Antarctica: The Best Journey in the World

The January Mountaineers meeting will feature a talk by France Anne Córdova entitled “The Best Journey in the World”, starting at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, January 26.

Former LANL astrophysicist France Córdova will recount highlights from four trips to Antarctica and the South Pole. She traveled there between 1996 and 2020 on behalf of the U.S. Government to assess scientific programs and research facilities and infrastructure on the continent.

In this talk, France will show us what it’s like to live (and find adventure) in Antarctica, and describe the nature of the science conducted in various locations on the continent. She will show photographs and videos of the “crystal desert,” remote research sites and facilities, the huts of the early 20th century Antarctica explorers and, of course, the noisy Penguin rookeries.

France, a rock-climbing instructor for the Los Alamos Mountaineers in the 1980s, was the first woman to be president of the Los Alamos Mountaineers Club. She met and married fellow rock climber Chris Foster in 1985. She is former director of the National Science Foundation, former president of Purdue University, and former NASA Chief Scientist. A Nunatak in Antartica is named for her.

Mountaineer's meetings are held on the fourth Tuesday of every month. When held in person, they take place in the planetarium of the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC), 2600 Canyon Rd, Los Alamos, NM 87544. Recent meetings have been held electronically. Registration for the event is at https://peecnature.org/events/details/?id=36598.

Watch the video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxYRuzK-gwg