There are some unusually beautiful landscapes in Antarctica. It seems like an interesting and challenging touring destination.

There are people who have toured Siberia and Alaska in winter, but there seem to be very few who even consider Antarctica. Apparently, there are some tracks and trails and huts; and it seems possible to do it.

Does anyone know of accounts of Antarctic tours?, or what might be involved in working out the details?

Are you talking about some sort of self supported tour(expedition)?

There are cruises and such but most of the ones I've read about, you never leave the boat.

Or perhaps you are thinking about going for a Surly Pugsley with spike tires type tour?

Pugsley to the south pole?

i think, skis, a sledge and a parasail presents much more feasible antarctic locomotion but i guess you could if you wanted to.

it'll be beyond the reach of most dirtbaggers, the logistics to reach that continent are pretty broad.

Winter in Antarctica is more severe than anywhere else on the planet.

I don't believe there is any effective way to get in or out of Antarctica in the winter so you'd have to have enough food and supplies for months at a time. That's a tall order for a bike tour.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica

Here is some travel info for the region.

"Private travel to Antarctica generally takes one of three forms: 1) commercial sea voyages with shore visits (by far the most popular), 2) specially mounted land expeditions, or 3) sightseeing by air. Approximately 80 companies belong to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators [1], a membership organization which regulates non-research travel to the region. In the 2005-2006 summer season, an estimated 26,250 people visited Antarctica or the surrounding waters."

"For tourists, Antarctica is accessible only during the austral summer season from November to March, during which sea ice melts enough to allow access, coastal temperatures can rise up to highs of 14ºC (57ºF) and there is sunlight during the day. During the winter, the sea is impassable, temperatures can fall to -40ºC and it's pitch dark."

This is a great book about touring in Antarctica! It's slightly out-of-date; I would expect transport to/from the continent is easier to arrange these days. I know that Jon Krakauer, Conrad Anker, and Alex Lowe went climbing in Queen Maud Land during '96 or '97 and Krakauer wrote an article about the trip for the February 1998 issue of National Geographic.

Getting there would cost a fortune, and I would think that crevasses in the glaciers would pose a serious threat to a cyclist. But I imagine it's possible...people do travel across glaciers at speed - usually using the parasail/ski combination, so I suppose that someone with similar knowledge could pull it off on a bike.

Definitely a summer destination.

If you want to see Antarctica, talk to these people:

https://rpsc.raytheon.com/Employment/index.cfm

Just make sure you bring your winter coat.

The son of a friend of mine has worked in Antarctica.

The closest I've been so far is the southern tip of Tasmania ... and I've seen the ships that dock at Hobart and visit Antarctica in the summer.

L'Astrolabe
https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/voyages/...ransport_id=11


https://www.flickr.com/photos/1430288...7622035702408/

Aurora Australis
https://www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=27140


https://www.flickr.com/photos/1430288...7622035702408/

This book seems to have some good information on the subject:

https://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Planet-.../dp/0864424159

https://www.amazon.com/Antarctica-Cou...4962833&sr=1-2

So, are you planning a trip there, Niles? When are you thinking of going? Are you planning to stop in Australia or New Zealand on the way down?

I have not seen anyone mention the carbon footprint laid by travel to Antarctica. It is extreme high impact travel no matter how you look at it. Tourist travel to Antarctica is also leading to the usual environmental incidents in that delicate environment already being damaged by climate change. Recently a whole cruise ship was added to the list of objects spewing oil into into the Antarctic seas (it's sitting on the ocean floor leaking oil and other pollutants).

If you go to the arctic you can ride your bike there. If you need a challenge you can ride to Tuktuyaaqtuuq (in the Canadian arctic) in the winter and you are unlikely to meet a single other cyclist. There is a winter road (the Dempster Highway) that connects to an ice road to Tuktuyaaqtuuq. You can ride there from your house.

My brother and sister-in-law worked there for one Antarctic summer:
https://www.jeanbert.com/antarctica/life.html

The logistics of an Antarctic tour would be significantly more difficult than most Arctic tours. Search for examples of people who have skied across parts of Antarctica to get some ideas. That is not to mention the general discouragement the US government (and probably others) would have against tourists getting themselves in trouble and then having to be bailed out.

I've been interested in this kind of thing too, Niles. I'd be interested to hear more about people who've toured Siberia or perhaps the arctic circle. I've been thinking off and on about some kind of North Pole tour. Maybe just Alaska or some obscure town in the far Northern reaches of Canada.

There are some winter rides that happen here that are 60 to 100 mile rides that take place over several days(I believe), and they're carhart, boot, and flat pedal type rides. I think that'd be a lot of fun. I like that approach to winter touring.

Padded shorts under my carharts? I think yes...

On either side of the Arctic Ocean once you reach the end of the road it's no longer cycling. Global warming is now changing the characteristics of the sea ice in the arctic making travel even more difficult. The obscure town in the Canadian arctic is Inuvik. Inuvik is on the furthest north road in Canada. There are no other land routes to the arctic in Canada. There is an ice road to Tuktoyaktuk, north of Inuvik and that is the absolute end of the road. You cannot ride a bike any further.

