Endor

I saw some concern in another thread about clothing required to take this trip, and since I did buy a lot of gear for my trip, I wanted to offer a review of the stuff I used. I don’t ski, so I bought a lot of stuff. Definitely I bought and brought more than I need on the trip, but I used everything and was glad to have it. Further, they had very little you could buy on the boat (besides a vastly overpriced fleece, so I was glad to be over prepared!) Where I have an alternate suggestion, I will note it.

I wound up checking a large bag and carried on a small backpack and large duffel bag. It was definitely the most luggage I ever took on a trip! I brought a lot of books with me, which was heavy, as I expected a lot of downtime, as I will discuss later, there was no where near as much downtime as I expected, plus they had a nice library on the ship, so I could have definitely cut down on books and weight. I was not charged any excess baggage (although I know I was over!)

The best thing was to layer, and it worked very well. There are 4 main things you do on the trip: (1) stay in doors on the boat, (2) go out on deck to look at things, (3) go on Zodiac cruises, and (4) spend time on land. We also camped out one night. I’ll tell you what I wore for each of those.

They do have laundry on board, but it took 36 hr to turn around. It was fairly reasonably priced, cheaper than it would cost at a Marriott, but more expensive than my USH hotel.

I bought most of my gear at EMS during the week btwn Xmas and New Year. They were having their enormous enormous sale - 20-50% off everything + for every $100 you spent btwn xmas and new years eve, you got a $20 off your next purchase coupon.

I could have rented a waterproof jacket and pants set from Peregrine for $50, or purchased a set for $150. I would say more than ½ the people on the boat did this. Generally, the older passengers rented the gear and the younger crowd brought their own. People I asked were generally pleased with the rental gear, but did report it wasn’t super warm. They were thrilled not to have to cart the stuff home, esp. since those Penguins stink! I brought all my own stuff.

Pants
I got 2 pairs of bergelene midweight long pants from EMS as my innermost layer. I also bought a silkweight Patagonia pair at Paragon later - In general, I much preferred the silkweight pants. However, during the coldest activities – zodiac cruises and camping out, the Beregelene were ideal. I wore of these on all excursions off the boat, and sometimes when we were out on deck I would wear the silkweight under my cords. In retrospect I would recommend one pair of each.

I bought polartec fleece pants as a middle layer. I wore these as a middle layer in the coldest conditions (camping out and on some zodiac cruises). Of all the things I bought, I was most concerned that these were a waste of money. I will say I was very glad to have them, but you could probably use a cheaper pair from an Old Navy kind of store.

Here are the exterior, waterproof layer pants I wore everytime I left the boat. These pants were great. I wore them everyday, and I highly recommend them.

Additionally, I brought 2 pairs of cords to wear on the ship for everyday activities. I did wear them everyday.

Tops
For the innermost layer, I got 3 bergelene shirts from EMS. I bought 3 different styles (one midweight crew, one silkweight crew, and one midweight zip). I liked having options – probably I liked the silkweight the best, and the midweight zip 2nd best. I wore these everyday, both on the boat and off, and was glad I brought 3.

For the next layer, I bought 3 techwick shirts. Again, I wore these shirts everyday, both on the boat and off, so 3 was the perfect number for a 10 day trip.

For the next layer, I bought this fleece microvest. This was a very good insulating layer. I wore it most times I left the boat, but not always.

Exterior Layers
Here is where I went overboard. I brought 3 different jackets with me – I really only needed 2, but I switched them around based on conditions.

Jacket 1 – I bought a NorthFace 300 power Fleece with a hood at a Northface outlet for $40. I wore this on the boat quite a bit, but never on the excursions. It was too bulky beneath my exterior shell. I liked having the fleece to change things up, but it was a waste of space. I did wear it when we went camping, and also around USH.

Jacket 2 – EMS Myth Jacket - This jacket is awesome and ison a super sale right now and I highly recommend even if you aren’t going to Antarctica. It’s totally waterproof, and very light weight, which was perfect. It was an awesome purchase. I wore it on every excursion. I hemmed and hawed over it because it didn’t zip into my shell, but I do think it kept me very warm. I wore it in buckets of rain in BA, and it kept me 100% dry.

Jacket 3 – NorthFace Summit Shell – I think this has been discontinued as I bought it 2 years ago at an NF outlet for $100. It’s a nice gortex/hydravent shell jacket, and I wore it most days over Jacket #2. There were a few times I didn’t wear it and just went with Jacket #2. I was fine.

Shoes
My friend loaned me the boots and overboots she used on the trip. I didn’t need to bring them after all though, because Peregrine has boots on board. Basically, penguin crap smells horrible which means your shoes (and frankly, much of your clothing!) will smell awful and people don’t want to put that in their luggage. So they have TONS of boots on board. Some are better than others, but although Peregrine doesn’t guarantee they have boots for you, they'll definitely be able to hook you up. I did hear a couple people complaining of cold and dampness. I used Columbia Hiking Boots and some nice overboots – I’ll come back and add the details later. They were really awesome and I didn’t mind carting them around because my feet were very happy.

