TR: Antarctica 2011 (nsfw@pg. 3)

[StuntCok]

Myself, KingofMyhr, StillNoProgress WC113 and Soprano were all on the trip. The ride back in the Beaufort 12 storm was quite an experience... Stay tuned for pics of the Glacial Ice Vodka Luge extravaganza!

[hutash]

You guys are worse then a $1,000 a night call girl.

The tease is becoming unbearable.

[StuntCok]

Ok Ok, in order to help with the tease, here is a smattering of a few random photos to placate you while the TRs are being written. Rest assured any TR will include

penguins


Big Faces (StraightChuter is on this face somewhere...)


Boats



Hiking



Debauchery



And maybe even skiing


But these are just a random selection of unedited outtakes. I will save the best of ours (mostly taken by guide Kent McBride and PoachNinja Photog King Of Myrrh) for another TR and, of course the Gnarwhale will have some real beauties.

[MadPatSki]

Mister Crocker has already three TRs up...come on guys (just teasing from a guy that's hasn't posted a TR from last Summer in the Alps). :P

Looking forward to more...

...in the meantime, you can check out Mr. C stuff:

Martial Glacier, Ushuaia, Argentina, Nov. 8, 2011
http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boa...php?f=6&t=9849

Wiencke Island, Antarctica Nov. 12, 2011
http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boa...php?f=6&t=9850

Paradise Bay, Antarctica, Nov. 13, 2011
http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boa...php?f=6&t=9851

He mentions that he has a few more coming...however I'm pretty sure they ain't going to be down under debauchery in his TRs.

[wcf3]

Myself, KingofMyhr, StillNoProgress, WC113 and Soprano were all on the trip. The ride back in the Beaufort 12 storm was quite an experience... Stay tuned for pics of the Glacial Ice Vodka Luge extravaganza!

Actually wcf3, but close.

[fattwins]

Extends middle finger at Stuntcok

[hutash]

Cool TR's from TC, looking forward to more then just the little ballsack tickle from Stuntcock. Skiing and debauchery in true maggot fashion.

[satori]

Enough of the teasing!! Get on it boys!!!

[#######]

Theoretical TR

Stuntcock and The Gnarwhale went south to bag some penguins. NoHow didn't want to know how, but Straightchutter put his skins on early, so he claimed first decent...{EDIT} THANK YOU

[splat]

I wanna see some storm shots of big waves, spray and pukers from the crossing.

[Meathelmet]

What a stuntCocktease....

[StraightChuter]

That trip was a blast! It didn't seem possible to top 2009 where we had perfect weather every day, but I think we did. Part of this was because we were able to find and access some excellent terrain.

I put a bunch of photos up on FaceBook:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...7787303&type=1

and as a webgallery at:
http://straightchuter.com/am-content...011/index.html

[MadPatSki]

StraightChuter delivers in a grand fashion.

Awesome and thanks.

[splat]

OK, Poachninjas, bring it!

[tone capone]

Damn that looks awesome, looking forward to more.

[The Gnarwhale]

First, I want to give a huge thanks to Doug at Iceaxe.tv and SuperG at Smith Optics. Thanks so much guys!

The term “trip of a lifetime” gets thrown around a lot with a jaunt like this and while the phrase hints at how special the trip is, I don’t like it because it insinuates that I might never go back. It was hard to get pulled away from a lifetime-worth of aesthetic alpine lines after only a handful of days. Shoot, a lifetime wouldn’t be near enough time to ski all the best lines on the Antarctic Peninsula. Doug Stoup clearly feels the same because he has already begun organizing the 2013 trip.

The night before heading to sea the whole 127-stong posse met for dinner in Ushuaia


Local libations were imbibed


Group photo


Where’s Waldo: Matty edition


Our whip


Stoke meter: high


In the event of a water landing, your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device


The Gorbachev seal of approval


Shoving off from Argentina


Bound for some of the roughest seas on the planet


A hundred miles from port we were in the Drake Passage where the swells make drawers open and close like a scene from Ghostbusters.


Land Ho: after about two and a half days of open ocean we reached the Antarctica Peninsuala

The first stop was a penguin colony


The little guys have heaps of personality. They’re every bit as goofy and endearing as cartoons had led me to believe.






ಠ_ಠ


Blue eyed shags look like small dinosaurs


A content seal


The world is your snow cone


After communing with the penguins we headed back to the ship for another 5-course lunch. Following lunch we suited up for skiing, which was good because I was begninning to get twitchy admiring the cornicopia of couloirs and faces that had been making appearances between the low clouds.


I got to hang with a strong posse: 2x Olympic Gold Medalist Seth Wescott, followed by Chris Davenport, followed by hard-charger/rockstar Matt Reardon followed by hard-charger/cinematographer NoHow


The light was milky and we reasoned that skiing near rocks would be better visibility, so we hiked a little steep couloir. After a two month summer intermission, I think this counts as my first ski run of ‘11-‘12. Not bad.


☺


Airing out the gear in the hallways


Overnight the ship motored to a new zone. Unfortunately the light was still flat. Skiing by penguins made up for it.




Hands down the biggest touring party I’ve been to


Change for a nickel?


Booter building was cut short when ice began surrounding the ship. We hit the mini-scoop anyway.


Glacier skiing right into the ocean is so freakin cool


Poachninjas


With another new zone out the window, the next day dawned KAVU. Poachninjas head to shore.


