I have stood on the top of the bottom of the world.

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It was the most amazing experience of my life.
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Antarctica, what did I know about it before going there? Only that it is ice covered and surrounds the south pole. I had no idea how mountainous it would be. Who knew that Antarctica is Earth’s highest continent? Not me. Who knew that Antarctica is a desert? Again, not me. The windiest continent? I had no clue.


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What was I taught about Antarctica, was that it was just like the Arctic, except there was land under the ice. There is land under the ice: mountains, steep mountains that look just like the Andes, except the only plant life is lichens and moss. Antarctica is twice the land mass of Australia and in the winter, the sea ice doubles the size of the continent. Only about 2% of the continent is not covered by ice. The ice sheet averages 1 mile in thickness. I had also been lead to believe that the ice covering was melting.
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If you’ve seen March of the Penguins, you know that they march over 100 kilometers across the ice, inland, to incubate their eggs and raise their young. This year, they will have to march an extra 35 kilometers due to record sea ice formation.
The largest land animal in Antarctica is 12 mm long. Most are 1 mm long or less, they are mites. Penguins and pelagic birds get ticks and have tick-borne diseases. That came as a bit of a surprise to me, as a veterinarian. The expedition that I was on had 38 veterinarians learning about diseases and medicine of sea mammals and pelagic birds on our days at sea.
We climbed 3 mountains in Antarctica, steep grades, 60 degrees in many places, switchbacks were a necessity for the people. Little penguins marched up the mountain past me, like I was standing still. They have penguin superhighways tramped down in the snow. Occasionally, one would flop down on its belly for a 2 minute rest.
One cannot accurately describe the enormity of Antarctica. The only things man made are a few research station buildings (think farm outbuildings) and remnants of old whaler’s stations. Because of this and because there are no trees, you cannot accurately gain perspective in regard to distance or height. Photographs cannot convey perspective. There is no air pollution, so you can literally see for many miles and something that looks close could take an hour or longer to sail to.
Great care is taken to keep Antarctica pristine (never before have I been able to use that word correctly to describe a place). No ships in the Southern Ocean are allowed to discharge waste. People landing from ships are not allowed to carry food onto the land. People are not even allowed to urinate on Antarctica; therefore, the only evidence you see of humans are footprints. The lack of human habitation also means that there is no traffic noise, no low grade hum from electronics, and absolute stillness when there is no wind.
What is the best part about Antarctica? Antarctica cannot be conquered by man, Antarctica conquers men. I did not “seem” insignificant to Antarctica, I was completely insignificant to Antarctica. Antarctica does not concern itself with the concept of global warming. At every sight of land, healthy glaciers were advancing, none were retreating. One one side of one island we passed, I counted 11 advancing glaciers.
Click to see a few more of my photographs.
I will be posting more as time goes by. I took over 3,000 photographs.
One of the true believers (or profiteers) of global warming is currently stranded on a ship frozen solid into the sea ice. He went there to document the melting.
“The goal of the modern day Australasian Antarctic Expedition is to repeat many of the original measurements and studies of the Mawson expedition to see how facets of the environment have changed over the past century.”
It will be interesting to see if they report the increase in ice with the same fervor they would report a decrease, eh?
Whoa, that’s a lot of ice, eh? Rescue?
They don’t realize that if the ice starts to move, it could crush and sink their ship.
Juxtapose that to Al Gore’s insistence that the Antarctic ice is melting:
“The West Antarctic Peninsula is warming about four times faster than the global average. In many ways, it is the biggest ‘canary in the coal mine,’ signaling one of the largest impacts of climate change for the entire world,” Gore said in his blog.
Antarctica is still covered with ice, still full of healthy glaciers, still wild, and still refusing to co-operate with Al Gore. It is the most incredible place on Earth.

44 Replies to “I have stood on the top of the bottom of the world.”

  1. “…Who knew that Antarctica is Earth’s highest continent? Not me. Who knew that Antarctica is a desert? Again, not me. The windiest continent? I had no clue.”
    Highest continent? Me neither. But a desert, and the windiest, I had read that before. I expect there is more about Antarctica unknown to mankind than known, but also that much more that is known to some than most people have heard, and most people are content to believe anything about it that some self-appointed expert tells them, if it fits a narrative they like to here. Dr. Kyla seems to have a more scientifically open mind than that Australian warm-monger on the ice-bound research ship she mentioned. She probably learned a lot on her trip, while he is only going to discover what he already believes.

  3. thanx for sharing Dr. Kyla, lovely pix
    also the Antarctic contains about 85% of the word’s ice and about 90% of her fresh water
    the AGW’rs aint got a clue, but they want to “control” her climate:-)))

  5. If you happen across any Norwegians shooting at a sled dog from a helicopter, take that as a sign to GTFO.

  8. All I know is that it is where an epic battle between man,aliens and predators takes place , I bet if we drilled down we would find the aliens human sacrificing altar!! How ever I think the predators would follow us causing the epic battle to start so we should probly refrain from Antarctic exploration for now!!

