Aerials

Ellsworth Mountain Range, Antarctica. These are nunataks, an eskimo word for mountaintops that barely stick out from the thick sheets of ice and snow around them. These large valleys are filled with ice that's probably thousands of feet thick, compressed from snowfall over millions of years.

Union Glacier. Our huge, heavy 757 jet - landing on ICE ?!? Luckily it's highly compacted, strong-as-steel blue ice, over a thousand feet thick.

And speaking of ice, huge icebergs dot the Southern Ocean as we fly over at 30,000 ft. That large one is probably a mile or two long.

Almost unlimited climbing potential : countless unnamed nunataks deep into Antarctica, between the south pole and Union Glacier.

On the other hand, this is Mt Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica and one of the most popular climbs on the continent.

Deep into the interior, getting near our dropoff point. These isolated mountains were almost like a mirage. Were they sticking up out of clouds or the ice cap? Do they have names? Have they ever been climbed before?

Polar Ice Cap, Antarctica. We started out from Union Glacier flying at 12,000 feet. The farther you go into the interior the more the ground rises up to meet you. Near our dropoff point the elevation is over 9,000 feet so the ground is a lot closer!

Studying the terrain that we'll soon be pulling sleds across.