Skiing Magazine and Warren Miller Entertainment travel to Antarctica to Pioneer New Terrain

“The voice of our Scottish expedition leader roused us through our in-room loudspeakers, calling us to the decks. A 30-knot wind blew straight over the bow, slowing our progress but calming the ship’s movements. And then the peaks of a brand new continent, Antarctica – legend made real in an instant.”

From November 1 through November 18, Skiing Magazine's Senior Editor Sam Bass, a camera crew and athletes from Warren Miller Entertainment, lived aboard a ship off the coast of Antarctica. Traversing Drake Passage, 80 skiers challenged themselves to explore the most unapproachable terrain imaginable.

Explorer and entrepreneur Doug Stoup, owner and operator of Ice Axe Expeditions, had a vision to pack the 300-foot Clipper Adventurer with the most influential skiers in the industry. Goal: to open this terrain to any skier with a sense of adventure. Editors like Sam, cinematography legend Tom Day of Warren Miller Entertainment, and ski-mountaineering pioneers including Andrew Mclean crossed miles of ocean to ski the most unexpected thing of all – spring-like conditions, perfect corn, bluebird skies.

“It’s the first trip of its kind.” said Bass. “A group of about 80 skiers with various levels of backcountry experience took a small cruise ship designed for penguin and iceberg tourists to the Antarctic Peninsula, with an itinerary based around skiing. It was unreal.”

Beginning and ending in Ushuaia, Argentina, the adventurers set sail down the Beagle Channel, through the rugged Drake Passage, arriving at Deception Island. Then onto ski and trekking objectives via Zodiac boats at Neko Harbour, Anvers and Wienke Islands, Port Lockroy, Paradise Bay, Mt. Demaria and Crystal Sound, to name a few stops.

Sam’s inspired journey illustrates the adventure-minded, go-anywhere spirit of Skiing Magazine and was followed by thousands online, including a group of 6th graders who had a chance to interview the editor. “There were so many stories,” Bass reminisced, “Cinematographers were hard at work documenting two kinds of life – the kind that lives aboard the ship and the kind following the ship’s stern. The latter includes several species of petrel and albatross.”

To read more from Sam’s expedition to Antarctica go to skiingmag.com/Antarctica

Opportunities for sponsorship and advertising are available for the Warren Miller Film Tour. Please contact Johnny Alamo at 303-253-6413 or Johnny.Alamo@BonnierCorp.com for more information.