Monday, December 15, 2008

Pressure Ridge Tour

We signed up earlier this week for an up-close tour of the pressure ridges just off shore from the Scott Base. In order to qualify for the tour, you had to go through the outdoor safety course and have all the proper clothing. The tours are small groups and the sign up sheets fill up fast. We were lucky to be in town when the sign up sheet went out. Here are some photos from our trip.

This was a no-kidding semi-dangerous trip out on the sea ice to look at the pressure ridges up close. It was a once in a lifetime experience for me. This is our group with the specially trained guide. She had a radio and rescue equipment just in case one of us broke through the ice. Yikes!
These formations were beautiful. Unfortunately it was cloudy and snowing during our tour. Flat light is not the best for taking photos of ice.

Henry looked like a real live Antarctic explorer here.

More cool (pardon the pun) ice formations. There was a little blue sky in the background for this shot.


These sheets of ice are HUGE!

The Balloon Bunch: Henry, Me, Dave, Dwayne, and Jill.

We really had to be careful in areas where the ice was thin. This was not your usual retired-folks cruise ship excursion here.

The trail actually took us UNDER the ice in 0ne spot.

Yes, I know I look like Admiral Byrd here, but instead of pitching a tent and sleeping out in this stuff tonight, I took the heated bus back to town, took a warm shower, put on my jammies, and posted these photos. Hope you liked them.

1 comment:

Deb said...

Mike...Sunday and Monday this week our high was -5 and the wind chill was in the -30's...very little sympathy for you here bud.