[00:00.0]Both poles of our planet are covered with ice
[00:04.91]They're the largest and most demanding wildernesses of all
[00:10.86]Nowhere else on earth is seasonal change so extreme
[00:17.3]It causes the ice to advance and retreat every year
[00:21.86]and all life here is governed by that
[00:29.7]When the first polar explorers headed south
[00:33.30]giant cathedrals of ice marked their entry into uncharted territory
[00:39.18]Passing the towering spires
[00:41.77]they must have wondered what unearthly sights lay in store
[00:46.75]As they battled on the ice became increasingly dominant
[00:51.82]but nothing could have prepared them for the ice world
[00:55.64]that finally loomed into view
[00:59.45]Terra incognita - the unknown land
[01:04.60]At the southernmost extreme of our planet
[01:08.45]the continent of Antarctica
[01:10.99]is as large as the United States of America