Ushuaia & Antarctica

The 25 hours of flying and eating food out of plastic isn’t that much fun, but once you get here, there’s nothing like it in the world. Ushuaia Argentina reminds me of a fun magnifying glass – people start converging from all over the world, then, one flight at a time, start concentrating at the tip of South America in anticipation of a greater adventure yet.

Our flight in was nondescript aside from the last hour of rocky turbulence which earned the pilot a round of applause from his appreciative passengers. Once on the ground, old and new friends from all over the world started to appear – Kris Erickson from Montana, Forrest McCarthy, Moe Witschard, the entire Tahoe crew, Per and Stephan from LaGrave, and on and on.

I squeaked by with 100lbs of gear, which was more than I was planning on, but at the last second I added a new pair of carbon BD Aspect skis and boots. Aside from that, the boat has just about everything you’d ever neeed.

Antarctica in general and this trip in particular rank up there as one of my all time favorite outings. This will be my 5th trip to Antarctica, and while the skiing is good, it is really only the superficial reason to come down here. The real reason is the amazing energy that a group of 100+ people bring together when mixed in with penquins, crossing the Drake Passage, passing seals and seeing Orca whales all as a part of a ski tour. You just can’t do that anywhere else in the world.

I’ll be sending updates as I can, but from a fumbly little phone with a miniature keyboard, so please excuse the typos in advance.

Let the games begin!

Category: Random