This was my 16th season working in Antarctica and my 14th working for ALE. I returned to Antarctica after a two-year break. After the 2018/19 season I decided that it was time for a change from the annual cycle of spending Nov/Dec/Jan working for ALE in Antarctica. The following year I spent most of December 2019 in northern Chile climbing Ojos de Salado, returning to Europe to start my TransPyrenees ski project in January 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic shut down most of the countries that I work in and this led to two quiet years with little work for me in 2020 and 2021. Towards the end of 2021 ALE announced that they would operate the Antarctic season and I was invited to join the team.

With each country opening up to travel at different speeds it was a huge effort to get the staff team to Chile and onwards to Antarctica. Many ALE customers also had to overcome a variety of challenges in order to get to Chile for the flights to Antarctica. ALE Staff from around the world gathered in Reykjavik (Iceland) to connect with a chartered aircraft that flew to the Bahamas to collect the USA based staff. This aircraft then proceeded via a refuelling stop in Ecuador directly to Punta Arenas in Southern Chile. We were the first group from overseas to visit the area in almost two years and the season start up was complicated by quarantine regulations, daily Covid tests and Chilean govt ‘Mobility Passes’.

I spent short periods at the start and end of my time in Antarctica based at Union Glacier involved in the general running of camp and assisting with client guiding in the local area. The majority of my time was spent at the Emperor Penguin colony at Gould Bay. This is one of the four ALE remote camp locations and the only one that I not previously worked at. It was interesting to be part of a different aspect of the ALE operation. The small staff team worked well together to deliver a high quality experience to all the customers despite the obvious logistical challenges of operating a camp on a floating shelf of sea ice.

One of the highlights of the season was the solar eclipse seen in Antarctica on 4 December 2021. A lot of resources were put in place to enable guests to view this event at the Gould Bay emperor penguin colony. However the weather was forecast to be overcast on the day so the guests chose to fly to another location to guarantee a better view. At Gould Bay the eclipse was glimpsed (behind the clouds) by a small ALE staff team and a lot of penguins.