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Antarctica, South Georgia & the Falkland Islands

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Trip Leaders

Russell Evans

Russell Evans is a 6th generation Falkland Islander who grew up working on farms on Pebble and Saunders Islands. In the mid 1990s, Russell left farming to pursue his interest in the sea and small boats (especially sail boats), and he went to work crewing and skippering commercial work boats for island companies. He has spent the past few years as dive boat support, assisting with scientific research and medical evacuations, conducting sightseeing trips to local islands, and working with cruise ships that visit the region. His work background and independent sailing explorations provide him with considerable cumulative knowledge of the waters around the Falklands. Russell began working on expedition ships as a Zodiac driver/ naturalist in December 2003. After falling under the spell of the Antarctic, he takes every opportunity to return. His passion for the sea and interest in travel has led Russell to choose a career in expedition travel and he has recently worked in that capacity as a Zodiac driver in the Arctic and British Isles. He is very much an outdoors person, enjoying hiking and camping with a keen interest in wildlife and photography.

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Peter Harrison

Peter Harrison, MBE - A professional birder, artist, author, and screenwriter, Peter is widely considered the world's foremost authority on seabirds. Often credited with having seen more seabirds than anyone, past or present, Peter has written and illustrated over a dozen books, of which Seabirds: An Identification Guide is considered the bible of seabird identification. Peter has led expeditions the world over and is noted for his quick thinking and derring-do in tight situations. An active conservationist, he has been honored by Queen Elizabeth II with the title Member of the British Empire for services to natural history. He is also a cofounder of Zegrahm Expeditions and a Fellow of The Explorers Club.

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Shirley Metz

Shirley is a modern-day adventurer and explorer. In 1989 she became the first woman, and one of the first Americans in history, to ski overland to the South Pole, a journey of over 800 miles. She has been listed in the Guinness Book of Records, and in 1989 the Soviet minister of polar research and exploration bestowed his country's prestigious Polar Award upon Shirley, the only woman to receive this distinction. Shirley is a cofounder of Zegrahm Expeditions and a member of both The Explorers Club and the Society of Woman Geographers. She has returned to her favorite destination, Antarctica, more than 40 times and organized one South Polar expedition that resulted in the summiting of several theretofore unclimbed peaks. Her leadership qualities and calming composure in the face of adversity are attributes that have helped guide thousands of people around the globe. Shirley's photographs of the wilderness, wildlife, and culture of the many exotic areas that she has traveled to are used in publications worldwide. Devoted to conservation and forest stewardship, Shirley works with organizations focused in these areas.

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Robert Dunbar

Professor Rob Dunbar is the Vicky and Roger Sant Director of the Earth Systems Program and Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. In the fall of 2001, he also became the first director of Stanford's new Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources. In over twenty trips to Antarctica, Rob has conducted extensive research on oceanography, glaciology, and climate dynamics. In 1983, working at Rice University, he began leading teams of scientists and graduate students to Antarctica’s Ross Sea to study the impacts of climate change on Southern Ocean ecosystems. He now leads groups of Stanford undergraduate and graduate students on research expeditions to the Ross Sea and the Antarctic Peninsula.

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Conrad Field

A resident of Homer, Alaska, Conrad is a professional naturalist and biologist as well as an accomplished artist in the media of pen-and-ink and scrimshaw. He and his wife, Carmen, own Northcountry Nature, a small natural history publisher, and together have written and published guides and children’s books on marine life. Since 1989 Conrad has been a naturalist-lecturer aboard a variety of expedition vessels, primarily in polar and sub-polar regions, including more than 70 voyages to the Antarctic. He has lectured on natural history, seabird biology, marine mammals, whaling, the art of scrimshaw, marine invertebrate life, and local flora and fauna.

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Ingrid Nixon

For almost two decades, Ingrid's work in expedition tourism has propelled her about the planet. From Antarctica to Greenland, Madagascar to Easter Island, she enjoys sharing the wonder of exploration and discovery with like minds. Originally from Western Washington, Ingrid currently hails from Interior Alaska where she works for the National Park Service in Denali National Park and Preserve. As Chief of Interpretation, Ingrid heads the park's visitor services and education programs, including the new Murie Science and Learning Center, which facilitates science and science education in eight of Alaska's northern national parks. With a degree in broadcast journalism, she has written, hosted and/or narrated numerous films about national parks and won several national awards for a film about Glacier Bay's underwater world. Over the years she's also worked as a newspaper reporter, a copywriter, and a public radio DJ. Ingrid is also a collage artist, plays ice hockey, and is currently striving to master the musical saw.

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Rich Pagen

Rich first became enthralled by the wonders of the natural world around the tide pools and forests of his native New York. Since then, he has embarked on a career in conservation biology that has ranged from teaching science and environmental awareness to teenagers from Los Angeles, to traveling the coast and river deltas of Alaska’s North Slope by Zodiac to reach remote wetlands where he monitored loon nests. After such field biology projects as surveys for mammalian carnivores in the mountains of California, bird migration monitoring in Canada, and a study of army-ant-following birds in the Peruvian Amazon, Rich was drawn back to the sea where he taught marine science and island ecology on Catalina Island in California for several years. He has also conducted shipboard surveys for marine mammals and seabirds, as well tagging studies of sea turtles and pelagic sharks.

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Rick Price

Rick Price began his career as a marine biologist in 1978, working for the British Antarctic Survey. He spent five winters at the BAS base on Signy Island in the South Orkney Islands, two of them as Base Commander. In 1988, he was awarded the Polar Medal by Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Life as a marine biologist sparked an interest in underwater photography that evolved into a career as a freelance wildlife cameraman. Since the early 1990s, Rick has filmed for the BBC Natural History Unit and The Discovery Channel - both on land and underwater - and he has worked on David Attenborough's documentary series, Life of Birds and Life in the Freezer. His career as a cameraman has opened up many exciting and beautiful areas of the world seldom visited by humans, and Rick finds it both a privilege and an honor to capture the essence of these remote places on film for others to enjoy.

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Spruce Schoenemann

Spruce developed his passion for the environment while exploring the woods, mountains, and rivers of his native Vermont. He headed west to pursue his academic studies in geology and environmental studies from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA. After completing his degree, he started incorporating his concern for the changing state of the natural world with environmental education for high school students aboard sailing schooners in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. He has worked for a number of outdoor education organizations including Outward Bound, Ocean Classroom Foundation, and Student Conservation Association. In pursuing his quest for better understanding of the climate system, Spruce recently traveled to Antarctica to work as an ice core handler on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Ice Core Program. He currently is a graduate student at the University of Washington working on his Ph.D. in climate change science, glaciology, and paleoclimate studies. Spruce is an avid backcountry snowboarder, rock climber, and educator about the Earth's icy places.

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Julie Christensen

During Julie’s tenure leading travelers around the world she has visited all seven continents. Aboard a variety of expedition vessels such as Le Levant, Le Ponant, and the Clipper Odyssey she has traveled to the Russian Far East and Alaska; the numerous countries rimming the Mediterranean, Black, and Baltic Seas; Central America; Micronesia and Melanesia; the Middle East; and India. During several of our past voyages, Julie has been integral to the success of the expedition team due to her calm, decisive, and affable nature. With a special interest in Spanish and Latin American cultures, Julie earned a B.A. in Spanish from Western Washington University. Before officially embarking on a career in adventure travel, Julie biked across the United States; now, when she isn’t traveling, Julie makes her home in Seattle.

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