the Adventure Lifestyle magazine

ANTARCTICA PENINSULA .- ...., .- ::E CO J:: ...., t: ::s o co sponsored mountaineering among the European nations, where climbing has more popular appeal. Today, a lot of the larger expeditions are financed by f ilm projects, whether it's Outdoor Life Network, NBC, or ABC wanting to cover "extreme adventures." A few years ago, a lot of Internet companies were funding expeditions in an effort to get their name out there, but now that has definitely gone by the wayside . MANY OF YOUR TEAM MEMBERS HAD PREVIOUS AFFILIATIONS WITH THE NORTH FACE. WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE A MOUNTAINEER WHO DIDN'T? OR IS IT JUST IMPOSSIBLE TO GET SPONSORSHIP? Well, nothing's impossible, as was said to me before I went to Antarctica. If you really want to get somewhere, put your heart and energy into it and you'll get there eventuall y. There are all sorts of different avenues for finding sponsorship. Many companies need to have their products featured in expeditions. Adventure t elevision programs are being made about particular adventures that are gOing on in Antarctica . ANTARCTICA HAS BEEN CALLED A " WILDERNESS OF THE MIND." DOES THAT RESONATE WITH YOUR EXPERIENCE? I would say it definitely resonates. The scale of the experiences you have down there are like nothing you could ever have anywhere in the world. It's unique, new, completely uninhibited-a wild, raw adventure waiting to happen. Everything from the vistas that you see across the Drake Passage to t he polar plateau around the South Pole, from sitting among thousands of penguins to the sca le of the icebergs to the mountains' 9,000ft faces, it's like no place else in the world. IT HAS ALSO BEEN CALLED AN "[CEBERG FACTORY " ... THOUGHTS? Well, almost every inch of Antarctica's coast line is some sort of glacier coming down and calving off into the ocean. Therefore it 's constantly producing ice cubes-very big blue million-year- old ice cubes. 40 ANTARCTICA, WHICH STORES 72 PERCENT OF THE WORLD'S FRESH WATER AS ICE, IS ALSO THE DRIEST CONTINENT ON EARTH. WHAT WAS THAT LIKE? It's the driest continent and also the driest point on earth in some places-the South Pole being one of them. The annual average precipitation is less than two inches, about what the driest part of the Sahara Desert gets. The Interior is so far inland and it never gets much warmer than -20°F, even on a windless sunny day. Any water vapor that falls from the sky is instantly turned into ice crystals. The South Pole region feels like a large white desert. There's nothing living, no lakes, just ice and snow and rock. But you also have wet coastal regions, such as the Antarctic Peninsula, which is where most travelers visit. Th at's where you get as much as 40 inches of precipitation, mostly as snow, in a year. And there it does not feel dry. Any land close to the ocean which has vertical relief is going to have precipitation. IN ONE OF YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS, YOU ARE EXPERIENCING A " WHITEOUT," WHERE OBJECTS EVEN WITHIN A FEW FEET OF YOUR FACE BECOME SUDDENLY INVISIBLE. IN WHITEOUTS, EXPLORERS HAVE DIED WHEN SHELTER WAS WITHIN CLOSE RANGE BUT THEY COULDN'T SEE IT. WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE? In that instance, we were able to look up the face of Mt Demaria, see the summit of the mountain, assess the objective danger lying in our path, and determine that the risk was minimal to climb up and ski down. But whiteouts can absolutely be dangerous. Not knowing where you're going, running into crevasses, having no sense of what's up and what's down aside from dropping something and watching the way gravity leads it to the ground. It can be very scary. You lose all sense of where you're going, relying on navigational devices to guide you, Not being able to negotiate through a large crevasse field in whiteout conditions can make the difference between being able to traverse in 15 minutes, or going through in four hours because you literally have to go foot by foot the safest route possible. IN ANOTHER PHOTOGRAPH YOU ARE CROSSING A CREVASSE THAT LOOKS LIKE A VERY HAIRY SITUATION. HOW COMMONPLACE IS THAT IN ANTARCTICA? Crevasses are a very imminent reality of travel in Antarctica, especially in the peninsula

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