Walking in Antarctica | 2025 From Scott Base to McMurdo Station - video Dailymotion

Enmore View

#entertainment #life #review #learn #language

Transcript

00:00Today I'm going to take you on a walk across frozen ocean from New Zealand's Scott Base

00:04to the United States McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Just leaving Scott Base, we are walking along

00:10what's called the Armitage Loop. It's a beautiful day, no wind, no clouds, it's about minus 15

00:19degrees and it's the first time I've done this walk this season so looking forward to it. I've

00:23got Leon here, he's going to be my buddy. We'll see how we go. Scott Base, Scott Base from Matty.

00:33Two packs crossing the front transition onto the sea ice, walking the Armitage Loop.

00:38Cover that mate and enjoy the walk.

00:53We've just started our walk coming through the pressure ridges. And the pressure ridges are

00:57really cool because they're right out the front of Scott Base and provide a recreational opportunity

01:01for us to go and walk around some ice. But the best part is that it's a haven for Waddell seals and their pups.

01:23One of the things I love most about being in the middle of the sea ice is how quiet it is.

01:37Nothing.

01:42I've just turned the corner here around Ophill, which is there.

01:47I've probably got about another 3km, 4km to go before we're hitting Murdo.

01:55Again, no wind.

01:58Got my gloves off, it's that warm.

02:01Just such a nice night to be out walking.

02:17It was nice and quiet and peaceful before that thing came along, but now that it's

02:29disappearing it's back to being pretty silent. Well listen to that, there's nothing.

02:35If you're enjoying the video so far and want to see more clips from Antarctica,

02:39walk on over to that subscribe button. You know what to do.

02:42One thing I didn't mention is that I'm standing on sea ice at the moment,

02:47which is basically frozen ocean and I have seen this completely free of ice.

02:53It's probably about 2m thick at the moment so it's totally safe to be walking on, but

02:58it's crazy to think that I've actually seen penguins and whales and seals

03:02swimming exactly where I'm standing right now. Once we get to about February,

03:07as this ice starts to melt, there is a chance that it will disappear again

03:10and this open ocean will reappear, which is always cool because it brings in the wildlife.

03:16They can swim a bit closer to where we're based and yeah, it just makes for a really cool time.

03:22It makes for great photos and lots of wildlife watching.

03:26So it's pretty cool to see how this place changes over the seasons where it's solid,

03:31thick ice right now. Seeing how different that is at the second part of the season when

03:36the sea ice all breaks away and the wildlife comes in and this is ocean. It's pretty bizarre to think,

03:42but this is how this place changes over the over the months and then a few months after that,

03:48this place will be completely dark. We've got 24 hours of sunlight at the moment. It is currently

03:53about 8 p.m. So that sun's not going to set. It's just going to circle around the

03:58sky for a little while and then in six months time, it'll be completely dark

04:02in the middle of the day. It's nuts.

04:08So we've come to the corner, the turn off to McMurdo Station from Scott Base

04:13on the Armitage Loop, but I just thought I'd explain this.

04:17So we've got a red and a green flag and both of those mark safe trails,

04:21which can get a little bit confusing because you think red would mean no go, but red means go,

04:26green means go. So that marks a trail intersection.

04:29In this direction all of the flags are red and then in the perpendicular intersection

04:36all of the flags down there are green. So all this tells us is that there's two trails that are

04:43coming together, they're both safe and you can take whichever path you want. This path continues

04:49around to Cape Evans to Scott's Hut where we were on the weekend and this green path takes us to McMurdo

04:55Station. It's right there. So we're well over halfway. Scott Base is back there in the corner.

05:02You've got Mount Erebus in the background, which you can't quite see because it's hidden by the wind farm.

05:09But that's where we've come from. That's where we're going.

05:13It still absolutely blows my mind that I'm standing on frozen ocean.

