The whole continent of Antarctica is covered with an average of 7550 feet of ice. The maximum thickness is 15,670 feet and in winter the sea ice freezes solid for 200 mile around the whole continent. This forces the penguins and most of the other other animals to move with the ice edge in winter and are only able to come ashore in summer. Very young rugged mountains to heights over 16,000 feet and the ice result in scenery absolutely indescribable even in colored photographs do not do it justice. To get there from South America one must cross the 700 mile wide Drake Passage, which is arguably one of the roughest seas in the world. We were very lucky as the winds did not exceed 60 knots ( 110 kph) and the swells 33 feet ( 10 m ) where as the group before us faced gusts to 100 knots (185 kph) and 48 foot (15 m) seas for a while. Remember this is mid summer. Imagine winter.