Skiing in Antarctica

looking back towards the mouth of hero inlet, antarctica
Originally uploaded by vypeng

Who would of thought i get back on the planks? man, it's definitely been awhile since i've been on skis. these skis were different, they were cross country skis that were way to big for me. so pretty much that meant, my travels will have to be really really flat. any incline would result in some sort of flailing and falling down the incline and a whole lot of struggling to get back up. then i watched eric go down the hill on his telemark setup and was envious for his speed. this pretty much convinced me that i want to learn how to telemark. the next lesson to be learned in the near future. yup. will need to get that done. maybe i'll learn it this winter while ed is practicing his skiing. :D

i wanted to spend as much time outside as possible....the weather cleared enough for eric and i to head out for a few hours. we checked out bonaparte point...all the way to the tip. normally the tide is just high enough that one can't get to the tip of the point. this time, it was good to go. :D



me, standing at the point (photo by eric p)

it was a pretty neat place to be. of course, since we are literally at the water's edge, the possibiltly of a surge coming up and getting us wet was pretty high. plus we were a little worried that if the tide comes up, we'll be stuck on the little island point and will have to radio in for a boat to come and pick us up. it'll be a tad on the embarrassing side, but it didn't happen that way. :D


eric, trying not to get hit by the ocean spray.


skiing back towards the glacier, we could see the boaters (aka. penguin hunters) off in the distance looking for rafts of penguins to photograph. it was quite something to see them go in one direction, then suddenly hear garble radio chatter about possible penguin sightings, an then watch them make a 180 turn and take off. while i was watching that happen, i saw a raft of penguins porpoising towards us. it was pretty cool to see. it almost was as if the penguins saw us and were coming by to check us out. they literally were coming toward us. every once in awhile, a few of the penguins would pop their heads us and check us out. it was totally wild to see. i was so excited about the penguins that i all could do was point at them and say "look, penguins!" because of that, i didn't really good photos of the penguins. oh well. it was still cool to see.




eric checking out the ice caves


it was good spending a day off outside. the need to get outside (for me) a lot of times can drive me to be a little bonkers if i don´t get out. this outing was definitely something that was much needed on a beautiful day. ungraceful skiing, notwithstanding, of course.


on another note....my wrist started becoming really really sore. hope nothing is wrong with it. i did land on it from a fall on ice. crose you toes that it´s not broken!