Snow Hill Island, Antarctica: It was windy and cold enough here that your sinuses ached (well, my South Texas sinuses, anyhow). The white expanse between me and the island in the background was ice about four feet thick. We tried to wedge the ship and and walk across the ice to land, but it was too windy: the ship kept blowing out of the hole it made in the ice. In fact, the ship would actually hit icebergs twice in the next 24 hours, as winds picked up to almost hurricane force. You can't really see it, but there's a tiny dark spot to the left of my left shoulder (that is, the leftmost shoulder in the photo). The spot is the remains of a wooden hut where, in 1898, an explorer named Nordenskjold led the first party of men to overwinter in Antarctica. It wasn't their idea: their rescue ship was prevented from getting to them by ice. 

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