Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica

The Ross Ice Shelf: The Ice Continent That Stopped Explorers for Decades

James Clark Ross discovered the barrier in 1841. He sailed his two wooden-hulled ships, the Erebus and Terror, south through pack ice and emerged into open water in the Ross Sea – and then ran into a wall of ice 50 metres high running continuously to the horizon in both directions. He had found the edge of what would later bear his name: the largest body of floating ice on Earth, approximately 500,000 square kilometres, roughly the size of France. The barrier stopped southward progress for decades until Amundsen and Scott both used it as a platform for their competing South Pole expeditions in 1911.

The shelf is up to 800 metres thick and its northern edge is a cliff running 600 kilometres east to west. Iceberg B-15, which calved from the shelf in 2000, was approximately 295 kilometres long and 37 kilometres wide – the largest iceberg ever recorded – and took years to break apart as it drifted north into warmer water.

Visiting the Ross Sea

The Ross Sea is not accessible by standard Antarctic cruise routes. Most expedition cruises visit the Antarctic Peninsula from Ushuaia, Argentina, which accounts for more than 95 percent of Antarctic tourism. The Ross Sea is reached from Lyttelton (Christchurch, New Zealand), and the Southern Ocean crossing takes 8 to 12 days each way. A typical Ross Sea expedition runs 28 to 35 days total and costs USD 15,000 to 40,000 per person depending on operator and cabin class. Only 5 to 10 ships make this voyage in any given season.

Operators running regular Ross Sea voyages include Heritage Expeditions, Quark Expeditions, Silversea, Aurora Expeditions, and Ponant. Book 18 to 24 months in advance for good cabin categories.

What the Voyage Includes

The Sub-Antarctic Islands – Macquarie, Auckland, Campbell – are typically visited on the transit south. These islands have extraordinary wildlife in almost complete isolation: royal albatrosses, rockhopper penguins, elephant seals, and endemic species found nowhere else. They are among the least-visited wildlife destinations accessible to any traveller.

Cape Adare, the northeastern entry to the Ross Sea, holds the Cape Adare Historic Huts from Borchgrevink’s 1899 expedition – the oldest surviving structures in Antarctica, now listed under the Antarctic Treaty as a Historic Site. The Adelie penguin colony here is one of the largest in Antarctica.

The ice shelf edge itself is the defining moment of the voyage. An unbroken white wall 15 to 50 metres high running to the horizon in both directions, with scale that requires sustained attention to register. Zodiac cruises along the ice cliff face are the closest legal approach.

McMurdo Sound and Cape Evans contain expedition huts from the heroic era: Scott’s 1902 and 1910 huts, Shackleton’s 1908 hut. The Antarctic Heritage Trust conserves them meticulously. Visiting requires compliance with strict protocols to protect artefacts that are, in Antarctic conditions, still in the state in which they were abandoned.

Practical Considerations

Weather windows for Ross Sea landings are narrower than on the Peninsula. Ice conditions change rapidly. Some planned activities are weather-dependent in ways that cannot be pre-scheduled. The Southern Ocean crossings involve conditions that cause seasickness in most passengers; the ship’s medical team carries treatments, but consult your doctor before departing.

The investment required is significant: three to five weeks, serious cost, and ocean passages that are physically demanding. The return is access to a part of the planet that almost nobody has seen, and to the specific compound of history and scale that the Ross Sea region provides. It is the correct destination for the serious end of polar travel.