WEBVTT - Can you vacation in Antarctica? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:17.120 from house Stuff works dot com? Hey, welcome to the podcast. 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.480 I'm Josh Clark. This with me is a man named 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:23.560 Charles W. Chuck Bryant. He's a little under the weather 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:28.639 right now. Yes, sick, Yes, and that should come through 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:31.800 in this show. Keep getting me. I'm not gonna get 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:34.159 you sick. I got my own little mic cover with 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:37.159 my name on it. I'm gonna take it, probably burn it. 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:41.320 Actually I'm not gonna burn it because it's pricey. Didn't 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:43.559 the company get it for you though? Oh yeah, but 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.600 I don't want to waste the company money. That's good thinking. Yeah, 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:48.680 I'm a little ill, so all apologies, people, but we 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:51.360 like to soldier on here at s Y s K. 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:54.240 We meet our deadline. Remember when we often talked about 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:56.160 when you were sick for eight months? It was a 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:58.960 long time. Yeah, I'm hoping this is no more than 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:01.920 a few shows, maybe even just these two. That's what 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.040 I'm because we're recording to today. But I feel bad 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.120 for you because both of them are kind of chilly, Yes, 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:12.600 especially this one. Wintry topics. Yeah, well it's almost always 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:17.840 winter in Antarctica, even when it's summer season. Chuck. Have 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:21.479 you ever heard of a guy named Captain Robert Scott? Uh, 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:25.479 Bobby Scott, Bob Scott, cappy. I think he went by 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:29.360 rob instead of Bobby. Uh. He was one of the 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:32.360 first two people, or led one of the first two 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:36.319 expeditions to make it to the South Pole Antarctica, and 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.119 he was beaten by just four weeks by a Norwegian rival. 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:42.080 I think he's gonna say he's beaten by a polar 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:45.280 bear or something like that. Uh. No, well he did die. 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:47.800 A five man team made it to the South Pole 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:50.640 and started making their way back and just hit some 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:54.640 real freak weather. Um. And the guy that the team 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:57.480 meteorologist was in that five man team and just felt 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:01.320 awful that he'd missed this prediction. And they were just 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:06.560 buffeted by I think negative forty, negative ninety, just ridiculously 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:09.320 cold temperatures, so freak weather, or as they call it, 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:15.200 an Antarctica weather or Tuesday Tuesday. Um. So these guys died. Um. 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:19.120 But there they were found, and among them were found 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:21.520 some some of the find some of the things. This 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:24.640 is a scientific expedition. Obviously, UM some of the notes 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:28.920 they made, UM some the weather notes, the um a 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:33.519 trio of penguin eggs, Emperor penguin eggs. So they this 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.160 was kind of the the crown jewel of the stuff 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.880 that they accumulated during the scientific expedition. And here's why. 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:46.080 Apparently back in this era, this is nineteen eleven, I 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:52.120 think UM people thought that emperor penguins, because they couldn't fly, 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.160 were the most primitive birds on the planet. They hadn't involved, 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:00.600 and people were real keen on proving or disproving Darwin's 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.640 new theory about evolution through natural selection. So they figured, 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:09.240 if you go find the eggs of this very primitive bird, 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.000 you're going to find the link to dinosaurs and birds. 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:16.880 The reason why is because the Edwardians also believed that 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:21.359 um an animal went through all the stages of evolution 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:25.800 during its gestation. So they figured, hey, take some emperor 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:29.960 penguin eggs, crack them open, you're gonna find a dinosaur. Right. 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:32.600 It didn't work out like that, but they found the 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.640 very cute emperor penguin. They did dead inside, of course, 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:39.240 frozen to death. And now that I've seen the March 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:42.800 of the Penguins, I realized just how mean the expedition 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:45.640 kind of was. I didn't see that. Oh man, you 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:47.800 don't mess with an Emperor penguin egg. They go through 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:52.200 a lot to keep those things safe and warm and hatched, 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:57.040 and you don't. You just don't steal three of them, agreed, 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.760 Captain Robert Scott did. And you can't did either. I 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:04.200 imagine you can't. But you can't pay someone to take 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:05.640 you as close as you like. And if you were 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:07.920 a jerk, you could contuvably do it. Sneak one out 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:10.640 in your old purse. Yeah, let's let's talk about vacationing 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:13.480 and Antarctica. Did you know you can do that? Well? 