THE ICE HOLDS

A trip to the bottom of the world provides an important reminder of the power of nature

-  Sean Lee-Davies

There is a particular kind of vertigo that has nothing to do with height, but that hits you when you disembark from a plane onto Antarctica for the first time. Seeing the ice sheet from altitude—that vast, still, impossible whiteness interrupted by shadow and geological drama—is awe-inspiring in the extreme; but stepping onto the ice eclipses everything you had felt up to that point.

We headed to the “last continent” in early February to spend a week at White Desert, exploring the terrain between its two extraordinary camps: the alpine, sci-fi otherworldliness of Echo, set high on the interior ice sheet, and the more temperate but no less astonishing Whichaway, lower and closer to the coast.

The itinerary included the South Pole itself. Nature, however, would have other plans.

But first: Echo Camp, a collection of six matt white, elliptical pods scattered across the ice, where we are received by the general manager Anthony Pieri with canapés and champagne. By this time, it’s late but, as it is still firmly summertime on the continent, the sun is still blazing. It would not set for the entirety of our stay.

Inspired by a conversation with astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the pods are part retro space age, part ultramodern, with floor-to-ceiling windows that dissolve the boundary between interior cosiness and exterior enormity. Step inside and the scale is surprisingly generous: a 6-metre pod accommodating a cosy lounge area, a king-size bed positioned to face the ice, and a private washroom and toilet tucked neatly beyond.