Safety Tips in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Because of the surrounding glaciers and mountains you can switch from clear blue sunshine and little wind to whiteout conditions in a matter of minutes. This occurs when the wind shifts slightly and blows across one of the glaciers, cooling and then dropping over the edge of the glacier to plunge down on you - I experienced two such incidents like this when visiting the penguin colony.

If you get caught in a white-out it is best to turn your back to the wind, 'hunker down' and preserve your body warmth. They usually blow out just as quickly as they start - both times they lasted for about 10 minutes. The first one occurred while I was at the colony & it was interesting observing how the penguins coped with the howling wind & driving snow.

The second time was while on the beach amongst the Elephant Seals. One of our party thought it clever to continue walking through the white-out - until he literally bumped into an Elephant Seal and got chased away.. in his blind panic he walked out onto a frozen pond & fell through the ice and got soaked up to his middle & spent the next hour or so shivering in the cold !!