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:17.640 I do now. Uh. Here, let's let's talk about the 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.960 body of land itself, because it's pretty remarkable. It's uh, 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:26.560 South Pole, Like you said, five percent of the lamb 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:29.680 masses ice, and I think the other point five is 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:33.520 a small putting green, but not mistaken. It's nice, says 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:39.200 Zoysia growing there. Uh. During the winter, they the ice 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:43.240 gets bigger, obviously, making it the fifth largest continent five 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:45.960 point million square miles of largely ice. And that's a 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.720 lot of ice. Even though it's shrinking, which we'll talk 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:52.240 about a little bit. Yeah, but naturally during the seasons 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:57.400 that expands and contracts slightly. Sure as ices want to do. Uh. 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:01.000 When it's warm, which is November to fed Bruary, it's 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:04.559 gonna be below freezing almost all the time. In the winter, 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:10.279 it can drop to ninety degrees below fahrenheit And I 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:15.320 got a world record here of one below zero at 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:20.960 the Bolstock station. Very dry, which is awesome because it's 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:26.840 like pristine, powdery snow. Uh, blustery winds. Actually that's not 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:30.560 the good part. Well, the winds are almost constant and 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:32.880 they get up to like two d you ever seen 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:36.440 the thing. Yeah, and by the way, two hundred miles 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.960 and hours three twenty one kilometers per hour for everybody else. 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:43.400 And you know what ninety degrees below fahrenheit is minus 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:46.599 sixty eight celsius. Yeah, like to convert for our friends 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:50.960 in other weird places. Yeah, two on that Canada. Uh, 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.119 not a lot of people live there. In fact, only 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:56.919 the only people that live there are people that have 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.680 set up research stations there. Yeah, it's in some I 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:02.640 guess some of them are manned year round, which is 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:06.800 pretty crazy. That's awesome. Yeah. So I say, if you 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:10.280 go to a research station during um, the time from 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:14.679 what February to November, Uh, you're gonna find maybe fifty 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:17.560 people there. And then when it's bustling from November to 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.960 February summertime, summertime, it's gonna be maybe a hundred fifty 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:24.359 people there. But all of these are temporary residents. No 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:30.719 one lives on Antarctica, well, temporary in a living since, 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.920 but they're permanent structures, right, They're not living in tents. 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:37.719 The residents are temporaries, not their structures. But there have 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.360 been people who were born on Antarctica. Yeah, now that 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:43.360 that was a cool fact of this show. I thought, Yeah, 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:47.159 have you heard of Emilio Marcos de Palma. I have? Indeed, 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.719 he you have. He's Antarcticon. He is, He's the first 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:55.760 Antarcticon ever. He was born in January night, and um 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:57.839 it was a bit of a ploy. Actually his father 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:02.440 worked at a research station in Antarctica, and the Argentinian 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:06.760 government found out that this guy's wife was pregnant and 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:10.320 hustled her down to Antarctica to give birth there in 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:14.000 an attempt to lay claim to sovereignty of Antarctica. Yeah, 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.480 and that's because no one is generally born there. There's 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:19.679 a lot of nations over the years that have tried 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:26.560 to claim it as her own, including Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:30.000 Great Britain, New Zealand, and Norway. And I'm surprised the 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:31.960 U S hadn't none there. Don't we know that there's 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.480 land out there that we don't have our Chile did 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.720 the same pull the same stunt as Argentina. Um. I 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:42.320 think six years after Emilio Marcus to Palma was born 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:45.880 and a kid named Juan Pablo Camacho was the second 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:51.240 Antarctican ever born. But you can have as many babies 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:53.920 as you want there, you're not gonna establish sovereignty because 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:57.520 there's a treaty from nineteen fifty nine called the Antarctic 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:01.040 Treaty appropriately enough, and basically it says that Antarctic doesn't 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.160 belong to anybody. It's like the oceans. It belongs to 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:07.640 everyone and no one UM, no one can lay claim there. 