(Photo by Will Steger)
In a sea of sunlight and drifting snow, huskies awaited their handler's call on the first leg of the traverse. Because dogs were banned from the continent after April 1, 1994, the TAE stands as Antarctica's last dogsled expedition.
Here's a gallery of photos from the new National Geographic Adventure: Greatest Stories Ever Told app for iPad.
This app features amazing stories of explorers at the moment of discovery, and their adventures on journeys around the world — enhanced with video, stunning photography, and interactive graphics.
• Watching Explorer-in-Residence Robert Ballard discover the Titanic's final resting place.
• Meeting the nominees for Adventurers of 2011, and watching them in action.
• Watching Alex Honnold scale both Half Dome and El Capitan — without ropes.
• Tracking Will Steger's team on their Trans-Antarctic journey with an interactive map, and experiencing the -50˚F temps at the "bottom of the world" through raw video footage and stark photographs.
• Descending inside the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Nyiragongo Volcano with scientists to study a belching, fuming lava lake — in hopes of saving the million and growing population of Goma.
• Plunging deep into the blue holes of the Bahamas with cave-diving scientists in search of clues to early life on Earth.
(Photo by Wes C. Skiles, National Geographic)
The Blue Holes of the Bahamas yield a scientific trove that may even shed light on life beyond earth. If only they weren't so dangerous to explore.
(Photo by Wes C. Skiles, National Geographic)
The Cascade Room, some 80 feet beneath the surface, leads divers deeper into Dan's Cave on Abaco Island. Nearly seven miles of the cave have been explored since the mid-1990s.
(Photo by Lynsey Dyer, National Geographic)
Leaping from Half Dome or anywhere else in Yosemite has been illegal since 1980, but the sport of BASE jumping from the Valley's cliffs is soaring in popularity. Many jumpers call El Cap the birthplace of the sport.
(Photo by Jimmy Chin, National Geographic)
Kevin Jorgeson (left) and Tommy Caldwell live in a "portaledge" 1,500 feet above the valley for up to two weeks when working on a route. Amenities include a French press for coffee and iPhones charged with a solar panel.
(Photo by Carsten Peter, National Geographic)
With temperatures around 1800°F, the lava lake is wildly erratic. As molten rock meets the air, it cools and forms a mesmerizing show of shifting, fiery plates.
