Welcome to BrashTalk #34
The Newsletter of the PTGA
In this issue:
- Happy Holidays Message
- Updates
- Recording of Antarctic Pre-Season Summit
- 2026 AECO/IAATO Polar Field Staff Conference
- Expedition Leadership Development Course
- New Provisional Assessors
- Board of Directors Update
- Scuttlebutt
- New Pro Deal
- Share a photo with us!
- Focus Group Invitation
- All Online Learning is now in TahDah
- Training and Development
- WETTAP Assessment – Situational Awareness Matrix
- Guano Happens
- Brown Bluff
- Guide Tribute: Alasdair McGregor
- PTGA Guide Status Updates
Happy Holidays from Sarah
Happy holidays to everyone, whether you’re home with family or celebrating with ship friends in the Antarctic. I’m happy to share that the PTGA has grown to over 750 members! Thank you for being the heart of this professional community – we wouldn’t be here without you.
This Antarctic season is particularly meaningful for me as I return to ships after two years away. It has been a humbling reminder of the value of the beginner’s mind. By being honest with my team about my own re-learning curve, I found incredible support from those around me.
As guides, we should strive to keep this perspective of the beginner’s mind. By remembering our own early days, we can better support our newer colleagues and create a supportive team environment focused on trust.
And finally, thanks so much to everyone who participated in our latest membership survey, your feedback has already begun to inform how we will move forward into the next decade of the PTGA. I hope you enjoy this latest issue of BrashTalk. Wishing you all a safe and joyful season.
Updates
PTGA Antarctic Pre-Season Summit Recording
Thanks to everyone for joining us live for our annual Antarctic Pre-Season summit!
In case you missed it, you can find the link below to watch the summit on the PTGA YouTube Channel.
2026 AECO/IAATO Polar Field Staff Conference
March 23 – March 26, 2026 in Lisbon, Portugal. Registration is still open for the 2026 Polar Field Staff Conference (PFSC) with limited spots remaining.
For details on the program, cost, venue, accommodation, and to register, visit aeco.no.
Expedition Leadership Development Course
The Expedition Leadership Development Course will be run prior to the AECO/IAATO Polar Field Staff Conference.
- Dates: March 21 – 23, 2026
- Note: Course enrollment is limited and spots are filling up fast!
Hosted by the PTGA, in partnership with Nivation and staffed by specialist consultants and leading guide-educators from the industry, this course will enhance individual capacities to be a capable and influential expedition leader, aligned with modern standards in teamwork, communication, safety and expedition excellence.
For more details on the Expedition Leadership Development Course program, email the PTGA here.
New Provisional Assessors!
Congrats to our new group of Provisional Assessors recently trained in Santiago, Chile this past October 2025.
New Provisional Assessors: Elena Wimberger, Federico Campanelli, Francois Havenga, Marcos Goldin, Mark Brophy, Mick Davidson, Nico Chiarelli, Nicole Genoud, Sebastian Parra
Board of Directors Update
Thank you to Brandon Harvey!
After many years of service, Brandon stepped down from his role as a PTGA board member. We wish Brandon the very best and extend our sincere gratitude for his support and dedicated service to the PTGA Board of Directors over the years.
New Pro Deal!
We’re excited to announce a new pro-deal exclusively for PTGA members with Kite Optics!
What is Kite Optics?
Kite Optics is a Belgian company specializing in high-precision optical instruments for nature observation, such as binoculars, spotting scopes, and telescopes.
PTGA Members receive 30% off on purchases (of stabilized optics), plus free shipping on orders over €150.
With your first purchase, you’ll automatically become a Kite Optics Brand Promoter, unlocking even more benefits including:
- A personalized 10% discount code to share with customers
- An annual 10% commission on all sales made through your code
- Top-performing Brand Promoters may even be rewarded with free new products in the future
This partnership offers incredible value! Learn more about this on our PTGA Kite Optics Pro-Deal page in the Members Only section of the website.
Share a photo with us!
We love celebrating our members’ milestones, whether you’ve earned a new certification, completed an assessment, or achieved something remarkable in the field! Fill out this form or email us here to share a photo and a few details. We will select submissions to celebrate members in our social media and potential features in the newsletter.
PTGA Focus Group Invitation
The valuable feedback from our recent membership survey is already guiding exciting new projects. We invite interested members to join a small focus group call at the start of 2026 with fellow guides for a deeper, collaborative discussion.
This is your chance to directly discuss what you want your future PTGA experience to be, while building community with colleagues. Contact us here if you are interested.
All Online Learning is Now in TahDah
All of our online learning is moving to one location: your TahDah membership profile page! If you previously used our separate Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), you no longer need to access that platform.
We recently transferred all free for members online courses from the old VLE into TahDah’s new Online Learning hub.
Over the coming months, all PTGA learning – both paid for PTGA Qualifications and free online learning will be brought together in that one single location.
Note for existing users: If you have already completed courses in the old VLE, don’t worry – we are migrating your records to your TahDah profile over the coming months.
We will provide more updates regarding online learning in the next BrashTalk newsletter.
How to access the courses:
For free Online Courses: Log into TahDah > Select Online Learning from the top bar > You will see the five free online courses.
For paid PTGA Qualification Courses: Log into TahDah > Select Awards & Training > Select Online Learning. This is where you will find Navigation Skills Element 1 and Communication Skills.
