Warm Winter, Even at the Ends of the Earth

Jan. 16, 2008 — -- We are headed down the western edge of the Antarctic Peninsula. Our hope is to spend the month in the Weddell Sea dashed by an unusual abundance of thick pack ice, especially unusual for this late in the austral summer season.

Instead we will travel, by kayak and sail, up around the tip of the peninsula then southward down its western edge, with the goal of getting 500 miles or so and a degree or two below the Antarctic Circle. While the Weddell Sea side is stark, remote and foreboding, the western edge is big, beautiful, offering all the classic Antarctic scenery, plus every one of its marine wildlife -- seals, whales, penguins and birds.

That fact is proven one of our first nights out, in the Gerlache Strait, when we pass first a pair of surfacing humpback whales, then another trio of the big guys and in the near background several small groups of Orca, or killer whales. The sea is perfectly calm and they are feeding, rising to the surface, diving and seemingly unperturbed by our presence -- in essence showing off for us.

Our first day of kayaking begins from Enterprise Island and the site of a historic ship sinking. In 1915 the Gouvernor, a Norwegian whale processing ship and the most sophisticated of its time, burned at anchor, its 1,000 barrels of whale oil igniting a massive fire that claimed the ship but none of its crew.

We kayak around the wreck, its rusted bow still jutting out of the calm bay, and circumnavigate Enterprise on a clear blue day. A highlight is crashing through brash ice to reach a hidden bay, the small floating bergs making a loud bashing sound on the bottom of our kayaks, their bark more serious than their bite.

The next morning we kayak through Paradise Bay, its tall snowy mountain peaks reflected in the calm sea, passing a sleeping leopard seal on a floating sheet of ice. We are headed toward the American science base called Palmer Station, where we are invited to dinner and an interview with a scientist studying Antarctic algae for its cancer-curing potential.

The base is a collection of brightly colored metal buildings connected by wooden walkways built above the snow and ice. An arched tent sits at the entry from the sea, home to the penguin researchers who are requested to change and shower outside the base's formal buildings so as not to track Gentoo guano into the base.

Metal containers labeled Haz Mat, Bat Cave and Grantees sit near the sea; atop the hill is a geodesic dome housing the base's satellite antennas. A modern new building built higher on the hill houses sophisticated equipment that tracks everything from nuclear detonations to earthquake tremors to lightning strikes around the globe.

After being hosted at dinner by its 35 residents -- nine or 10 are scientists, the rest are support crew -- the base manager Rebecca Shoop takes us to a balcony overlooking the sunlit bay and a line of tall glaciers parallel to it. (It was just off Palmer where, in 1989, the Bahia Pariaso -- a tourist boat -- sank, all of its passengers safely shuttled to the base.)

The line of glaciers, explains Shoop, has retreated by 30 feet in the past decade. The snow bridge that was once there is gone. In its place lies a new island of rock and rubble, which no one knew existed, and unburied from beneath centuries of ice in the past 10 years.

During the next few days, we would stop and visit with other scientists -- on Peterman Island, where the environmental group Oceanites has been studying penguins for the past five years; to the Ukrainian base called Verndasky, where they measure the ozone and keep exact meteorological records. Everyone we meet talks about how a warming climate is changing things down here.

On Peterman, the trio of penguin counters tell us about a recent, two-week rainstorm, unheard of in Antarctica previously. At Vernadsky, warming is expressed in the fact that the channel between its island base and the peninsula did not freeze completely this past winter.

We have experienced some beautiful, 40-plus degree days. While there may exist some debate over the cause of climate change, there is no question that things are heating up dramatically down south.

Jon Bowermaster is an adventure writer based in Stong Ridge, N.Y. Click here for his Web site.