4 Months in the Antarctic Peninsula / Part 1

Papua Penguin Papua among the paths of Doumer Island / Photo: @ignacioreyesh / www.ireyesh.com.

Chapter 1 - Antarctic Peninsula January 2018.

From the window of my room, I see an extensive wall of glaciers that extend over Doumer Island to the Bismarck Strait, a pair of Papua penguins and their small chick growing day by day, a machine for removing snow, and a calm midnight sea. I am in a small A-type house like those found in the mountainous areas of Chile, built in the 1960s, in the middle of the Antarctic Peninsula with a team of 8 logistics personnel and a select group of scientists at Yelcho Base (created by the Chilean Navy with its name in honor of the schooner commanded by Pilot Pardo that rescued Shackleton's men in 1916) of the Chilean Antarctic Institute, located on Doumer Island, between the Neumayer and Peltier channels. This season I am doing something completely new, "kitchen assistant," and as usual, the contract includes support in any area that is needed, which is very common in Antarctica because titles will not prevent you from someday having to take a shovel, fix a flaw, or support in any task that needs an extra hand, since the time before winter and resources are very scarce, so all help is welcome.

Who would say that Antarctica becomes a passion that allows you to adapt to doing anything to return again and again, as each season in these lands becomes a privilege, just as a reference not more than 40.


Yelcho Base, Doumer Island / Photo: @ignacioreyesh / www.ireyesh.com.

It is difficult for me to remember the exact moment when the White Continent became my passion every summer. For many years, I longed to know inhospitable and distant lands, just as I had seen in countless magazines and documentaries of explorers and travelers. Again and again, the photographs of glaciers, wild animals, complex mountains, and stormy seas stirred in my thoughts the desire to travel to them someday and experience life on the edge of the world.

Antarctic Summits / Photo: @ignacioreyesh / www.ireyesh.com.

This season, reaching these latitudes took us a little over ten days. As great navigators and explorers did in the past, we set sail from the city of Punta Arenas, sailing between the Magellanic channels, and when we were already at the level with the Diego Ramirez islands, a group of imposing Albatrosses bid us farewell on the continental shelf, to later cross the famous Drake Passage until sighting the first floating icebergs and the first islands near the Antarctic Peninsula, the famous South Shetland Islands. Some of my new companions had never sailed before and it was the first time they had left the South American continent. Others were experienced polar workers whom years and practice had toughened to be the support of the most remote bases of the Chilean Antarctic Institute.

Views from the cargo ship / Photo: @ignacioreyesh / www.ireyesh.com.

Southern Albatross / Photo: @ignacioreyesh / www.ireyesh.com.

Drifting icebergs / Photo: @ignacioreyesh / www.ireyesh.com.

One of the most iconic things about approaching the white continent is to sail once in a lifetime on an icebreaker. In my case, this would be the fourth time I arrived or left Antarctica on the classic ship Admiral Oscar Viel of the Chilean Navy, which perhaps if you passed through Punta Arenas during the summer season, you saw it because of its characteristic red hull in the Strait of Magellan and which is now retired and rests in the waters of Talcahuano.

Before calling at Doumer Island, the icebreaker loaded with provisions, spare parts, equipment, and crew visits various points on the Peninsula such as King George Island, Greenwich Island, Paradise Bay, and the Territory of O'Higgins. Then, after several days sailing between channels, icebergs, and mountains covered with glaciers, we managed to spot what would be our new home for the next four months, the remote Yelcho Base.

Unloading maneuvers / Photo: @ignacioreyesh / www.ireyesh.com.

It was my second time at 64 degrees latitude, but the first time I could be permanently there throughout the Antarctic summer. Hundreds of Papua penguins have preceded our arrival, taking advantage of every snow-free area to settle their nests. Next to the base, some of them are already ready to start incubating.

Penguins on the rocks / Photo: @ignacioreyesh / www.ireyesh.com.

Antarctic sunset / Photo: @ignacioreyesh / www.ireyesh.com.

In a few days, the entire environment of our base had to be free of several cubic meters of snow and conditioned for the maneuvers of the season; the boat, the workshop, laboratories, kitchen, rooms, and also our connection with Chile thanks to a large satellite dish, required all the maneuvers necessary to be apt and ready to receive scientific expeditions and ready to start one of the largest projects of the season, which would be the expansion of the useful area of the base and the construction of a pier, which is no small task since many of the infrastructures that are created or tested in the Antarctic Peninsula must be developed only with the arduous work of people and tools that can be manipulated under complex geographical conditions, without the help of the large heavy machinery that we are used to seeing in a city. All so that every summer the base can operate safely and have what is necessary to continue complying with these lands being for peace and science.

To be continued...

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