Rediscovering Antarctica

By Sara Wheeler

Kim Heacox/Stone

A force-ten gale greets an iceberg in the South Scotia Sea

Inspired in part by Shackleton—the most celebrated of Antarctic explorers—tourist, exploratory, and athletic activity at the bottom of the world surged last year and promises to keep increasing into the next. This November, the start of the Antarctic summer and therefore exploration season, at least 16 groups and individuals are scheduled to ski, trek, and sail across great expanses of virgin ice (see "The Cold Rush" foldout map, page 31). Antarctica's highest peak, 16,860-foot Vinson Massif in the Ellsworth Mountains along the Ronne Ice Shelf, has emerged as a major destination on the mountaineering circuit, and other peaks are close behind. "You pick what [climb] you want to do, and about nine of ten will be a first ascent or descent," says Dave German, a Canadian expeditioner who has made 25 trips to the southernmost continent. "That gets people hungry...and it's as close as you can get to the explorers of old." At the end of last year a team of six Americans made the first snowboard and ski descents of Vinson, spurring a rush to claim similar firsts. It's not all happening on solid ground, though: Bay Area surf guru Mark Renneker led a safari to the South Shetland Islands in February, a sojourn that was cybercast to anyone in Webland who ever wondered what it would be like to catch waves spawned from fracturing icebergs.
The South Pole, naturally, is the ultimate prize, and the number of expeditions attempting to reach it on skis from the coast is growing—from 45 last year to 50 in the coming season, according to leading South Pole outfitter Adventure Network International. "To get into the interior is probably as much of a challenge as trying to get onto the mountain at Everest, and probably just as expensive," says Richard Bangs, founder of the adventure-travel outfitter Mountain Travel–Sobek. "You can get to the edge of it more easily, and thousands and thousands have."

Amazingly, about 14,400 tourists visited Antarctica in the 1999–2000 season, a rise of almost 50 percent over the previous year. (And soon they'll come toting the latest edition of the Lonely Planet Guide to Antarctica. Choice quote: "Newspapers make good gifts for members of Antarctic stations, but don't overdo it; a little news of the world goes a long way.") The majority of these visitors stayed comfortably ensconced aboard Russian icebreakers and the like, snapping photos of tuxedoed birds for the folks at home, but a hardy 130 signed up with Adventure Network International, flying in from southern Chile to the firm's base at Patriot Hills to ski, climb, trek, and generally commune with the otherworldly landscape. (The firm's upcoming adventure offerings do not include skydiving—an ANI-organized attempt to parachute to the South Pole ended tragically in December 1997 with three deaths.)