The Unknown
Antarctic Peninsula
Athletes: Christian Cabanilla, Jessica Sobolowski and clients of Ice Axe Expeditions
Camera: Nikon D700
What makes it special: "The feeling of walking towards the end of the world, exploration in timeless form."
The story: "I spent most of my adult life exploring planet earth - wandering, tasting, discovering it. But for some reason Antarctica was much more about an idea than a place. Since I was a boy, my dreams had been filled with images of this icy world, dotted with the unexpected. I had heard about the actors that held its stage, Shackleton, Amundsen, Scott, and Byrd. I knew about its legendary native species; the whales, the seals, the penguins and the flying birds, but I never had a sense of what they would feel like in their own environment. I had come down to this continent in a quest for the unknown. From the very first moment I stepped onto the peninsula the experience was infectious.
On the stormiest, windiest, coldest continent on planet Earth I got sunburned. Actually, fried is a better analogy. Take everything you have heard, everything you imagined about the icy continent and magnify it. Then remember the ozone hole, its impact is real. Antarctica is everything my heart had dreamed of. Its exploration was a test of faith and mind. One filled with incredible rewards for the spirit. This stunningly beautiful, wild, icy world touched my heart.
Heading off in formation, the small band of ski mountaineers merged with the land and completed the visual metaphor of exploration into unknown space and time. It is a pilgrimage, which is as old as mankind. I looked at the four tiny figures moving across the glacier. The fact that I could not recognize anyone was perfect. This was not about the facts, but about my own experience.
Some say our frontiers are diminishing. I beg to differ. It all depends on your perspective, how you look at the world, and with whom you share the adventure. The quest for the unknown will always drive our curiosity. It is our human nature."