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.800 And because it doesn't belong to anybody, and because it 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:15.520 belongs to everybody, um, it's protected from war and it's 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:19.600 a nuclear free zone. Would you war anyway, No, I 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:24.280 know here's gonna fight in other people or in the 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.360 case of the thing, you would be fighting some horrific 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:30.760 shape shifting beast. And by the way, we should probably 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:34.880 point out I think it's still commonly overlooked. Uh, Antarctic 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:38.040 is the only place where you can find penguins, right, 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.200 They're not in the Arctic. Okay, I didn't know that 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:47.800 penguins Antarctic. And also, if you you know, I know 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:51.880 you love HP Lovecraft. Here there um, if you are 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:55.520 into Antarctic and you want to be scared out of 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:58.480 your wits by an emperor penguin reed at the Mountains 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.199 of Madness, I love Crash. I want to read that one, dude. 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.480 That's probably his best one, and it's set entirely in Antarctica. 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:07.520 I think they're making a movie. I think they had before. 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.000 Jackson's looking into it. I think that would be good. Yeah, 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:12.800 he's probably the only person who could pull it off, 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:15.920 but he'll he'll probably fail like everybody else. What about 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:19.280 Eugene Levy, You don't think he could do it. He 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.199 could be too charming, you know, like it wouldn't exist 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.319 in The Cannon or a Christopher Guest movie. I saw 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:27.960 Spinal Tap for the first time the other day, first 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.120 time ever ever? Shut up, was like, what do you 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:34.880 mean you haven't seen Spinal Taps? Watched it right, I 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.080 loved it. I had no idea what I was missing. 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:40.720 I tweeted to Michael McKeon and said, are you aware 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.280 that you were in Spinal Tap? And he tweeted back, 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:47.440 shut up, Wait what he said? Yeah, I favorite it, 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:50.600 So we're on was that personally or that was s y? 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.640 So we're on his radar in a small way. Apparently. Wow, 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:55.640 at the very least he thought it was a funny tweet. 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:58.520 That's pretty funny. And I can't believe you never saw that. 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:04.160 I literally watch that movie over fifty times in college, 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:06.840 Like I can recite it almost by heart. I can 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:09.040 totally see that. Yeah, I can see that. I mean, 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:11.439 I'd love, you know, best in Show a lot, so 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:14.280 I knew i'd like Special Tap. Well, that was the 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:18.080 that was the original. It was strange seeing Harry Shear 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:22.080 because I just associate him with The Simpsons almost entirely. Yeah, yeah, 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:24.760 he's great in that too. I can talk about this 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:27.240 stuff all day. Let's get back to Antarctica, or we 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:32.679 should do a Christopher guest final tap um. So if 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:35.480 you want a vacation there, which you can do, you 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:38.480 gotta get there. And in this case, getting there, I 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:40.559 don't know if it's half the fun, but it's half 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:44.800 the challenge because you're not gonna find any I twenties 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:49.800 zooming into Antarctica or any Delta Airline flights landing there, right, 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:52.120 and most of the action, um, when you're traveling to 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:56.440 Antarctica takes place on the Antarctic Peninsula, which is a 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:01.160 sweep of land that juts out toward uh, Southern South America. 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:05.200 Imagine almost all of Antarctica is still very much not 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:09.720 trod upon, you know. Um, yeah, it was just explored 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:12.400 like at the beginning of the last century. Basically, Yeah, 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:14.120 people like why don't I want to go down there? 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:16.840 Took us off right exactly. So like you were saying, like, 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:18.880 it's it's not easy to get to, and you're going 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:20.800 to get to the point that's easiest to get to 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:24.080 from southern South America. So most likely you're going to 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:28.640 take a ship cruise ship probably from Argentina or Chile 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:32.560 and show up, which seems weird that they're that close. 