Special Feature Journey To Antarctica... Fairview Forest Residents Travel to Antarctic Region Fairview Forest property owners Rick Johnston and Sam Fair left Asheville in November, 2005, on a flight to Santiago, Chile. The next day they took a charter flight to Ushuaia, Argentina, the world's southernmost city. There they boarded a small expedition vessel for an evening departure south, three days in the very rough and infamous Drake Passage, then cruised the Antarctic Peninsula Islands and the mainland continent of Antarctica. Continental landings were at Brown Bluff and Neko Harbor. One of many great moments was their first beach landing in Antarctica which put them right in the midst of the penguins. "There they were walking right around us," explained Rick. The main impressions they came away with were the unimaginable amounts of ice, the calving of glaciers — one of which created a tsunami, quickly driving them away from the beach at Neko Harbor. "There was a thunderous sound of the calving; then nothing but quiet for maybe 30 seconds or longer and then suddenly the sea withdrew suddenly from the beach, creating countless new streams running away from us," Rick said. "Pretty soon we were running up the snow bank behind us ahead of the tsunami waves." Other lasting impressions were the mountains and, of course, the penguins. Rick tells us temperatures were in the 30s the entire time they were there with amazing days of sunny, dry and unbelievable clear blue skies. So, actually, it was colder back here in WNC than it was in Antarctica. In November, the austral summer is underway down there. Rick and Sam spend about eight days in the Antarctic region. Photo credits: Rick Johnston and Sam Fair Antarctica is well known for its ferocious winds and blinding storms. Its reputation as the windiest and least hospitable continent on earth is well-deserved. Localized blizzards and life-threatening wind-chill temperatures are an ever-present danger. Travel and outdoor activities become virtually impossible during the Antarctic winter season. Along the coast, cold dense air flowing down off the ice-cap funnels through topographic channels at great speeds lifting snow high off the ground and reducing visibility to only a few feet. In the interior, inversion winds coupled with the extremely low temperatures have led to many a tragic end to an Antarctic expedition. Antarctica's location as the southernmost continent presents a unique situation in terms of weather and climate. The Antarctic polar climate boundary — the 50 degrees isotherm for the warmest month — encompasses about 12 percent of the surface of the globe, an area twice as large as that of the Arctic. It includes all of the Antarctic continent except the extreme northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. In the interior regions, extremely low temperatures, several months of complete darkness, fierce winds and blowing snow combine to make life virtually impossible. On the Antarctic Peninsula, temperatures are milder, yet snowstorms and gale force winds can persist for days or weeks on end. Most of Antarctica is covered with vast areas of snow and ice which reflect about 75 percent of the incoming solar radiation. Winter temperatures are also influenced by latitude, elevation and by the shortage of sunlight during the Antarctic winter. In fact, the coldest temperatures are usually during late August before the return of the sun. Fairview Forest Homeowners' Association   •   101 Fairview Forest Drive   •   Fairview, NC 28730