Escape the rains currently obliterating the beautiful views outside to join an indoor journey - on a 54-foot ketch in the Antarctic surrounded by crisp snowscapes, icebergs, skiing and climbing on an island where the sole inhabitants are penguins, seals and reindeer.
Squamish-based doctor Angela Rivers and her husband, photographer Jia Condon, will share anecdotes and breathtaking images of their three-month-long adventure in Antarctica in a slideshow presentation at the Howe Sound Inn & Brewing Co. next Friday (Nov. 24).
The trip, on the steel-hulled yacht Northanger, ranged from Patagonia to South Georgia Island in the wild south Atlantica, with captains Keri Pashuk and Greg Landreth. "This trip to South Georgia was a dream of the captains and we were eager to join them in this remote and rich landscape where visiting is only possible by sea," said Condon.
Rivers explained they had fairly easy seas on the way to the island, despite a few intense days.
Their journey took them along the safer Northern Coast of the island where they visited a spectacular breeding grounds of the elephant seals and King penguins, explored and hiked along the coast, and ventured inland for some ski-touring and mountaineering.
"We were weathered in at Larsen Harbour on the north-eastern point of the island for 6 days and, on a tamer day, escaped for sunnier skies. Our sail back was a laborious 11 days of beating into the wind and fairly rough seas that kept us bobbing around, often in the wrong direction, and blowing out our kerosene heater, keeping us dank and miserable," recounted Rivers.
The majestic mountains looming over the sea and icebergs would be reason enough to visit South Georgia, but the most intriguing part of the trip turned out to be living among the abundant wildlife, they said.
South Georgia boasts the largest population of King penguins in the world with estimates of 400,000 breeding pairs, and is also the home of the Gentoo and the Rockhopper penguins. Rivers and Condon saw Elephant seals and fur seals giving birth during breeding season.
"The Elephant seals were by far our most consistent and entertaining friends during our time on the island," they recalled.
"The fur seals were arriving and setting up territories the few weeks before our departure, so we were privy to the territorial competition between males which posed our most dangerous obstacle to gaining land access," added Rivers.
Tickets are available in Squamish at Climb-On Equipment, Howe Sound Inn & Brewing Col and Valhalla Pure. They are $6 in advance or $8 at the door.