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:35.280 It's very close isn't it. And the weird Yeah, like 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:39.040 you think of like hot temperatures, you do, but then 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:42.079 you're like, oh wait, that's Bolivia I'm thinking of. Chili 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:46.720 is actually right by Antarctica. The first commercial cruise liners, 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.079 because you're gonna get there by ship is how you're 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:51.280 gonna get there, and cruise ship is one of the 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.040 most popular ways to do that these days. The first 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.920 one came in sixty nine and that was the lind 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:02.320 Blade Explorer. Just to give you an idea of the 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:06.120 increase in tourism over the years, in the early nineties 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:08.800 only about nine thousand people per year and just a 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:11.400 couple of years ago in two thousand eight, two thousand 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:15.520 seven to eight forty, which doesn't sound like a lot 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:19.360 of people, but it's a lot for Antarctica, especially when 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:21.840 you consider the proportion that we're wearing Mickey mouse heres 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:26.439 at the time. They're incruising around the glaciers drinking Chilean wine. UH. 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:30.280 There is an UH tourist association, the i A a 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:34.679 t O Internets association of Antarctic tour operators formed in 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.360 the early nineties and their mission basically is to keep 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.880 everything safe and keep everything above board and ethical on 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:46.400 a environmental uh scale, because they're gonna want it to 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:50.560 be ruined. Antarctica is supposedly pristine, it is. We found 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:55.920 out it isn't though that same uh, the same scott expedition. Also, 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:58.000 I don't know how. I don't want to think hell 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.840 but came about came by some uh Emperor penguin skins 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:04.960 and they're still to this day used to um as 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:11.400 a control sample when you're comparing um tainted Emperor penguin 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:14.080 skins today. And they found out that d DTS actually 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:16.200 made its way down there to any So it's not 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.280 really pristine cheese that's pretty pristine, right. Well, now that 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:21.240 you have all these ships and people running all over 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:26.040 the place exactly like the ever Steel exactly, uh, November 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:28.800 to March is, like we said this quote unquote summertime, 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:31.400 So that's when tourists are most likely going to be there. 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:34.920 A little bit smaller than ice sheet, which means boats 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:37.160 are going to be able to get around easier because 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:39.720 you've got to be able to navigate through the ice sheets, 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:42.360 and not a whole lot of boats have the kind 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:47.240 of hull that it can withstand bumping into icebergs. No, 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:51.120 this was very alarming to me. There's there are people 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:54.280 who were going on cruises on cruise ships, and these 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:59.560 cruise ships can't withstand in iceberg. The um the Lynn 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:03.360 Blade Explore, Yeah, the first one, Yes, that was also 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:05.240 the first one. That was also the one that sank 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:07.320 in two thousand seven. It was the same exact ship 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.320 and ironic, yeah, they changed the name to the MS Explorer, 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:12.800 but it was the same exact ship. The first one, 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:15.200 the first cruise ship to go to Antarctica, was also 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:18.000 I believe the first one to sink in two thousand seven. 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:21.680 It was actually outfitted to withstand in iceberg and it's 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:24.360 still sunk. So then you consider that there's plenty of 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:27.280 cruise lines down there that aren't in any way um 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:31.560 equipped to take an iceberg. Apparently they're very worried that 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.760 this is a disaster waiting to happen. Well, let's go 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:37.880 ahead and go there then. Uh. Since two thousand seven, 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:39.960 there have been four ships that have run aground, which 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:42.320 is not a good place to run aground. No. Well, 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:44.880 plus it's not good for Antarctica because it's like, hey, 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:49.280 have you met our refined fuel yet? Yeah, that's true. Uh, 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:51.120 but if if you do run aground and you're in 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:54.240 a in a cruise ship incident, you're gonna be stuck 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:57.200 there for a little while because it's not like any 0:14:57.200 --> 0:14:59.160 other place where they can just send out a star 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:01.640 team and all of a sudden you're getting rescued six 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.360 hours later. So in two thousand seven, uh, with the 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:10.120 MS Explorer, these these passengers were in lifeboats, it says 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:13.240 for hours. I wonder how long I don't know. I 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:15.480 can imagine a while. And they got picked up by 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:17.280 another cruise ship, right, So it wasn't even a star 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:18.840 team that came to rescue him. No, it was a 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.560 Norwegian cruise Lines I think that came and got them. 