The vast white wilderness, snow, ice, water, rock, surreal remoteness, extreme cold, enormous ice shelves, mountain ranges, rivers, lakes, exotic life forms and the harshly beautiful land makes this continent like no other place on Earth.
Antarctica is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Positioned asymmetrically around the South Pole. Antarctica is the southernmost continent surrounded by the southern Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans
Although the first confirmed sighting of Antarctica was in 1773, it wasn’t until 1907 that Edgeworth David became the first to climb Mount Erebus and to reach the South Magnetic Pole. Some of the historic huts actually remain, preserved frozen in rime ice, to tell the story of adventures long past.
The weather and nature forces, not clocks and calendars, are what determine the itinerary and the timetable here.The number of people conducting and supporting scientific research and other work on the continent varies from about 1,000 in winter to about 5,000 in the summer. Preserved by the Antarctic Treaty, Antarctica is home to some of the world’s most extraordinary species. Wildlife is generally unafraid of humans and humans have learned there place as visitors, admirers and knowledge seekers in such an Ice-crowned wonder.
Antarctic is home to numerous amazing sea life forms includes penguins, blue whales, orcas, colossal squids and fur seals. Some, such as the enormous whales, migrate from afar, while others, including the Weddell seal and emperor penguin, remain close to the continent. Millions of seabirds skim the Southern Ocean, the world’s most abundant, and species such as albatrosses and petrels circle the waters. It is simply the indescribable feeling of being a small speck in a vast beautiful land, among floating ice towers, literally untouched mountains rear from marine mist, and to let our minds soar in a place nearly free of humankind’s imprint is a magical experience.
Antarctica is a virtually uninhabited, ice-covered landmass. Climb the highest peak in Antarctica, Mount Vinson standing at 4892m. On top of the summit the view is breathtaking - snow-covered peaks all around resting on large glaciers.