Antarctica Camping: What It's Like to Sleep in the Snow

Spending a night out on the snow in Antarctica was a huge highlight of our Antarctica trip. My husband had never camped before in his life, but even he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sleep in one of the wildest places on Earth. If you’re looking into an Antarctica cruise, see if your cruise line offers camping and sign up early before spots fill! It’s the definition of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

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Signing Up to Camp on Antarctica

Part of my criteria for picking an Antarctica cruise was the option for camping. I had seen Kara & Nate’s video about their experience camping in Antarctica and knew I had to try it. However, not every ship offers this, so be sure to check before booking.

On our trip, there were 50 camping spots and we had no trouble getting confirmed spots when we booked the cruise 18 months out. All of them filled before the cruise left and there was a waitlist. With Polar Latitudes, camping cost an additional $295 per person.

view from Damoy Point on Wienke Island in Antarctica

The exact day of your camping trip is entirely weather dependent. We lucked out with incredible weather the first couple days and camping took place on our 2^nd night in Antarctica. Understand that there is always a chance that camping won’t be able to happen on your cruise (though if that’s the case you’d get your $295 back).

The Briefing

Once on board, everyone who had signed up (+ those on the waitlist) had to attend the mandatory briefing before we could go camping.

The briefing went over the timeline for the evening, the equipment, what to wear, etc. They spent a lot of time emphasizing that once they drop us on land, the ship will leave and not come back for us until the morning. If you’re cold, that sucks, but the ship isn’t coming back. In fact, the ship moved away from us after dropping us off so we wouldn’t be bothered by the noise it makes. The ship would only return for us in the case of a serious medical emergency that the excursion doctor (who goes on land with us) couldn’t handle.

The expedition staff also made it very clear we were on our own to setup and tear down our camp site. This isn’t a glamping service where everything is done for you.

A few people were definitely scared off by the warnings and dropped out. Thus, if you’re on the waitlist, there is hope!

What to Bring

We didn’t need to pack very much personal gear. Beyond the items provided, we brought the following:

Dry bag
Insta360 Flow Tripod/Gimbal
Insta360 X3
Portable phone charger
Our cell phones
Polarized sunglasses (this pair is less than $20 and it’s my favorite for travel!)

Though it was only a couple degrees below freezing overnight, I made sure to keep my electronics in my sleeping bag with me to protect them.

We also wore our normal excursion clothes consisting of:

Merino wool socks, leggings, and long sleeve
Quarter zip sweater
Patagonia puffer
Ski pants
Glove liners
Ski gloves
Beanie
Expedition jacket (included with the cruise)
Muck boots (included with the cruise)
Our life jackets (included and required anytime we disembarked)

The expedition staff warned that we may get sweaty setting up camp and suggested we bring an extra change of clothes, but we didn’t bother. It’s also important to note that bringing food on land was strictly prohibited, but if you needed food for medical reasons, you could arrange that with the expedition doctor. This was why we arrived on land after dinner and returned before breakfast.

Setting Up Our Gear

We were each given a dry bag full of camping gear before we disembarked. In it were the following items:

Tarp
Inflatable mattress pad
Bivy bag
Sleeping bag
Sleeping bag liner

Once we got to our camping spot at Damoy Point on Wienke Island, we set about digging “shallow graves” (the expedition staff’s term, not mine). This would allow us lay lower than the rest of the snow and have the wind pass over instead of hitting us. We only had a couple of shovels to go around, so we tried to work by hand until it was our turn. The shovels made the job 1000x easier!

There are a lot of rules about kneeling and sitting on the ground in Antarctica, but interestingly they didn’t apply to camping. We definitely knelt a lot to set up our campsite! One expedition team member explained that we were far enough away from any wildlife that it was okay.

Damoy Point was very large, so the 50 campers could comfortably spread out from one another. My husband and I worked together to set up our 2 spots side by side. The tarp lied closest to the ground, followed by the inflatable mattress pad. Then the bivy bag (which is like a personal tent shaped like a sleeping bag) gets stuffed like a turducken with the sleeping bag and the liner within the sleeping bag itself to keep it clean.

It took us at least 30 minutes to get our camp site set up the way we wanted it. Between the “shallow graves” and the bivy bags that look suspiciously like body bags, it was an odd look!

The Bathroom Situation

There were 2 camping toilets available on land, and the staff gave us a run through of how to use them. The staff built up privacy barriers and there was a simple system of flags to let people know if the toilet was occupied. There was even toilet paper! However, I think the better strategy was not having to use the bathroom at all.

If you wake up in the middle of the night needing to go, you’d have to put all your outer layers back on, trek over to the restroom, and the reverse the process before you can get back in your sleeping bag. Instead, I strategically dehydrated myself and opted out of soup and beverages at dinner before we disembarked the ship. This strategy worked and I didn’t need to go, but others did.

Sweet Dreams

After we were finished setting up camp, most of the group went on an optional guided walk to see the Gentoo penguins and Weddell seals who were laying out on the rocks a couple hundred yards away.

By the time we got back to camp, it was around 11PM. I took off my boots, ski pants and expedition jacket, crawled into my sleeping bag. I used my jacket as a pillow and folded my beanie over my eyes as an eye mask. We were above the Antarctic Circle, so the sun did set, but it never got fully dark.

The sleeping bag was rated to -20 degrees Fahrenheit and it kept me very warm. It was difficult for me to find a comfortable position at first, but I did drift off to sleep quickly. I only woke up twice very briefly – just long enough to peer out of my sleeping bag and admire the view before falling back asleep.

Unfortunately, there was no chance at a full night’s sleep because the crew came around at 5:30AM to wake everyone up. We had to pack up, move the snow back where it was, and haul our gear back to the Zodiac. Moving the snow was much harder in the morning, as it had frozen solid in the lower temperatures overnight. All this was done in less than an hour and we were back on the ship.

Cleaning the Gear

When we packed up, we just quickly stuffed our gear into the dry bag it came in. Immediately after returning to the ship, we took our bags up to the lecture hall, where dozens of clothes lines were strung. All our gear had to be hung out to dry.

The tarp and dry bag had to be specially treated because they had been in contact with the ground, but the expedition staff handled that. A few days later, all the campers were called back to the lecture hall where we had to carefully repack the dry bags so they were ready for the campers on the next trip. Many hands make light work, so this didn’t take too long.

Final Thoughts

I think I had the most fun of all 50 campers! I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful place to soak up the beauty of the world than the largely untouched lands of Antarctica. It was an absolutely magical experience. You really didn’t need camping experience to do this – if you can follow simple directions, you’re good to go. The only people who had a particularly rough night were the people who were too tall for their sleeping bags (so be careful if you’re over 6’5”) and the one person whose mattress pad deflated overnight, leaving them exposed to the snow underneath.