antarctica:

“I had a dream when I was twenty-two that someday I would go to the region of ice and snow and go on and on till I came to one of the poles of the earth.”

— Ernest Shackleton

C-17 in the deep field

LDB project

Long Distance Balloon project

Snow Bow

Deep field snow bow over Dave’s tent

Ice freezer

The interior of an underground ice freezer

Mount Newall

The top of Mt. Newall has a remote camp, accessible only via helo. Elevation 6299ft.

Frozen facial hair

Basler in the deep field

The program primarily uses C-17’s, Baslers & Twin Otters for on-continent flights

Flag poles in the deep field

In white-out conditions due to storms or blowing snow, these flags help prevent people from wandering out into the middle of the great white abyss

Adelie penguins

Mt. Erebus volcano

Camping

Bull Pass camp

Nathanial B. Palmer vessel

Ice cave!

Emperor penguins

Dave & I

photo credit: Jeremy Clark

View from the flight to Antarctica

Overlooking Hut Point

photo credit: Jeremy Clark

Offloading a cache

Mummified Leopard seal

Fumaroles on top of Erebus volcano

Getting frisky on the sea ice

photo credit: Jeremy Clark

Google's mapping project

Pressure ridges

Pressure ridges are small, mountainous-looking ice formations that form when sea ice is smashed against land or other sea ice. photo credit: Jeremy Clark

Sunset

Boarding a C-17

Pants-less Pressure Ridges

photo credit: Jeremy Clark

Skidoo ride

Helo on Erebus volcano

There’s only one way to most camps - and that’s by some sort of flight.

Dave waiting for the helo

Sundog

The last sunset

photo credit: Joshua Swanson

Walking on frozen lakes

Melt pools

Shackleton's stove

Research at Blood Falls

Inside Shackleton's Hut

Expedition dogs

Deep field camp

Boarding a helo

Winter flight for supplies

Offloading a plane

One of the many hats I wore on the ice was flight on and offloading on the runway

Heavy

equipment operator

The C-17 flight to the ice

Cargo and people blur when transporting flights to McMurdo.

Helo coming in to pick us up from a camp in the Dry Valleys

Sling load

Mount Erebus volcano puffing some steam

The main room of Shakleton's Hut

Sunset over Hut Point

Erebus in the background

Sea ice research

Tracks on the sea ice

Some camps are located on the sea ice, in which tracked vehicles (like Piston Bullys or skidoos) are used to get to them.

Blood Falls from a helo

Helo flight

Some days are cold

Ice tube

Standing next to a glacier

Contrast to Shackleton’s quote, I actually never imagined I’d find myself in Antarctica. It was mostly luck, chance and good timing that brought me to the frozen continent. While I no longer work in the United State Antarctic Program, I’ve spent an accumulation of forty month or three and half years living “on the ice”, a total of seven seasons, including a winter and an exceptionally and unusually long stint of nearly one and a half years straight.

I’ve been lucky to see and do so much, words would never be able to describe. This uniquely special place is unlike anything on the planet. I hope to see a future where greater steps are taken to protect and preserve this truly stunning and irreplaceable habitat.

All I can say is that I’m eternally grateful for it to have shaped me the way it has, and more so, to have had the privilege to have met such amazing people through the program.

For questions and curiosities, go to my Contact page. For more images and stories, check out my IG.