I hiked up on top of a #glacier in #Antarctica! This was a huge feat for me. It involved #hiking with ski poles on steep snowfields, going over slick ice with #stabilizers, then #rockclimbing the #moraine trail you can see in the photo, before putting on #crampons to be able to walk on top of the glacier. I had taken a very vertical hike two days before that completely wiped me out, so I went into this hike going even slower than I already was (I am not really a #hiker normally). I am not the strongest person to say the least, so the team wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to make it all the way onto the top of the glacier. But I did! And I wasn’t even exhausted by the time I got there since I took my time. This is the #CanadaGlacier that is right at #LakeHoare in the #DryValleys in Antarctica. Lake Hoare is the largest of the Dry Valley camps and has epic views of the glacier. In the 2nd photo you can see a tiny yellow #tent which is the type of tents we sleep in. Most nights I think it was around 5F degrees, although there was the occasional 20F night. The 3rd photo shows what I wore for most of the hike - you want to be covered up but not too many layers so that you don’t sweat too much, which can make you cold. The 4th photo is me proudly standing on top of Canada Glacier. The reason why I did this is because on top of the glacier, there are #frozen over holes (called #cryoconites) formed with dirt inside them that contain tons of #microbes. We drilled in to a few to take some samples that I could look at with my #microscope. More on all that later. #alwaysbeexploring #arielinantarctica #glacierhike #explorer #adventure #extremecold #ididit #antarcticexpedition #expedition #camping #cryoconite