This will be a tour of Antarctica for 2 to 3 weeks, traveling mostly by airplane to meet people at some of the major bases, then driving the Overland Traverse for a little while to get a feel for it. I will need people who can drive the SnowCats or other vehicles permitted on the Overland Traverse, a pilot and copilot, and perhaps a few surveyors to help me study the landscape alongside sections of the Overland Traverse. When do you start? January of whichever year works best for everyone who wants to participate. At present, we are aiming for January of 2014, mustering in Chile in December of 2013. What will your route be? We plan to fly from Chile to McMurdo, then travel to the Amundsen-Scott station at the South Pole either by airplane or via the Overland Traverse ice-highway. Are you camping? I would love to camp for one or two days to test out some cold-weather tents and other gear, but I will leave that up to the other participants. How far will you go per day? I would like to spend about 2 weeks on the continent, exploring the immediate vicinity of each spot where we land, so I will probably be covering between several and dozen miles around McMurdo and Amundsen-Scott stations each, and then flying the hundreds of miles between them in a single flight. If possible, I would also like to fly to Vinson Massif just for a few photos and maybe an overnight camp. Please tell our members a little bit about yourself, what you have done what inspired you to do this? I grew to love travel and exploration as a young boy, having been taken on family trips to many states in the USA almost as early as my birth. I enjoyed seeing a dozen new countries during my service in the military, and made sure to use my vacation time to travel to additional places on my own. I started reading about the scientific research being done in Antarctica, and saw photos of how beautiful the night sky, pink midnight, and aurora australis look. I was hooked! I fell in love with it all, and had to research more and more over the years. I learned about the long river systems beneath the ice cap, and felt I HAD to find a way to get down to Antarctica a few times to see what works well down there so I can go back and explore some of those sub-glacial river systems. The expedition you describe sounds like it involves a lot of elements - have you made a budget for this, do you have the resources or were you planning on finding a sponsor? I'm working to keep this first trip as simple and affordable as possible; just 2 or 3 airplane rides, and 2 or 3 rented/borrowed cold-weather tents and kits. I plan to find at least one sponsor, and am open to any tips and recommendations for whom to contact about that.
austinbunton@gmail.com