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:24.200 So they're like thank you. And that same year, actually 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:27.080 uh and Curry from UH what is she? From the 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:31.120 Today Show? She was doing in the morning. She was 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.160 doing a piece called Ends of the Earth, and she 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:36.760 went down to Antarctica and she and her crew ended 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:40.400 up getting stuck there for days and they just hung 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:42.440 around the research station, which we'll get to in a second. 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:44.920 Because of freak weather though, right, not like an accident, no, 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:49.480 but the freak weather is apparently fairly common, so you 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:53.280 just call it again weather down there or Tuesday weather. Um. 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:56.960 But apparently if you book an Antarctic vacation, the tour 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.480 operator says, don't make any big plan on two weeks 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:03.080 of either side of your trip, because there's no telling 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:05.520 really when you're gonna go down there. They're shooting for 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:07.360 this window, but it might not be that window. That 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.480 might put me off, not from a schedule standpoint, but 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:13.440 just from beer, you know. And then I have a 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:18.160 story for you. So, um, this is all in summer, 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:20.720 like you might get stuck there during the summer. If 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:23.200 you're in winter, there's no way for you to get out. 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:25.720 You're absolutely stuck there. Nobody's coming in and you're not 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:27.880 coming out. You have to honker down for the winner. Yeah, 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.040 they shut it all down right, I'll travel, yes, um, 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:34.200 And they're I think beginning in nineteen nine, the Russians 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:41.520 built the Novo Lazarre of Skia. That's my Russian. Uh, 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.480 they're antarctic base. The Russian Antarctic base was built, and 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.680 two years later there was a surgeon there named Leonid 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:52.760 Rogozov and he was stuck there for the winner. No, 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:54.440 he was with some other people, but he was the 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:57.440 only physician, and he just happened to figure out that 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:00.360 he had a cute pancreat titus man and that he 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:03.040 was about to die, and that he had two choices. 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.240 He could either allow himself to die, or he could 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:09.280 perform an eppendex to me on himself. I'm sorry he 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:14.360 had appendicitis. He performed an appendect me on himself. When 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:16.480 you're doing this, you can't knock yourself out. So he 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:21.240 had no anesthesia whatsoever, and he stayed awake the whole time. 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:23.440 He would work for four or five minutes as he 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:25.680 was carving. There's a famous picture of him like carving 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:29.400 himself and he just stained with blood. Um and uh, 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:31.399 he'd worked for four or five minutes, rest for about 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.639 twenty thirty seconds, try to keep from passing out. And 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:38.080 he finally did it. He successfully performed surgery on himself 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:40.880 and lived to uh two thousand I think is when 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:44.080 he died. And he lived another two minutes. But he 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:46.720 I mean, could you be badder than that? He's pretty bad. 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:50.359 He's up there with and uh who was the white 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:54.520 the white death uh Seemohiah. Yeah, yeah, I'd like to 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:56.360 see those guys sit down and have a tough off 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:00.720 like an arm wrestling competition. So any way, you're stuck 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:03.280 there in the winter for sure, but you can frequently 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:06.439 get stuck there in the summer too, which hey, you 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:09.000 know it's only like fIF theme below. In the summer, 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:15.280 you're golden. Uh. Sightseeing cruises probably what the most popular 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:18.880 thing to do, like the Alaskan cruise. They'll they'll run 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:23.439 you through, uh, through the Kodak Gap, which did you 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:26.240 look at the pictures of this place? Oh my gosh. 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:29.240 The La Mayre Channel is the official name between the 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.840 Booth Island Mountains and the Arctic Peninsula peninsula. But they 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:35.520 call it that obviously because they should call it the 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:41.080 Digital Mpeg Gap now, I guess. But it's extremely photogenic. 