Happy New Year! (I'm Going Nuts....Shhh)

Let's party, Cousins!!!!

 You know you are going quietly insane when you start playing the ukulele and singing to a 100-year-old, mummified seal.

(This may or may not have happened to me today).

I blame this continent for my eccentric behavior. Antarctica has given me permanent brain freeze.

I do things here I would NEVER do back home. I write poetry. I read philosophy books. I crave solitude. I hang crappy, self-made art on my walls. I make clunky jewelry out of re-purposed materials. I walk around in my bare feet and wear shorts when it's 30 degrees outside. I avoid showering.

I'm turning into a freakin' hippie, and I need your prayers for a swift recovery.

Ohh....and apparently I am also a song-writer down here....

I wrote this song to be set to the tune of What Child Is This....AKA, Greensleeves.

(I plan on playing my ukulele and singing this song to a nearby seal colony at the stroke of midnight).

This, This Is Antarctica!

I wandered high, and I wandered low

I wandered down to the South Pole

I thought my dreams would come true down here

Oh Happy Freakin’ New Year

            This, this is Antarctica!

Where life is hardly exotica

Please, please remember me

Your frozen, lonely Kelly

The sun shines high up in the sky

My skin is as dry as a mummy’s eye

I miss green trees. I miss babies

I want one ripe avocado, Please

            This, this is Antarctica!

            But it might as well be Spartica

            Where is Kelly? She has not been seen

In the year of two thousand sixteen

The penguins here are so cute and so dear

The fat seals cry Happy New Year!

Lord, what do you have planned for me?

Oh please dont turn me into a hippie

This, this is Antarctica!

Where life is rarely exotica

Please do not forget about me

The frozen, crazy Kelly

Happy 2016!!!

The Pressure Ridges

Let's talk about how much I love pressure ridges. 

Let's talk about what pressure ridges are.

Imagine the earth's plates creating tectonic movement and forming valleys and mountains over long periods of time and scale it back to a much smaller level.

The ice shelf in Antarctica follows the same line of physics.

When the sea ice cracks, one side of ice will always be slightly heavier than the other side. Usually the heavier side sinks down into the ocean while the lighter side is pushed up over the heavier piece. 

These pieces melt and freeze and melt and re-freeze throughout the summer season. Eventually sharp, dramatic ridges form in a magical crest across the sea ice.

Soon you feel like a princess walking along the frozen walls of your ice fortress...

Waiting for my pet dragon to fly down and rescue me

A good frolic along the ice never killed nobody

Check out those icicles (the icicles behind me, not the ones hanging from my nose)

Some of these pressure ridges can grow up to 20 feet high

That's Mount Erebus in the background - The southernmost active volcano on earth.

I just love these pretty little pressure ridges!!!

The Best Pilot in Antarctica

Hahaha....this little guy came running up to our helicopter like a bandit! He was plotting to steal the helo, but he instantly became distracted and enchanted by my camera.

Shackleton's AMAZING Endurance Expedition

Antarctica is a great place to curl up with a good book.

I recently read the most wonderful book called Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. It is a gripping biographical account of Shackleton's harrowing failure of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

Shackleton attempted to lead a 27-man crew across the entire Antarctic continent in 1914
The book's title refers to the ship Shackleton used for the expedition, the Endurance. The ship was beset and eventually crushed by ice floes in the Weddell Sea leaving the men stranded and wandering on the pack ice for 2 years.

The book follows their subsequent struggle for survival and self-rescue. Two years later, the crew eventually sailed in a life boat over 1000 miles to the nearby inhabited whaling island of South George.

Shackleton did not lose a single man along the way.

Their entire journey thrilled me to my fingertips. These 28 men make Bear Grylls look like a Beverly Hills socialite.

People compare these guys to a modern day Red Bull team. But unlike today's adrenaline junkies who perform unnecessary, death-defying feats in order to get their rocks off, these men were TRUE extremists.

Having lived on this harsh continent myself, I am inspired by their survivalist spirit. They NEVER gave up. Although McMurdo Station would be considered the absolute Lap of Luxury in 1914, it is still a pain in the butt to live in Antarctica.

Well done, Boys!

Here is a series of images of their journey by the crew's photographer Frank Hurley. (Courtesy of the Getty Images Archives).

The handsome, heroic Ernest Shackleton: leader of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

Frank Worsley, captain of The Endurance.

I have this exact same outfit

Photographer Frank Hurley gets a high angle shot.

Frank Wild, second in command.

Lionel Greenstreet, first officer.

Navigating Officer Hubert Hudson with Emperor penguin chicks.

Second Officer Tom Crean with sled dog puppies.

Owd Bob, sled dog.

Crew take the dogs out on to the ice.

Third Officer Alfred Cheetham adjusts the signal flags of the Endurance.

John Vincent, Boatswain, mends a net on the Endurance.

The icebound Endurance

The Endurance at sunrise.

The wake of Endurance as she pushes through the ice of the Weddell Sea

Crew attempt to clear a path through the ice for Endurance

Endurance at night, illuminated by flashlight.

Charles Green, the cook, skins a penguin for dinner.

Physicist Reginald James outside his observatory

A Saturday evening toast to sweethearts and wives.

Typical Brits. Playing soccer in ridiculous weather conditions 

Not much changes here in 100 years. We still read books and put up photos of loved ones 

Evening amusements in "The RItz" aboard the Endurance

The sun rises on Endurance after the darkness of winter.

Endurance lists as she is squeezed by shifting ice.

Crew retrieve fresh ice to use for water.

Dog teams search for a way to land across the ice.

Scrubbing the floors of the "The Ritz" aboard Endurance.

"Ice flowers" form on the pack ice near Endurance.

Frank Wild, Second in Command, contemplates the wreck of the Endurance.

Crew members haul one of the lifeboats across the ice after the loss of Endurance.

The James Caird is launched from Elephant Island on a mission to reach South Georgia Island.

Crew wave farewell as the James Caird sets off for South Georgia Island in search of rescue.

The beach on Elephant Island where the expedition made its camp.