#AntarcticLog is a series of comics by Karen Romano Young. You can find the originals here.

You could call is bush-whacking. You could call it trail-blazing.  Or you could call it ice-breaking — and not in the sense of warming up a chilly party, either.  

No, what the Polar Star does is shoulder its way through the multiyear ice up to 2.8 meters thick, in order to open the ocean “road” to McMurdo Station. 

Once you get there, you might bump into some other travelers who’ve flown via New Zealand and climbed aboard Ivan the Terrabus. 

And, if you need a hand with your gear, you might get hold of a vehicle that’s been around for more than a century — a Nansen sled. 

But what if you can’t get there for real? Well, there’s always augmented reality, as two penguins discuss here: 

Happy new season to McMurdo and the other Antarctic research stations! 

–Karen Romano Young is a writer, artist, deep-sea diver, and polar explorer. Follow her on Twitter & Instagram.