  9. We must have read the same things, Tooner. I knew about desert and windiest as well, but highest is a new one for me.
    Amazing pictures, Dr. Kyla. Thank you for sharing.

  10. BTW Kyla – those are very beautiful pictures.
    And I do hope they all have to pay for the pollution(recover?)if that ship goes down.

  11. Neat pictures, Dr. Kyla and thanks for the info. on the ice being a mile thick on average and that the Antarctic is the highest continent and a desert. Very neat to get this info. from my favourite web site.

  16. Twice the size of Australia without the ice and these ScIeNtIsTs can lick their finger hold it up in the air and document the effects of global warming.. Count a few birds, talk to a few Penguins.. Get that all important group picture..
    Then get back indoors because its a deadly -50 outside..
    This global warming awareness stunt might just backfire the more people who take notice of this story.. Just don’t expect the MSM to call it anything but a Russian ship with no mention of their precious cargo.. Wouldn’t want to have to talk about global warming stuck in the ice..

  21. Highest? By what measure?
    Highest Mountain in Antarctica
    Vinson Massif: 16,066 feet / 4897 meters … hardly a top ten peak.
    Highest average elevation? Maybe … who knows?
    The rest of this this stuff used to be part of grade 6 geography prior to 1970.
    Who Knew?

  22. average elevation is about 2300meters about half ice depth. there was a book I saw years ago that blamed the reversing of the poles to an unstable gyroscope effect caused by Antarctica being the highest landform
    i cant remember it was nearly 30 years ago ,but I think the flip should have occured by now.

  23. Nuh uh. How Hi is a Chinaman.
    Sorry that was terrible and wrong but I had it in a joke book when I was 8 and I thought it was the funniest thing ever.

  24. Highest average.
    If the average ice coverage was a mile, (I think it’s more than that) then the average elevation would be about the same as Denver’s elevation.

  25. I am conflicted about this. Good for Kyla for posting those excellent photographs.
    But really, what an ignorant jerk! Didn’t she read anything about the place before
    going there?!? She is a typical modern igoramus who thinks the world was invented
    yesterday. Quite apart from the stories of Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton and others,
    the Americans and others began relatively large-scale exploration in the 1950s,
    and the American work at least was described extensively through articles in the
    National Geographic and no doubt elsewhere.
    BTW antarctic icebergs are different from arctic ones, They tend to be bigger
    (much bigger) and are less homogeneous. Also there is much more water for them
    to move in.
    But thanks for the photos.

  26. Because of its extremely low CO2 concentrations, at least in the interior, and
    the 6-month night, it is the preferred place for helioseismology, i.e. the study
    of oscillations of the Sun. These, like seismic probes on Earth, give information
    about the interior of the Sun which is not otherwise available.
    The Antarctic ice is not static and tries to ingest camps located on it. Apparently
    the very first American camp from the 50s is now almost completely buried.
    Oh yes – there is at least once very large freshwater under-ice lake in Antarctica,
    which was discussed in this blog about two years ago.

  27. John Lewis, reading about a place is no substitute for being there.
    I was in Pangnirtung a couple of decades ago for work, I read up on it, it still blew me away, the sound and glacier can’t be captured by photo.
    Course neither can the destructive power of the wind, the building bound to the earth with steel cables and 3/4″ drywall sheets being flipped to their destruction will remain embedded in my memory.
    So cut Kyla some slack, what I hear in her comments is my ignorance and awe from the past.

  28. Pictures of snow and ice… that looks like something different. Can’t urinate on it? Looks to be about all it’s good for…

  29. John Lewis: Purposely, I did not study up on Antarctica before going. One of my purposes in going was to see firsthand what was there, not be influenced by Al Gore or Ernst Shackleton or Wikipedia.
    I trusted my safety preparations to be taken care of by my expedition leader, because this was her 72nd Antarctic Excursion over the last 16 years.
    It’s not likely that you will ever find me on a personal watercraft trying to navigate the Northwest Passage because Al Gore said that it would be okay.
    I’m curious, do you start face to face conversations with the same level of rudeness or did you think that was simply a link to an external site and that you were not speaking to me directly?

  30. Thanks Kyla for the photo’s – wow.
    I know this has to be asked, but WHERE does one urinate?
    How do the penguins go up the mountains, switchback too?

  31. Wow again! Looking at the pictures in the link, what is all the red/brown around the penguins? Is that their turd, or blood, or just moss?
    I see the seagulls stealing the eggs – that is so sad.