The zone. Goddamn.


Dav leads the way up to a steep face

[The Gnarwhale]

Looking back down


Seth and Dav on top, looking over the edge


Yeah, looks like it goes


Snowbaord hop turns on firm 50 degree look challenging


StraightChuter and company skinning to the base of the face


Lust:




NoHow skis the windblown pow


You can call up a zodiac on the radio and they’ll pick you up to take you back to the boat for lunch or to another line. No time for lunch on the boat today.


The water is so clear that it looks shallower than it really is. 220+ ft visibility according to the ship workers


Unloading for another run


Skinning up


It’s amazing how fast a ship full of skiers will track out an area. The 127 of us were a motivated group.


NoHow booting up


Find the ship


There’s the ship


NoHow and I


Dav doing what he does


Wescott shredding


Reardon going in for the wallride slash


Loading up to head back for après festivities


Instead of going back to the ship, NoHow and I got dropped off below a run where one of the cruisers getting his speedwing set. The light was nice.


Once the wind chilled out, he was airborne






…And time for another big feeding. Every lunch and dinner the menu featured a couple appetizer options, then a soup course, salad course, next a list of entres that included options of meat, fish, veggie and gluten-free meals followed by desert. [Firstworldproblem] It was impossible not to put on pounds when you’re fed this way. [/Firstworldproblem]


“And next I’d like both deserts. With icecream.”


Sunset circa 10pm


7am view from our dormitorio


It started sunny, but the barometer was falling


And it was murky again by the time we put ashore


Lots of full-value terrain and lifetimes of alpine climbing objectives

[The Gnarwhale]

I got offered the sharp end, which was flattering


Until we headed into crevase-land


We skied off a peak, cutting down and lookers right over cracks. In this pic another group had decided to follow our tracks, a decision they were soon regretting.


Looking across the glacier and back to the ocean


And over at nearby rugged, rimed peaks


It was snowing fat flakes when we skied back to the ocean


Back on the ship, the crew was lining up trays of vodka shots.

The powers that be had decided that it was “polar swim day.” They wanted dippers to go one at a time from the zodiac dock while wearing a safety line. They had brought a defibulator to the scene, just in case.


This group, however, has a high risk tolerance.





wcf3




NoHow en route to a massive ass-bruise


The next day we cramponed up steep firm snow that was great for climbing with whippets. NoHow shows how.


Dav and Fernando




It was a frosty morning. This is how I pictured Antarctica being pretty much all the time, but it turned out to be the exception rather than the rule


Spirts remained high, despite frozen eyelashes


We ran into SraightChuter on top who was identified by his eye-searing neon rope


Dav drops in


A nice long glacier run down to the ocean




There was pow on the leeward side of the ridge we climbed


And back to the mothership


After a robust lunch we went out for another ski


Kim Havell eyeing her line


Fernando finds soft snow

[The Gnarwhale]

Dav, Kim and Noah billygoated up an outcrop


Matt Reardon GS-ing it down


Dav killed time while waiting for a zodiac pickup


That night there was a costume party. Iceaxe.tv has gone for the “Black and White” theme on each of their Antarctic ski cruises and stuck with it on this trip too.


Spirits were high


I made friends


Sporting a crushing hangover, the next day began with ibuprofen, squinting, and Leapoard seals.


It looks like a living, breathing LoveSac


Dav and I found a chute to ski


I was sweating liquor fumes around this point.


Seth decided to follow the booter.


It was right steep


But it sheltered some good snow


Next we headed towards a rock pillar flanked by chutes that we'd spotted from the zodiac


Chris hanging tips over the entrance


Wescott


Reardon sends a windlip


Sealsnot


After six days of skiing, the time had come to head north. The crew was anticipating a rough Drake Passage crossing and the liberal number of puke bags dispensed around the ship hinted at their concern.




By the next morning, the swells were big and the wind was ripping. Heather holds on in the +100mph breeze.


StraightChuter either absorbing sea spray or just more nervous than that grin lets on.


Rock n Roll


When the waves began breaking over the top deck, we were forced inside.


For a number of hours the conditions were rated 12 on the Beaufort Scale, which is as high as that rating of oceanic violence goes. Furniture smashed itself to kindling in a places where it wasn’t bolted down and pretty much everything that wasn’t buttoned down hit the floor before rolling from wall to wall, passengers included.


That night we entered the shelter of the Beagle Channel and by morning we were back in Ushuaia, Argentina.


Want to sign up for the next one? Talk to Doug Stoup and Karyn Stanley over at http://www.iceaxe.tv/

[Doughnuts01]

Wow..Thank you very much. Great photos on what looks like an incredible trip.


Ah, where can I sign up?!

[saxon]

Nicely done

[Trackhead]

Amazing photos guys.

[stalefish3169]

Absolutely amazing!

[SchralphMacchio]

FKNA Jim,

This one is right up there with Wrangell St. Elias, except you brought your good glass this time. Thank you SO MUCH for writing this up and sharing all of your great images with us.

Also, thanks to you for more shit to put on the bucket list of must-do adventures.

FKNA!

[The Gnarwhale]

Thanks guys. Yeah, the good glass makes such a difference. It just taken me some time to commit to lugging a big camera and then to build out the kit one $1000 lens at a time.

Definitely a trip to add to the must-do adventure list. The quantity of top-tier terrain on the Antarctic Peninsula is unbelievable.