Imagine temperatures so cold that exposed skin can freeze instantly, or winds so strong that if you were holding onto a stop sign your feet would be lifted off the ground. These are temperature extremes and wind speeds that can occur in Antarctica. While we hope we will not experience such extreme conditions, we have to prepare for the worst.

To protect ourselves from frostbite and hypothermia (a condition when body temperature drops below 98.6ãF) caused by exposure to cold temperatures, we dress appropriately.

Each night, to make sure nothing - including ourselves -blows away, we secure everything by attaching our equipment together and staking it to the ground. If we encounter bad weather or extremely high winds during the day we stop and make camp immediately to protect ourselves from harm.

Antarctica is the windiest and driest continent on the earth. Most people do not know that Antarctica is considered a polar desert because it receives on average of only about 2 inches of rain per year. (In comparison, the Sahara desert receives a little over an inch per year.) The average temperature during the summer months is plus +2 degrees C (+36 degrees F) and during the winter months the average temperature drops to minus 10 degrees C (+14 degrees).