Anthony Bourdain and his crew from "Parts Unknown" visited McMurdo Station on the coast and also the South Pole last summer. He posted several articles and videos on CNN. Here's what he had to say about Antarctica:
Bourdain’s Field Notes
There’s
been some whiskey drinking. The blue-tinged ice cubes in our glasses—older, we
are told, than the very idea of whiskey. It’s warm tonight by local standards,
which can see temperatures drop to 50 below and beyond. So, as one does in the
Dry Valleys of Antarctica, at the bottom of the world, I go to the beach and
play Frisbee.
I
pick my way across the ice-covered lake, unsteady on my crampons, and flop
gratefully down on soft sand, staring up at a midnight sun that never sets.
Behind me a few yards away, looming overhead, is the massive, 200-foot-high
wall of a glacier. In the other direction, what looks very much like Mars.
Rarely,
if ever, has an episode of “Parts Unknown” so descriptively lived up to its
title. Antarctica is the last un-fucked-up place on Earth. Chances are you
can’t go there. Certainly not the way we did.
We
were extremely fortunate to have been invited by the National Science
Foundation. Which meant that, along with incredible access and logistical
support, there were rules and requirements.
All
of us on the crew had to get rigorous medical exams, full labs, dental—the
works. You break your hip at the South Pole, it’s going to be difficult and
expensive to get you out. If your helicopter or your C-130 plane has to ditch,
requiring an overnight stay on the ice, you better be physically up to it and
fully briefed on procedure.
As unbelievably beautiful and unspoiled as Antarctica is, it’s no joke if things go wrong.
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| My daughter Jocelyn and I met Bourdain and chef Jose Andres in Washington D.C. November 2016 during the last leg of our around the world bicycle ride (fatherdaughtercyclingadventures.com). |
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Anthony Bourdain standing at the ceremonial South Pole marker last summer.
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I am training for the vertical tower sprint (upper left).
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