The Antarctic peninsula is like nowhere have ever seen. Weird rocky peaks and spires, blue skies and crystal clear water. Unearthly blue icebergs and huge walls of glacial ice ready to break off into the sea. Glaciers as far as you can see and weird and endearing creatures that think you are the strange and interesting one. Antarctica is not the best skiing I have ever had, but it is the best place I have ever skied. Even if you regard this as a one off, once in a lifetime trip, you will be conspiring to return again before you have crossed the Drake Passage again for home.
This tour is run by an American touring company, but attracts guides and clients from all over the globe. It’s a good group of people. You will meet kindred souls and rub shoulders with a who’s who of international guides, climbers and outdoors people.
We skied with our kiwi mate Mark Sedon a typically understated New Zealander, but an immensely capable and indefatigable guide. You can choose to ski with a guide you know who is going, or be teamed up with a guide on the trip, with a group of three or four other clients who have the same abilities and targets as you do.
The skiing is varied. We met almost every possible snow condition, from fresh powder to breakable crust. The skiing ability required is not huge, but some experience with a range of off piste snow is a prerequisite. Obviously there are no ski lifts. It’s all touring. But if that is not your bag, don’t let it put you off. None of the ascents are very difficult and the days tend to be made up of several shorter targets rather than a single big climb. Our biggest day was 1800m of ascent, but many groups opted for shorter days. You can brush up on your touring technique and on the specialties required for glacier travel over the couple of days before the trip leaves from Ushuaia, on the local Martial Glacier
There were skiers using frame bindings and downhill oriented skis, but we enjoyed having lightweight ski touring gear.
We spent the first week in Argentina, and checked out some of the spring skiing opportunities in Patagonia around Ushuaia, with the local guiding company Backcountry Patagonia. Actually this was amazing in its own right and a really nice and well run guiding company. We are planning to ski in Patagonia again!

The Powderhounds have visited many very special ski destinations around the world, but the Antarctica ski tour would definitely be the most amazing trip we’ve ever been on! Our anticipation was pretty high for this trip as we’d heard Antarctica is an exceptional place, but our expectations were completely blown away.

Obviously we didn’t go to Antarctica for thigh deep powder but we really enjoyed the skiing, and the skinning was a great opportunity to get to even better vantage points to appreciate the vistas. And we didn’t travel to Antarctica just for the skiing or snowboarding. It was the whole package of experiences that made it extraordinary: the boat trip and cruising around to enjoy the vistas; staying on the deluxe ship; the awesome people we met; the abundant wildlife (so many penguins!); and the further appreciation we gained of the wondrous white continent, thanks to the scientific and expedition staff and the mountain guides.

It’s part of our job to review man-powered and mechanised backcountry skiing operations and we’re usually pretty good at critiquing even the smallest potential shortcomings, but with this Ice Axe Expeditions trip, we completely struggled to find any inadequacies. It was phenomenal – definitely add it to your bucket list!

You can check out a more detailed review of the Antarctica ski trip from the Powderhounds.