Crunch Time

SAN DIEGO, CA -- Well, after nearly a full year of planning, it is officially crunch time. I have under 72 hours to go, and need to make my way back to LA, do some final laundry, finish packing, and then I am off!

Interestingly (although not really surprisingly) my clothes and gear are the least of my concerns for this trip. I have made three trips to the Arctic Circle up north - Great Slave Lake in 2004 and 2005, and to Great Bear Lake in 2008. In addition, on that 2008 trip we did an overnight trip from Great Bear Lake to Tree River, with base camp only two miles from the mouth of the river at the Arctic Ocean. To put it in perspective... Yellowknife, capital of the Northwest Territories of Canada, sits on GSL at the end of the road. Literally. If you really wanted to, you could spend weeks driving all the way to Yellowknife, but that is the end. Beyond Yellowknife, you have to either fly or sail. The lodge at GSL sits on an arm of GSL about 1 hour by float/prop-plane from Yellowknife, beyond the end of the road. While you are there, you can feel just how remote it is. That said, topographically, it is essentially a more mountainous (really, hilly with the occasional cliff) version of the WI/MN northwoods. The main difference being the remoteness along with the fact that in the middle of July, you can still see the occasional iceberg floating by.

Great Bear Lake is an entirely different level. You are hundreds of miles from the nearest town. Sitting at the lodge, you can literally see the tree-line. At the lodge itself they are incredibly thin, small trees that do not look very healthy. Air and weather travels unblocked over the North Pole from Siberia and these are the first trees they hit - no wonder they are a little scrappy! Tree River is that much further beyond - it is in the tundra, with nothing taller than your hip as far as the eye can see in all directions. From the Arctic Ocean, you can see the North Pole ice shelf. At that point, standing on the last unfrozen, rock-hard land of North America, looking at the ice shelf, you realize you are no longer in Grizzly or Brown Bear territory... you are in Polar Bear Territory.

Well... that is where I turned around. To this day, that remains the furthest North I have ever been, and it is pretty darn hard to imagine going beyond there. From a cold perspective, in addition to the trips mentioned above, I've been to Alaska. I spent four days wandering around Montreal in January. I've been to two Presidential Inaugurations in Washington D.C. - standing around outside in the middle of winter for 8-9 hours. The Winter Classic - an outdoor hockey game played every year on New Years day, was held at Wrigley Field in Chicago a few years back, and I did that too.

All told, I have plenty of experience with long times and trips in quite cold weather. Hell, the day I graduated from UW-Madison the wind chill was 45 degrees below zero. I kid you not. The good news: it is not going to be anywhere near that bad in Antarctica. As such, I am not concerned with my clothing and gear.

...Which begs the question, what am I concerned about?

Electronics, of course! If I am going to travel all the way down to Antarctica, I better be coming back with pictures and video the likes of which have never been seen before!

In order to make the above happen, a few weeks ago I made a decision to purchase a DSLR camera. Special thanks to Matt, Cindy, and all of my photo expert friends for their advice and help in sorting out what I wanted to do. It is a very expensive purchase, and as such the decision was not one lightly taken. I have always in my mind wanted to buy a DSLR camera, but never felt a true need to. For my own photos, I have always desired optical zoom - the ability to pull distance closer to you without sacrificing the quality of the image. As such, back in 2007 I purchased an incredible 22x optical zoom, fully digital Panasonic Lumix camera. It has been my 'big camera' ever since, and absolutely will be making the trip down to Antarctica. Most of the pictures you have seen me post on facebook and occasionally on this blog were taken with that camera - houses from airplanes, surfers in the ocean, animals from boats, etc.

Despite my love for that camera, the images are purely digital - they are phenomenal, but they could be better, especially at close range. Enter: Nikon's D3100, which came with a basic 18-55mm VR II lens. The camera arrived on Saturday, and so far in my very limited time playing around, I absolutely love it. The photos are crisp and clear, unlike anything I have ever been able to take so close up. Also - kudos to Discover, who gave me 5% cash back on the purchase for ordering online. Kudos to Ritz Camera, who offered a discounted price, free shipping, and no sales taxes. In total, I paid around $600 for the camera, less than the $700+ at any electronics store (even including "Black Friday" deals - I was looking around while at home). For accessories, I got a standard UV-filter lens cover for $10, an extra Nikon battery (charge one on the ship while I use one for a landing, then switch them mid-day between landings) for $30, a gorilla-pod tripod for $50, a 16GB class 10 memory card for $20, and an all-weather camera bag with room for an extra lens for $40. All that was on Amazon = free shipping, no sales tax, and with the exception of the lens protector, way below retail prices. In total I paid about $750 for nearly $1,000 worth of camera and gear - proves it pays to look around and do some research!

Next up: need to get a good lens for that optical zoom I mentioned earlier. I don't need something absurd like 22x or even the 16x that my new point-and-shoot gets, but more than 18-55mm would be good. As such, I settled on the Nikon Nikkor 18-200mm lens, with an 11x optical zoom. Unfortunately, that amazing lens is more expensive than all of the accessories and the camera itself listed above at $850. Enter Borrow Lenses, my new favorite website that is exactly what it sounds like. To rent that same 18-200mm for three weeks (a few days on either end of my trip to play with it as well), plus insurance was $146 - not terrible. I pick up the lens tomorrow afternoon.

Well - that should do it. Bringing my three cameras, plus my phone for quick Argentina shots too. Might bring my flip cam. Definitely bringing my laptop and external hard drive, which should let me offload everything on a daily basis and keep memory clear to take as many pictures as I want. Now all I have to do is pack everything!

On an unrelated note, check out these 45 incredible photos from 2011. I have seen most of them, but some are new to me. The ones I find most incredible in one way or another are 7, 8, 10, 22 (I will never forget this image from the Chicago blizzard of our lifetime), 25 (Vancouver fail), 41, and 45.

Last but certainly not least... my Wisconsin Badgers are BACK IN THE ROSE BOWL!!!

I'm off to LA - more blogging in the next few days before departing.