You cannot ride your bike to the north pole. I'm not challenging you to do it - it's simply impossible.

In Alaska you can ride as far north as the industrial perimeter of Prudhoe Bay but there is no public access to the sea ice.

Have a look at my Links page:
https://www.machka.net/links.htm

If you scroll down to "More Ultracycling" you'll see links for the Iditabike and the Susitna ... those are winter cycling events in Alaska.

I'm not sure, but I seem to remember that you have to take out everything you produce as waste.
including your own waste (excrement).
the rules for (or rather against) pollution are severe.

they even removed the sled dogs from the continent a few years ago.

Now, I'm not a lawyer, and I could remember wrong, but please make sure you think about stuff like that BEFORE setting out.
It's a VERY vulnerable place (even more than Svalbard, Greenland, northern Canada etc.)

further: I would question myself: why go there to cycle, there are (almost) no roads there, so probably walking is a better mode of transport that hauling along a bike.
You could conceivably do an expedition there, but a 'normal' cycle-tour?

however: in spite of the problems I may have with the idea, it does sound like something I would have loved to do before the advent of global warming, pollution awareness etc..

Hi,

as far as I know the whole Antartica is protected. With a cruise you can land at some spots. And there should be 1 path where it's allowed to cycle (2 km). The rest of the continent you can only "conquer" as an official expedition.

Thomas

After a bike tour of Chile/Argentina one friend went from the Ushuaia, Argentina to the Antarctic . The ship was a re-fitted Russian trawler. You sleep with seat belts and furniture has all rounded edges. He said you sleep on the ship with two days of land visits..

Not cycling, but this past January Ray Zarab and two others broke the world record by five days with an unsupported 33 day, 650 mile trek by foot from Hercules inlet to the Geographic South Pole. Each of them used snow shows and lugged a sled with all of their supplies for a month. Ray and his team do these expeditions for charity and gain a whole lot of publicity along the way.

He had an awesome TED talk about it.

I know nothing about the feasibility of doing that trek by bike, taking into account the ridiculous terrain. Considering all the supplies you'd have to carry, you'd probably need a big trailer/sled. I don't really see biking in antarctic conditions being any faster than walking in snow shows.

Many of the things above that you list have variations that aren't too difficult and make good tours.

In northern Canada is a trip up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik:
https://www.mvermeulen.com/yukon.html

In the US is a trip up the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay:
https://www.mvermeulen.com/dalton/index.html

The main roads across Siberia are a little more difficult but still do-able:
https://www.bikerussia.com/category/a...ussia/siberia/

Roads I haven't done that would be a bit more difficult than that but still do-able would be things like the Road of Bones in Russian Far east to Magadan or the Canol Road (particularly parts no longer maintained) in northern Canada. Doing any of these things in winter also puts them in a whole new dimension.

However, these are really still much easier than notions of setting across Antarctica or parts of the Arctic ice sheets. Also interestingly enough, despite the reputation of the name Siberia, I found the gaps between services and overall remoteness to be greater in Northern Western Australia than across Russia. Within Russia, there was a main trans-Siberian railroad lines which led to small towns and villages settled along the way. While the Russian Far east was only opened after fall of the Soviet Union and a gravel road constructed across the gaps in 1990s/2000s and officially opened in 2004 - it goes past many of these small villages.

I have a goal/dream to eventually cycle six continents (and have gone across four) but I don't foresee ever riding in Antarctica.

Cycling in Antarctica is for wimps. If you want a challenge, try swimming in Antarctica like Lynne Cox did.

https://www.lynnecox.org/

I was watching a documentary about a trip to the north pole on skis, and the guy bumped into someone going on a bike!

Along the left hand side, the third and fourth pictures down show the basic gear:

https://www.thepoles.com/news.php?id=16707

Small diameter, ultra-wide tires seem to be this guy's choice.

Larger diameter tires would seem to have advantages over these, in some conditions at least.

This looks like it could be fun -- towing a sled around in winter. No bugs, plenty of fresh water. No Natashas on the prowl. Silence. Solitude. Fresh, clean air.

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It seems that some people who cross Antarctica have a plane drop supplies at strategic intervals (something like PCT hikers mailing food packages ahead for pickup where it will be needed). Accurate GPS devices would make this sort of drop-off system easier than it used to be.

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It is surprising how mild the temperatures are in Antarctica during the summers.

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There is a lot of food there, too. Penguins are pretty substantial, and seals, walruses, and fish.

For vegetarians, there are seaweeds, and possibly some edible lichens and mosses.

I wouldn't count on supplying my nutritional needs by foraging for vegetables, though.

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It is somewhat surprising that there were no (known) native peoples on this continent. Eskimos and Inuits lived in comparably challenging environments.

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Some of the surfaces (judging from photographs) don't look impossible for cycling. Icy plains look quite doable with wide, studded tires.

Native peoples in the Arctic migrated to the region via land. No such land bridge exists to the Antarctic. I don't think it's at all surprising that there are no native peoples on the Antarctic continent. Consider other mammals native to the arctic region versus the Antarctic region. In the Antarctic, they are ALL marine mammals.