Antarctica

To reach the 7th continent is not a simple feat. It is a three-day journey under the best circumstances, which culminates in a crossing of the Drake Passage—a notoriously unpredictable section of the southern ocean. Located between the tip of Argentina and the Antarctic Peninsula, it guards the 60th parallel with winds that can breach 100 mph and swells rising 45 ft.

To survive the voyage is well worth it. Your reward is a vast, untouched expanse of ice and sea, where wildlife finds the unlikely will to survive in the frozen waters and barren desert. You will see volcanic peaks rising from the ocean. You will feel days where the sun refuses to set, instead spinning overhead and only bobbing, briefly, beyond the mist-cloaked horizon. Any semblance of seasickness or exhaustion will dissipate when you first lay eyes on Antarctica.

Photographs from a journey to the end of the world with HX Expeditions.