Every Step - Alone in Antarctica: The First Woman to Ski Solo Across the Southern Ice - page 1

The first time I saw Antarctica was from a ship. I was twenty-
three and on my way to Rothera Research Station, a British
Antarctic Survey base on the Antarctic Peninsula, which would
be my place of work and my home for the next two and a half
years. The voyage from the Falkland Islands took a fortnight,
sailing alongside some of the most spectacular scenery on the
planet. The Peninsula seemed to be one continuous line of
sharp peaks, their tips barely visible above the swathes of snow
and ice that smothered them, while at their feet the ocean was
glutinous with the cold and as black as liquorice.
It was a purely geologic landscape; no trees or buildings to
give any sense of scale. It was only when Rothera came into
view, a tiny cluster of green rectangles clinging to an area of
exposed rock on the coastline, that the true enormity of the
terrain revealed itself. It became clear that the peaks of the
Peninsula that had looked close enough to touch were actually
colossal titans tens of kilometres away and what had appeared