General Interest
ALE has successfully completed our 2012 tourist season. And what a season it has been. There have been highs and lows, lots of successes and some sad and disappointing news. But we wish all our guests and expeditions well and thank our Antarctic staff, aircrew, and those busy people behind the scenes at Punta Arenas and [...]
ALE was delighted to welcome the President of the Republic of Chile, Sebastián Piñera Echenique, to Union Glacier today. President Piñera has a strong interest in Antarctica and has made several visits to the continent but this was his furthest trip south (79S) and the first to the extreme edge of the Chilean sector (80W). [...]
The ALE Ski South Pole Messner team has arrived at the South Pole and other expeditions supported by ALE are closing in. Here's a quick look at what they are doing and where they are at.
Photos taken by ALE guests in Antarctica put a new spin on the old saying, "Take nothing but photos. Leave nothing but footprints" and show that footprints can be both intriguing and enduring.
In the early hours of Christmas Day (Tuesday 25 December 2012) Professor Martin Siegert, Principal Investigator of the Subglacial Lake Ellsworth experiment, confirmed that the mission to drill into the lake has been called off for this Antarctic season. Drilling had been proceeding well, but was stopped when the team was unable to link the [...]
Polar Explorer Eric Larsen believes, “…modern expeditions are less about geographic firsts and more about story telling.” And boy does he have a story to tell. He plans to complete a world’s-first bicycle journey across the Antarctic continent, covering nearly 750 miles, from Hercules Inlet on the coast of Antarctica to the Geographic South Pole. [...]
ALE guests who flew to the South Pole on December 14, 2012 were greeted by a simple and fitting tribute to Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, the first person to achieve the Pole. There were no crowds, no speeches, no great celebrations. A single Norwegian flag fluttered next to the pole marker, testament to the achievement [...]
Congratulations to Captain Neverov and his Ilyushin 76 crew on their 100th blue-ice landing!
The ALE mechanical team has completed their first big project of the season, a 280 km tractor-train traverse to the Lake Ellsworth drilling site. The tractor-train loaded with equipment arrived at Lake Ellsworth on Saturday November 24, after a difficult journey through soft snow from Union Glacier Camp. ALE Team Preps Drill Site The mech [...]
The results are in for the 2012 Antarctic Ice Marathon! The Men’s Race Dr Andrew Murray (GBR) won the men’s marathon in a new course record of 3:41.15 hrs. The 32 year old GP, who has run more than 50 marathons, said this was ‘one of his best’. Murray went on to run a 50km [...]