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:43.920 It's it's where you see like those just like ice 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:47.760 blue cave ice caves that you can like go through 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:50.119 when your boat and stuff like that. I guess, not 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:52.919 caves but tunnels. It's pretty amazing. And I hope you 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:56.600 don't strike either side exactly. So they're gonna take you 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.800 on these cruises. They're gonna get you close. Uh. Some 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.600 of these tours will take you actually onto land from 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:05.639 a smaller boat or a helicopter for a little while, 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:07.440 but you're not going to be spending a whole lot 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:09.359 of time on land if you're doing one of the 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:13.720 cruise ships. Right there are there are some um expeditions 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:16.560 you can undertake, Like, um, there's something you can cross 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:20.199 country skihole and you can't along the way. It's like 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:22.840 a two week tour. I think, Yeah, I'll bet it's 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:25.120 pretty cool too, but I think you have to be 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:30.840 um kind of strong of mind, probably get you'll go nuts. Yeah, 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:34.600 I would imagine, Well, it depends. I mean, I'm sure 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:37.840 there are conditions to where it's like quote unquote warm 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:40.040 and just lovely in blue, but there's also going to 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:42.439 be the white outs where you can't see your hand 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:44.360 in front of your face and the wind is like 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:48.440 blowing your headgear off, and yeah that's no good. Well, 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:51.000 plus also, I think plenty of it's barren. It's just 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:54.720 the same view three and sixty degrees, which has to 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.919 drive you a little nutty too. It's lovely though. Um. 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:02.240 You can also, if you're insane already, run a marathon 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:05.399 in Antarctica. I'm gonna tell my friend James about this. 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:09.160 He's a trail runner and does like these trail marathons 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:11.920 and these crazy things. And he's I think he's doing 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:14.320 one in Ireland soon. So he likes to travel. I'm 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:16.520 gonna turn him onto this. All he needs is about 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:20.320 sixteen grand and he can join in the Adventure Network 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:24.639 International full or half marathon. I would imagine it's UM 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:27.600 fifteen five for the half marathon and then sixteen grand 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:31.080 for the full marathon. UM. But you're running in the 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:36.200 interior of Antarctica UM about minus twenty degrees ferret height, 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:39.240 and you're going to have to deal with the temperature, 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:42.760 the wind, chances in elevation, and b penguins trying to 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:45.080 trip you because they got money on somebody else. And 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:48.960 let's be honest, running a marathon, let's not forget that 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:52.240 that's challenging in July. It keeps me at home right there. 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:54.280 What I want to know what they run in though? 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:57.880 Shoe wise, Yeah, I wonder, you know, I wonder if 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:00.960 if it's I mean, obviously are not wearing snowshoes or 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:03.720 anything like that, or spikes. I guess there's areas where 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.120 just heavy tread would work. I would think, So there's 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:09.359 gotta be or else. What are you gonna do? You 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:13.439 can't run a marathon and snowshoes, so it's ridiculous. Uh 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:16.120 So once you're there, you want to pass a little time, 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:18.720 You want to see some things that are awesome. Besides 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:23.400 the Kodak gap. Uh you can go check out the 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:25.760 the mountain there and you can even climb it and 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:28.199 it's really not I didn't get a hide on that, 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:32.040 did you. No? But it's a four mile climb, which 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:34.920 isn't that much. No, I mean it's not. It's nothing 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:37.439 to sneeze at. But it's no Everest, But I imagine 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:40.280 there's probably a lot of ice to it, ice climbing 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:43.600 and as well as just rock climbing. Mount Vincent is 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:48.120 what we're talking about. What did I say? Vincent vin 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:52.800 Sun not Vincent. Okay, it's the son of Vincent. Got 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:55.320 you sorry about that? You can go get your picture 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:58.560 made in a bikini in front of the little South 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:02.200 Pole marker at the uh Amonson Scott South Pole Station. 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:05.400 It's very famous American research center at the South Pole. 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:08.159 And they had a little candy cane pole with a 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:11.000 little silver ball on top of it. And I've seen 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:13.760 a lot of pictures of ladies and bikinis taking their 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:16.680 picture there. So the Americans never said this is our land, 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:18.480 but they're the ones who built the research station like 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:22.199 virtually on top of the South Pole. Um and Amonson Scott. 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:24.520 That's named after the two guys who made it to 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:30.040 the South Pole, including Robert Scott and Roald Amerson. When 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:32.720 was this the early nine It was a nineteen eleven 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:36.000 and nineteen twelve, which makes it seem like um Amonson 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:38.080 beat the tar out of Scott, but it was really 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:41.719