Different countries have different approaches to outdoor activities and trips; I hear some are particularly keen on 'safety' regulations meaning you can't do mu

Different countries have different approaches to outdoor activities and trips; I hear some are particularly keen on 'safety' regulations meaning you can't do much at all. Fortunately the British Antarctic Survey strikes a more sensible balance. Some of the things I got up to (bear in mind I had a primarily office-based job with long hours -- I spent most of my summer time in a radio tower, but did manage to get out and play sometimes.) - Off-piste skiing and boarding on small slopes near the base - Nordic skiing around the base perimeter - Kite skiing - Abseiling into and exploring crevasses and bergschrunds [a crack where a glacier joins a mountain] - Learned to cox RIBs and visit small floating bergs and local islands - Got to fly in a light aircraft a few times on the way out to field sites. Actual hands-on-the-controls flying on a Twin Otter -- essentially acting as a human autopilot under the supervision of the real pilot. Awesome fun, but turned out to be rather expensive in the long run, since it got me into flying -- I now have a private pilot's license of my own. - Flew into the field to install a remote weather station somewhere where quite literally no human has ever set foot before. - Spent a few weeks in the field at Fossil Bluff [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_Bluff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_Bluff] which is an incredible experience in its own right. You're living in a small cottage from the 60s with one other person, approx. a 1 hour 40 minute flight away from any other humans. The planes bring supplies when they visit; otherwise you can spend your days taking weather observations, baking bread, and enjoying the scenery. - Spent 6 - 7 weeks on a ship wandering the southern ocean. Upgraded from the RIB and learned how to helm the ship through ice. - Visited some of the sub-Antarctic islands from the ship including Deception (extinct volcano with a old British base), South Georgia, and Signy (both have current British bases) I also went on a couple of week-long Winter trips, which involved driving a skidoo away from base into the interior of the island and setting up a camp, from which we did things like skiing tours, visiting old bases, crevassing, climbing, etc. As well as outdoor activities, there's also a lot to learn on base as well if you're interested -- most of which comes from the fact that the bases are small and there are none of the outside services we take for granted in the rest of the world. I can now bake bread; not kill people in a commercial kitchen; repair skidoos; use firefighters' breathing apparatus; make curtains; build my own office furniture (I wanted a monitor stand, and Amazon didn't ship.) etc. etc. If that's not enough, for those on the coast there's plenty of wildlife to be seen. I'd regularly see different types of whales from my office window, and there are penguins and seals all around the base I wintered at. I also got to visit an Emperor penguin colony a few times. Others got really into music, photography, art, or woodwork. So... yeah. There's plenty to do if you're willing to get involved. I have _no_ idea how people say they'd be bored down there.