Antarctica (72° South)

All teenagers have dreams that seem impossible to make come true. Mine was to go to Antarctica, and not as a rich tourist on a cruise ship but as an explorer, or at least the modern version of that, a scientist. A PhD and a job at the Norwegian Polar Institute was all it took for that dream to become true.

So there I was, testing a ground penetrating radar to detect crevasses just a few seconds before the vehicle I sat in run into them. Occasionally digging them open and exploring their depths, hanging from a rope, to check how good my guesswork was.

I got my little share of excitement and adventure, including long flights over the antarctic ocean in a military cargo aircraft, a Christmas dinner in a tent among penguins and a New Year’s eve on an ice covered mountain in the midnight sun.