Antarctica Weddell Sea Expedition

Weddell Sea, Antarctica · Antarctica

Expedition Grade14 daysAntarctica~£18,000 est.

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Overview

The Weddell Sea is the Antarctica that crushed Shackleton's ship, and it still only admits icebreaker-class vessels. Helicopter-equipped expeditions push south along the pack edge for the emperor penguin colony at Snow Hill Island — go in November, while the chicks are still grey and woolly and the fast ice holds — and cruise a coastline of tabular icebergs the size of boroughs, calved from the Larsen shelves. Adélie cities crowd Paulet Island, Weddell and crabeater seals haul out on the floes, and somewhere below, at 3,008 m, lies Endurance herself, found upright and eerily preserved in 2022. Understand what you are buying: pack ice writes the itinerary in pencil. Helicopter reconnaissance decides daily whether the emperors are reachable, and some sailings never get there — book with operators who say so plainly rather than promise. Departures run from Ushuaia, November to February, roughly two weeks door to door. From about £18,000 per person in the cheapest cabins — the most expensive trip in this catalogue, and for a wildlife photographer arguably the one.