Antarctica is for Dreamers and Readers

World Hum is a marvelous website devoted to travel writing. Editor Jim Benning interviewed me yesterday--it was a fun conversation--about the Explorer sinking and about Antarctica: Life on the Ice. Here is the World Hum interview.

They have lots of wonderful material at World Hum, and in their dispatches they published Jason Anthony writing about the Antarctic: "A Brief and Awkward Tour of the End of the Earth." This essay was selected for Best American Travel Writing, 2007.

Here is the opening of Jason's "AGO 1" from Antarctica: Life on the Ice:

November, 2000: After five seasons of fairly civilized Antarctic work, I took on a ominous job offered to me at the end of the polar summer by a drunken friend. Kip reeled across the floor of McMurdo Station’s darkened carpenter shop during its massive end-of-season party in February and shouted a slurred version of the question we all ask at the end of an Antarctic contract: “Hey man, are you coming back next year?” When I shrugged the shrug of the restless, he yelled “You should come back and work for AGO next year. It’s crazy!” AGO (pronounced like the end of “Winnebago”) is the Automated Geophysical Observatory program, the maintenance of which demands some of the most notorious work in the United States Antarctic Program (USAP). Kip had graduated to management, and would be doing the hiring.

Eight months later, I was back in McMurdo preparing to journey outward

with a few others to a string of isolated motes across the top of the

godforsaken East Antarctic ice cap. Bella, the lead groomer, and I

would be joining engineers Joe and Jack on journeys to AGO 1, AGO 4,

and AGO 5. Another team would be flying out to 2, 3, and 6. East

Antarctica is the coldest and most inaccessible geography on Earth, a

plateau of ice ranging from one to three miles deep, larger than the

United States and, except for a handful of people in government-issued

parkas, empty of land and life.

Buy the book to read more!

Spirit of Shackleton

The cruise ship Explorer that sunk in Antarctic waters has gotten a lot of attention. Those aboard were on a trip in the "Spirit of Shackleton." They were

probably thinking of his 1914 Endurance expedition, not the trip with

Scott in 1901 when he was sent home with scurvy. During the Endurance

expedition--the Antarctic adventure with more amazing plot twists than

any before or since--the ship was crushed in the ice. So these tourists

got a real taste of Shackleton's adventure! But it took a lot longer

for Shackleton's crew to be saved--21 waited on Elephant Island for four

and a half months, through an Antarctic winter, while Shackleton set out

over 800 miles of open water to South Georgia Island  where he found

help at a whaling outpost, Stromness Station. The photo here is either of Shackleton's men waving goodbye or welcoming the ship in. The photo is taken by Frank Hurley--if you don't know his photos, go find them. All of Shackleton's men

survived--by keeping busy and singing songs. I wonder if the survivors

of the Explorer sang as they waited to be picked up?

There are a lot of amazing things about this story of the Explorer, and one that has not been explained in any article I've read is how an iceberg can pierce the hull of a ship without the captain being aware of the location of such an iceberg. Icebergs are big. Technology that tells a ship what is where underwater is very sophisticated. If anyone sees information on this--let me know!

The other  amazing  detail is that  help was so close at hand. Several other cruise ships were close enough to quickly pluck everyone from the icy waters. One of those ships was a National Geographic cruise ship. Jon Bowermaster, who contributed a thrilling essay about flying onto the ice to Antarctica: Life on the Ice, was on that ship as a tour guide. He was also using the trip south to drop off supplies for his upcoming Antarctic kayaking expedition. Be sure to look at his posts and the audio descriptions of his trip. Because he was close at hand, Jon has been interviewed by the New York Times, ABC news, and NPR. The article in my local paper from Kingston, NY, the Daily Freeman, celebrates Jon, as he's a local boy:

Quoted from the Freeman:

"Stone Ridge resident and adventure writer Jon Bowermaster was aboard

the National Geographic Endeavor, one of two ships that first responded

to assist the sinking cruise vessel Explorer after it struck ice Friday

morning off the coast of Antarctica, The New York Times reported.

"There was a long line of black rubber Zodiac boats and a handful of

orange lifeboats strung out, and it was very surreal because it was a

very beautiful morning with the sun glistening off the relatively calm

sea," the Times quoted Bowermaster as saying in its Saturday edition.

"And all you could think about was how relieved these people must have

been when they saw these two big ships coming."

According to

Associated Press reports, aside from some mild cases of hypothermia,

there were no injuries among the 154 passengers of the MS Explorer, a

Canadian cruise ship that was retracing the Antarctic route of early

20th century explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.

Bowermaster, 53, was

touring the Antarctic peninsula aboard the Endeavor as a lecturer,

according to the itinerary on his Web site, and he was scheduled to

return on Friday, Nov. 30.

Bowermaster frequently lectures

locally about his travels. He most recently spoke at Oblong Books in

Rhinebeck on Oct. 27, when he read from his book, "Antarctica: Life on

the Ice" with coauthor Susan Fox Rogers."

I love that they have us co-authoring this collection! Actually is is 20-authored, with one proud editor...

Antarctic Sun!

Read all about it! Peter Rejcek has written a lovely piece about Antarctica: Life on the Ice for the Antarctic Sun. Thank you, Peter.

Burning calories AND keeping warm

From Karen Joyce--thanks Karen!

Who are these people? That's a great split off to the right!