Union Glacier

Union Glacier, Antarctica. Most visitors to Antarctica arrive by cruise ship after a long and painful crossing of one of the stormiest seas on earth. It's still a 4-hour flight by plane but it spares you the worst of the Southern Ocean. There is no paved runway here; this Boeing 757 lands on a rock-hard blue ice runway. And on wheels, not skis. These are the first steps taken on Antarctica by many of us.

Home Sweet Home at Union Glacier. It may seem insane to camp out in temperatures that stay well into the negative numbers all the time, but it's not really too bad in these polar-rated double-walled tents. The sun beating down on the tent 24 hours a day helps to keep the inside temperatures around 50 or so. Much better than outside!.

Union Glacier is the "Base Camp" for adventures on the Antarctic continent. People come to Union Glacier to climb mountains, downhill ski, do backcountry touring, see penguins ....or just sit around and sip champagne. Or they come here as a starting point to get to the south pole, as we did.

Besides some of the larger government-run research stations, Union Glacier is one of the largest "cities" on the entire continent. If it looks empty, it could be that everyone is off doing some activity or other. Or it could be 4am and everyone's asleep...

If there's any doubt that you're very far from everywhere, here ya go. Even the south pole is over 700 miles away!

Like something out of a Mad Max movie, these are some tough (and crazy-looking) vehicles, custom made for Antarctic conditions. And they all run on jet fuel!

Our main ride : a 1940's DC-3, heavily modified for Antarctic use. Our ticket to/from the south pole and beyond.