  32. Thanks Kyla.
    Great perspective and photos. I can only dream!
    I presumed John Lewis was joking. If not, JL is the idiot. I’ve been to China and Mongolia twelve times…to some remove regions. (DOH! Mongolia IS remote.☺) All the reading in the world could never prepare me for my first trip! And culturally I was always amazed at the things I saw and encountered…every trip.
    Thanks again Kyla! Excellent.
    CAS

  35. Kyla, thanks for striking a hefty blow against the Warmies. Nothing like eye witness testimony and pictures to blow a hole in a Big Lie.
    But if you come across a big tunnel that bores straight down a couple kilometres to bedrock, take lots of ammo with you if you decide to go down. Aliens, y’know. 🙂

  36. Kyla, nice pics but let’s measure this rudeness you don’t like.
    Please review this link. http://www.ecoenquirer.com/south-pole-tragedy.htm
    Yes, another activist who died chasing global warming in Antartica. Were you aware of James Schnieder? Pretty rude not to tell you.
    How about the billions (trillions) stolen from taxpayers, our lightbulbs replaced with mercury bombs, our liberties curtailed, birds and bats decimated by the whack-o-matics? All based on bogus science. We getting as rude as that BS science yet? We “deniers” didn’t rudely lie to you Kyla. Someone did, and you are there with them!
    We, the “deniers” have been mocked, ridiculed, and shunned for speaking the truth. Politicians won’t listen to us and the media hate us.
    You were the one who got on board the good ship green propaganda. You telling me you didn’t know who the others were or what they stood for? You weren’t going to help spread the word on “climate change” and warn us all of impending doom? Really? Reality up and bit you and now you want everyone to play nice.
    Sorry but isn’t it likely your reason for going there was to push for political action? If not, why did you join the group of activists?
    I hope you learned the right lessons. Your future writings will tell.

  37. Umm, I think thats a spoof, the pilots name might be a clue.
    Also the obvious, how would two unsupported nitwits get their equipment to the continent?
    Also the well known fact, our team climatologists do not do field work, otherwise there would be a ship of fools event every month.
    Sure the vile behaviour of the cult is liable to enrage a normal observer, but we do not need to copy, their losing techniques.
    Kyla does good work here, by going there, observing and providing a mirror for the concern junkies to look into.
    Somebody has to hold their nose,tongue and stomach to walk amongst the deluded and report their condition.
    And Kyla does great work with these stunning photographs, a picture is an easy answer to pages of warmest propaganda.
    Two things , never shoot the messenger and never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake.
    Those of our self styled elites who have been trying to cram the cool aid down our throats, are now exposed and frightened, expect ever more shrill and delusional drivel.
    CAGW was always politics, thinly cloaked win a science disguise.

  38. Markon, you are without a clue, yet somehow jumping illogically to a wrong conclusion. I was not on a ship full of greenies going to prove global warming. I was on a ship full of veterinarians learning about marine mammal and sea bird medicine.
    There was a historian and politics of climate change expert on board, worked for the ship. I attended her talk on how the hole in the ozone correction was a big success and climate change legislation was far more challenging. I asked a couple of questions that proved that she had no idea about the science involved. She to stop my questions by saying, “I am not a scientist, I am a policy expert.” I asked her what would happen since the entire basis of her degree has been proven to be false. I also reminded her that almost everyone on board was an actual scientist.
    Once I opened the floor and broke the silence by daring to speak against the cult of climate change, a group of New Zealanders joined in by saying that it was all a scam and then quoting facts about CO2 ppb and cow flatulence and volcanoes. It was a beautiful sight to behold. The nice climate change policy expert was visibly shaken by our exchange, especially when it became apparent that the majority were non-believers.
    The red/brown is indeed penguin guano. They explosively defecate so that their feces will land farther from their own nests. Most of the time, the penguins go almost straight up the mountains, occasionally, they will approach a hill from an angle. I will add a pic of a penguin superhighway to that album.
    I’m glad y’all are enjoying the photographs.
    Kyla

  39. I love the exchange you describe with the policy person. More than worth the price of admission no doubt? Would love to see video of that!
    As others have mentioned, on my bucket list (to go to Antarctica).

  41. To urinate, you have to return to the ship.
    It’s funny that we were studying that type of medicine, because unless you work in a zoo, it is illegal to intervene medically with the wildlife. The learning opportunities were an excuse to get to see Antarctica.
    Still, we were very careful not to spread disease between penguin colonies. All boots were scrubbed and disinfected after every landing.

  42. “We climbed 3 mountains in Antarctica, steep grades, 60 degrees in many places, switchbacks were a necessity for the people. Little penguins marched up the mountain past me, like I was standing still. They have penguin superhighways tramped down in the snow. Occasionally, one would flop down on its belly for a 2 minute rest.”

    Let me clarify that: Are you saying that penguins regularly march up 60-degree ice-covered slopes?

  43. Yes, they march up slopes that I would not have believed possible. The feet have incredible claws on them. To be fair, I did not measure the exact angle of the slopes, far steeper than a 45 degree slope.

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