Cape Adare First Antarctic Landing Site

Cape Adare is where Carsten Borchgrevink’s Southern Cross expedition wintered over in 1899 — the first humans to spend a winter on the Antarctic continent. The original huts still stand, battered but intact, managed as historic monuments under the Antarctic Treaty. Around them, roughly 250,000 Adélie penguin pairs nest in a colony so dense the noise and smell hit you before you see them. The rocky cape juts into the Ross Sea with brutal exposure to Southern Ocean swells.

Access is by ship only — zodiacs from expedition vessels operating in the Ross Sea, typically January through early March. Landings are weather-dependent and require Heritage Trust permits to approach the historic huts. No infrastructure, no shelter. Wind is constant and sea conditions can close the site fast. This is as remote as Antarctic history gets.

First winter camp on the continent.