Deception Island is a volcano whose top sticks out of the ocean, a caldera. One side collapsed during an eruption allowing the ocean to flood inside. This heats up the water to a relatively comfortable temperature, which lures the cruise tourists to take a dip. So when in Rome....

As my father would say, “Its warm as toast.”


It was truly fairly comfortable, what was unbearable was the air temperature that day. Brrrrrrrr!


There is a large chinstrap penguin colony at Deception Island. We didn’t have the chance to visit it but one lonely chinstrap was hanging out nearby.

The seal was also hanging out just a few feet away, ploughing his head through the snow like my dog

Farley. Apparently they do this to cool off, as they overheat while swimming.

A remnant of Deception Islands infamous past, a whaling dory, sitting on the shores of Whalers Bay.



We then departed for another South Shetland Island,  Greenwich, which is famous for a huge gentoo penguin colony. Fortunately, it is also home to some respectable peaks and big glaciated terrain. We were getting a bonus day of skiing. Woo hoo! We moored in Yankee Cove, skinned up a north west aspect from the south east end of the cove, skied down the gentle but delicious south aspect, skinned back up, and the skied back down our original ascent aspect. A few steep roll overs made for some fantastic final turns in Antarctica.

Thor Husted (in blue) and Kellie Okonek enjoying their last few moments on skis in Antarctica. Andrew Eisenstark taking in the view on our last zodiac ride back to the Vavilov.

CHECK THIS OUT......The following video is actually from Cuverville Island the day before. The non-ski group landed at what was suppose to have been a very busy gentoo penguin rookery. Instead, there was only a handful of them. While the rest of group went for a hike, Jenny and our friend Tim decided to hang out by the shore and watch a few penguins swimming near the shore. A few minutes later, a live National Geographic episode started all around them. Thousands of penguins arrived en masse to settle down in the colony for the season, and Jenny and Tim were directly in the middle of the penguin highway.

November 15th and 16th we spent crossing the Drake Passage again, returning to Ushuaia, Argentina.  It was definitely not ‘the Drake Lake’, as it was for our passage down! There were quite a few empty seats in the dining room for the two days.

Photo by  Jenny

Jenny and I on deck for a great view of Cape Horn on our return to Ushuaia.


This truly was the trip of a lifetime. Absolutely incredible. I could not have imagined things turning out any better, especially considering our original trip was cancelled.


In a perfect world, we would have gone there with the ICE AXE crew and had much bigger ski excursions; 6-10 hour days (instead of 3 hours at a time), first descents, big couloirs, and whatever type of skiing or snowboarding you prefer.


However, my whistle has been wet enough that we are seriously considering going back again next year to ski some bigger peaks and lines. If you are interested, you should check out Ice Axe Expeditions website ASAP for information on the 2009 trip. Book soon, as I am pretty sure the word is getting out about the amazing potential for this trip.


Thanks for following along. Next blog entry will be ‘Surfs Up in Pichilemu, Chile’ and a ski/wildlife video compilation of the Antarctica trip.


Cheers.