05:28So one of the things we do is once we've been on the sea ice for an hour we have to radio back in

05:32and let Scott Base know that we're safe. Scott Base, Scott Base from Matty.

05:36Matty, this is Scott Base. Scott here.

05:37Two persons on the Armitage Loop just calling in for our hourly check-in.

05:41All is well.

05:42All done.

05:45A lot of people ask me how close McMurdo and Scott Base are to one another.

05:49That's McMurdo there. That's not a pyramid.

05:52That's Scott Base over there.

06:04We've just come around the corner of Observation Hill. There's a few people sitting up there.

06:07I don't know if you can see them. They're probably a bit small, but they're in red jackets.

06:10So they're from McMurdo. They're scoping us out on the sea ice. We haven't got much longer to go.

06:14McMurdo is just over there. Again, just one of the most amazing nights I've had out here.

06:18It's so warm. There's not a literal cloud in the sky anywhere. It's a few on the horizon there.

06:27That's Mount Discovery, which is an isolated volcanic cone,

06:302,681 meters or 8,800 feet high. Those are the Royal Society

06:35Rangers, which provide the most incredible view from McMurdo Station.

06:39The tallest peak in the range is Mount Lister at 4,025 meters or 13,205 feet.

06:52And heading along there, that's where you get to the McMurdo Dry Valleys,

06:55which are a contender for the most incredible views I have ever seen in my entire life.

07:00I've got a full-length YouTube video coming all about the McMurdo Dry Valleys, so if you're interested

07:12in seeing that, please subscribe to my channel now. We've got a seal and a pup in the middle of the

07:18trail and our little guidelines say that we're not allowed within 10 meters of those. So we're going

07:24to give them a nice wide berth, make sure we don't disturb them at all. These are the same seals that we saw by the

07:30pressure ridges. They are Weddell seals and this one here is a mum and a pup.

07:40While we were walking past them, we managed to find what they had for lunch.

07:43This is an Antarctic toothfish and it's one of the Weddell seals' favourite foods.

07:51We've made it around the corner, St McMurdo Station. So we've walked around Ob Hill, which is that guy,

07:57along this path. That was the seal that we saw before. There it is. Several Antarctic programs use

08:03helicopters to move cargo and personnel from research stations to areas of scientific interest.

08:13That there is a place called Hut Point and just there is Scott's Discovery Hut, so you can see how

08:18close that is in relation to McMurdo. We're allowed to go in there with a hut guide who can grab a key and

08:22open it up. And I've done a tour of that on my YouTube, if you want to see what that looks like.

08:26I'll probably do another one. The last one I did was in winter and it's nice and sunny now,

08:30so you can see through the windows. Which is important because it's the second oldest building

08:34in Antarctica.

08:58So again we're at another transition, this time from sea ice back onto the land.

09:02I'm going to call Scott Base and let them know that we're safe. Scott Base, Scott Base from Matty.

09:08Two people just crossing the transition at McMurdo Station from the sea ice back onto the land.

09:15We have arrived at McMurdo Station.

09:17That's the end of our walk. Well it's not. We're going to walk home via the road, but the road's not

09:21that exciting. So here we are, McMurdo. Largest station on the continent.

09:24Which houses up to 1,200 people during the peak of summer.

09:279pm now, sun's still in the sky. Lovely walk. Started our walk there at Scott Base.

09:36Walked all the way along that. Along there. Along there.

09:41Around the corner. Back to McMurdo, which is around there.

09:45This HT is the Hillary Trail. That takes us from the road down to Scott Base. It's just a nice little

09:52shortcut so we don't have to walk past all the traffic. And after five minutes of walking down

09:56the Hillary Trail we arrive back at the Scott Base buildings. In a future video I'll do a comprehensive

10:03tour through the facilities, so if you're interested in seeing what it's like to live and work at a

10:07research station, please subscribe to my channel.

10:10Thanks for watching.

Walking in Antarctica | 2025 From Scott Base to McMurdo Station

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended