Waterblogged

24 Oct 2007

Peter I island rises suddenly out of the sea, a lonely mountain covered with thick glaciers. At 1640m (5750ft) it pierces the upper winds, creating its own weather and leaving a streamer of clouds that often trails a thousand miles across the Peninsula and into the Weddell sea. The nearest land mass, the Antarctic continent, is several hundred miles away and is so inaccessible that no country has even bothered to make a claim on it. On this “wedge” of the continent there are no permanent stations, very few field camps, and nothing along the shore line — if you could even reach it.