Ski

The kit  - Lighter the Better

Pretty much everything is needed for a trip into Antarctica. I took:

Lightweight touring skis (Volkl Nanuq) with pin-bindings (Dynafit Radical ST) and touring poles. Scarpa Maestrale boots.

Ski crampons (Harcheisen), crampons (Grivel haute-route), Skins (Colltex), Shovel, Probe, Ice Axe, Avalanche transceiver BCA tracker2), ski-gear repair kit.

Harness (Black Diamond Couloir) and glacier kit: 2 slings, 2 prussik loops, Ice screw, Ropeman, 3 screwgate carabiners and 2 snap-link carabiners.

Ski jacket (Rab), trousers (Moutain Equipment), down jacket (Rab), 3 pairs gloves (Hestra), goggles, sunglasses, every piece of merino clothing I had.

Glacier camping gear: Sleeping bag (Moutain Equipment snowline -18o), thermarest (original 1970's!), 1/2 foam sleeping mat, mug, fork

40l rucksack (Lowe Alpine Attack), Travels bag, first aid kit, stuff sacks, camera (Olympus Stylus 1), binoculars (Hawke sapphire 10x25), thermos, water bottle

Heavy-duty, highly waterproof sailing gear: jacket (ebay), trousers (screwfix), gloves (screwfix), wellies (aldi), crocs

1.5kg decent (ibizian) coffee, 250 yorkshire t-bags, nuts, chocolate

Where we went

Antarctica is a matter of deciding where to start and then go with the flow. Firstly it makes no sense to predict what Antarctica will let you do (as an example another expedition's yacht ran aground on arrival in Anarctica, two members refused to get back on board and all the resulting faff gave them three days in the hill). We were constrained in where we could sail as the ice was very far North this season. Secondly when you are up one hill you have a great chance to see other great days out. We managed a dozen and more days on the hills with the following route summaries:

The terrain

The key thing about skiing in Antarctica is that you are travelling on crevasse-ridden glaciers. This made it hard work for the guides, visibility was needed to be on the mountain, we were roped as groups of 3 for all the skinning up the hills, and we often stayed pretty close to our skin-tracks when skiing down.

We crossed to shore from Podorange on a Zodiac and would then typically skin up a hill for 6-9 hours for a 1 hour ski down. Longest day was a 9 hour skin up 1800m.

It may not be hours of skiing but the tracks are as remote as you can get and the views are breathtaking.