one of the images from my 1000 Stories from 1000 Places NFT drop. It sold out in minutes, but they are now available to trade on OpenSea and X2Y2, etc so be sure to check them out.
On the main continent of Antarctica are countless glaciers that spill out across the landscape. This was located in the Dry Valleys, where a helicopter took me out to camp for about a week.
There was absolutely no one around, and there is a strange loneliness standing near something so daunting and timeless. I would walk along the edge for miles, occasionally stepping over ice-boulders or across icy streams to touch its surface.
After a 10+ hour plane ride on that LC-130 on the right, we landed on those skis you see beneath the plane on the ice shelf. It wasn’t the smoothest landing in the world. We didn’t have windows by the seats (we were strapped into the walls like GIs about to parachute into France on D-Day), and the pilots later told me we landed so hard the tips of the wings almost hit the ground. Fun!
Anyway, after we got off, we boarded one of the largest land vehicles in existence. As you can see, it has the name “Ivan the Terra Bus.” Thank God it had a heater in there, because it was a little colder than I expected, and I expected a lot of cold.
It was well over 10 hours from Christchurch, New Zealand to Antarctica and this was our temporary home. I had never been on a plane in these conditions, so it was great to experience something new. However, before I got on board, my friend Stu and I were warned about something that scared us.
We had a briefing from a woman that works for Antarctica NZ before we went. She told us the plane would have people going to the four bases down there: New Zealand, USA, Italy, and South Korea. Each one wore a different uniform. Of course, the Italians had the coolest uniforms that looked like red leather jetfighters that just jumped out of a Ferrari. Anyway, I’m getting off the point.
So this lady told us not to make eye-contact with anyone else on the plane and absolutely no photos allowed. We were like, WTF? We thought Antarctica was some kind of international kumbaya place where we all work together on cool science and stuff. Anyway, she was a total loon… and I completely ignored her and moved around the plane to meet almost everyone and take a ton of photos.
Daily Photo – there was a cracking sound that was first felt in the bones
I am a very Zen person generally, so whenever I feel anxious or out-of-place, I try to figure out why. This is one of those places. I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be here as the ice towers turned and folded above me, cracking and pulling apart into an azure-blue glow. Everything was moving all the time, and I felt seconds away from falling into a crevasse and getting stuck forever. It was beautiful, ephemeral, and I removed myself from the ripping as quickly as seemed natural.
Daily Photo – a polar sunbow erupts over an iced volcano
Antarctica – an epic place without scale or relativity. Somewhere on this terrible volcano are the remains of a jetliner, which crashed after taking off from New Zealand on a sight-seeing tour. I was on another plane, a CL-130, when I took this. The “”L”” means it lands on skis. It has no proper windows to speak of, but I managed to befriend the loadmaster who got me into the cockpit for take-off. Quite by chance, there was a polar sunbow that appeared over this most dreadful and awesome of volcanos. There is nothing that erupts new earth as close to the Antarctic pole, so to soar over it in peace was surreal. The white sun seemed to welcome everyone below and above.
From Series 1 of my fine art prints. Available in a limited edition at 2.5meters by 1.9meters. More info at TreyRatcliff.com.