On the boat I wore sneakers and flip flops. I think most people share showers, so I would recommend bringing them. I liked having shoes that slid on and off because a lot of times I would be napping and they would make an announcement about whales or something and I would want to RUN to the deck to see them.

Accessories
I bought 5 pairs of these liner socks: We had 5 days of excusions, so I think that was about right. I could have gotten away with fewer – but I did wear them every day on the boat and off on excursions.

I had 4 pairs (2 sets) of these hiking socks: I probably only needed 1 set. I wore them on all excursions, and 2 pair during camping.

Glove Liners – this was my only mistake. I wanted thin gloves I could wear under my thick mittens that would give me dexterity with my camera. I bought these. The EMS staff tried to sell me a more insulating pair, but I cheaped out and went with these – in reality I wore these 100% of the time, and my big mittens maybe 40% of the time (on top). I should have gotten the warmer liners. I wish I had gotten these instead.

Mittens – I went with these nice waterproof mittens, which were very good. I liked them, but I often left them dangling off my wrists and just wore the glove liners so I could take photos easily. Waterproof was key, but I could have gotten a less expensive pair. I should have spent more on the liner, and less on the primary set of mittens/gloves.

I bought an expensive Neck gaiter at EMS and didn’t really test it out. Turns out it was too big and wasn’t properly insulating me. The Gaiter instead of the scarf was the way go. I realized the problem in USH and bought a $3 fleece Gaiter I used instead of my fancy $20 EMS one. I did actually wind up using both, if one was wet (or smelled like penguin), it was nice to tradeoff. I preferred the USH one to the EMS one.

I brought a Nalgene bottle to bring with me. Was a waste of space, although we had been instructed to bring a 32 ounce bottle. You could buy bottled water on the boat for $1.25 and could refill from fountains.

I also got some hand and toe warmers to wear inside all those layers. I bought enough to last me each day, but I really only used them during the camp out. I used them the first day and overheated! However, I did put them with my camera to maintain battery life and that was awesome. I also really liked these thin heat pads I bought at Walmart (for use with a sore back and neck) those were really thin, comfortable and warm. I would recommend them over the Grabber. Good for the camera battery too. I tucked one into my camera case with my batteries and it extended the life, I am sure.

My friend suggest I get a compression packing kit for all these layers. I bought some from EMS (2 bags for $20) and a set from Target ($12 for 3 bags). I used all 5, and I would recommend the EMS ones over the Target ones, hands down. One of the Target ones completely tore, and they never really compressed very well. The EMS ones were very reliable.

I bought this AquaPac waterproof bag for my camera. It was waterproof and functioned great, but the best part was just leaving my point and shoot dangling around my neck and not having to constantly cart it around. It was the biggest surprise to me because it was TOTALLY worth it. I loved it. Worked great at Iguazu as well.

I used the Kelty Redtail daypack on my excursions. it was a nice size and I loved the pockets for my waterbottle. You can really use ANY old backpack you have, and while the ground has snow and ice on it, there is almost no precipitation in Antarctica so I didn’t have to worry about waterproofing.

However, I had this pack cover and brought it with me as well. I used it only for the camping in Antarctica, but again, it was handy in Iguazu, and during pouring rain in BA.

I bought this hat at EMS and I really liked the nice fleece ear lining. However, I should have brought my own hat from home. No need for a new one (also this one made my head look sort of like an egg in some of the photos, not good!).

Survival Heat Blanket for the night I stay out in Antarctica. My friend who had gone before really wished she had taken these when she took this very trip to Antarctica. I bought 4 from Amazon for the same cost as 1 on other sites, I brought them all with me, and gave 3 to 3 friends I made on the trip. We all were very appreciative of them, and they worked great! Highly recommend.

I also brought a cheap Balaclava I bought off ebay – I used it during camping only, and was glad to have it. I also brought a fleece ear band and never wore it. Additionally, I also had a liner hat, which I wore 2X when my primary hat was wet from cruising.

So after all that, what did I miss? The big thing I didn’t bring was my laptop, because I thought I was carrying so much stuff. I should have brought it, to transfer photos. They did have a computer on the ship everyone could use, and I bought about 10 cds for $30 to burn my pictures. Well worth it, but so painful to spend. What an oversight! I thought if I had enough memory cards, I would be fine. Well you can never have enough in Antactica. Bring your laptop, and all the appropriate cables, your camera manual, etc. You won’t regret it.

In terms of clothing, I was totally warm and all set. I didn’t lack for anything, which was very good, because as I said before there was very little you could buy on the boat if you realized you had made a fatal error!