In 1911, Shackleton’s daring race to the South Pole unveiled one of Earth’s last uncharted frontiers: the frozen wilderness of Antarctica. Shrouded in mystery, it holds many secrets—bloody red waterfalls, ancient fossils, peculiar natural phenomena, and extraordinary creatures. Beneath its icy expanse lies a hidden world, from briny subglacial lakes to a vast mountain range buried under centuries of ice.

This frozen continent is one and a half times the size of the United States, with 99 per cent of its surface covered in ice. Encircling it, the Southern Ocean—the world’s fourth-largest—forms an unyielding barrier. Amidst this forbidding landscape, the Metis Polar Station serves as a hub of research, its three buildings forming the heart of an ambitious scientific endeavour. A mile away, two long-abandoned huts stand as silent relics of a once-thriving outpost, now surrendered to time.