I almost died three times down in Antarctica and this was one of them.

I was driving across the ice with a team of German researchers who were going to tag some orcas. It was great while I lived down there for a month because I got to hang out with all kinds of scientists and go on adventures with them every day.

Anyway, that vehicle there is called a Hägglund that is modified to move on the snow and ice. Well, right underneath the ice here is the ocean. As we were driving, the vehicle started to break through the ice and go lower and lower. It was touch and go there for a while, and then they asked us to quickly escape, which of course I did, pushing a German woman out of the way so I could get out first.

Now, these vehicles will indeed float, but part of the worry was if we fell through the ice and down into the ocean, then we could move a little bit and still get stuck under the ice if we didn't come up the same hole we made. Or, if we kind of made the hole head-first, it would not be big enough to float back into. Anyhoo, we made the smart decision to exit stage left!

Not long after this, we were rescued by Hef, our helicopter pilot from New Zealand. They managed to get the vehicle rescued the next day and brought back to base too.

Antarctica