Training and Development
The PTGA recently developed a new version of the WETTAP Assessment & Situational Awareness Matrix. This matrix was first developed by Matthew Bennett and has evolved over the years to help expedition leaders and team members make informed operational decisions in the field.
Members can access a high-resolution version of this image by logging into the PTGA website and visiting the Guide Resources page here.
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Guano Happens
Brown Bluff Strikes Again
This issue of Guano Happens puts us back at Brown Bluff. Like many excursions gone wrong, it s a great tale and worth sharing with you. There are some good lessons as always, and as we see offerings of specific leadership training for aspirant or current AEL/ELs we can only hope those in leadership roles take note.
Not a Normal Landing
It was my first landing in Antarctica. We had just completed the journey from South Georgia, and our relatively inexperienced team was eager to give guests their first chance to set foot on the Antarctic Peninsula at Brown Bluff. When we arrived, the conditions were daunting: sustained winds of 20–30 knots with gusts over 40, and the ship positioned 2–3 km from the landing site. As the youngest member of the team by at least a decade, I didn’t feel it was my place to question whether we should proceed. Our EL said, “Let’s do it” so I threw every bit of enthusiasm I had into making the landing work.
I began by helping land Zodiacs through a decent swell. I was wearing waders so I could walk out deeper and steady the boats—only to quickly discover I had forgotten to patch a hole. Within minutes, my right leg was knee-high in freezing Antarctic water. Because each shuttle took a long time, there were typically 5–10 minutes between arriving Zodiacs. I spent that time running up and down the beach and doing jumping jacks to keep warm.
Halfway through the landing, a Zodiac carrying only two guides managed to beach itself on the reef just out from the landing zone. We watched them struggle to free the boat as we continued landing guests, but they weren’t having any luck. During the next gap, I waded out as far as my leaking waders allowed—chest-deep—and helped push them off the reef. The two guides eventually made it ashore, visibly shaken by the experience.
As the landing continued, a blizzard began to build and fog rolled in, obscuring the ship. Guests soon began asking to return due to the cold. The EL asked me to drive a Zodiac back to the ship, with another guide joining as ballast.
We headed toward the ship’s last known position, now completely hidden by fog. After 10–15 minutes of searching, it became clear (no pun intended) the ship was no longer there. We radioed for their location and discovered they had repositioned to keep out of the way of drifting bergs in the fog!
We received new coordinates, and luckily my co-guide had a working GPS. She entered the location and discovered we were 3 km away. We reassured the shivering guests as best we could while I tried to keep driving despite numb feet and visibility dropping to 10–20 metres at times. When we finally reached the coordinates—there was no ship.
The bridge radioed again: they had repositioned once more, now 2 km in the opposite direction. In the wind and fog, we had somehow missed a 100-passenger vessel passing the other way.
Relying again on GPS, my co-guide navigated and I drove. This was my first time relying on a GPS underway. I would have been completely lost without her. We eventually located the ship, delivered our somewhat hypothermic guests, and returned to collect the rest of the team.
That afternoon, I spent two hours at lunch with another staff member sitting on my legs under several blankets to help restore feeling to my feet. It wasn’t until the following season, with a different EL and team, that I realized this was not a normal first landing in Antarctica.
Review
It has been a very positive development with our Guano Happens contributions that the contributing guides supply a discerning and thorough causal review of lessons taken from events.
This excursion had some leadership missteps.
The guide identified the common Expert Halo heuristic trap. This heuristic is an all-too-regular feature in the polar tourism industry, whereby people place too much trust in an authority figure or ‘expert’, assuming their judgment is infallible. This guide had experience in other outdoor sectors but was new to polar tourism, so ‘blindly’ thought this operation was the norm.
As a reminder – Expert Halo can lead a group to blindly follow the expert’s decisions without questioning them, even when the group has misgivings or the expert is making a poor choice. To mitigate this, it’s important to encourage open communication, value all group members’ input, and have a system in place that allows guides to opt out of anything they are uncomfortable with.
Some equipment omissions were identified. No guide should be expected to work in Antarctic waters in leaking waders. It is, however, a double-edged sword. Guides are part of the responsibility chain, and checking key items is a guide’s job, but the company is also responsible for supplying guides with suitable equipment to undertake specialist roles like catching zodiacs in deep water.
The lack of a GPS unit was identified as an error. Brown Bluff is one of those places where differences in land/water/air temperatures can often cause fog. Given that knowledge is readily known, it should be an EL’s responsibility to disclose this to new guides and ensure mitigations are in place.
There was no mention of the Bridge crew contacting the EL to warn them they were moving the ship when they moved the first time. It may have happened we don’t know. But if you are an EL and a vessel moves in fog, and you didn’t know about it, it is definitely an issue you should discuss with the Bridge team.
The guide felt, in hindsight, that these conditions were right on the edge of this team’s capabilities and offered that if polar conditions change while you are already out and a team is tested, that’s part of the game. But beginning an excursion on the edge of your team’s capabilities seems to be courting disaster.
That’s all for this issue. Be safe out there, and we are looking for more contributions. We know you all appreciate learning these lessons in a positive, anonymous manner, but we do need more material to work with. Please don’t be nervous, drop us a line, and we can discuss how it works.
Guide Tribute: Alasdair McGregor
This issue’s interview is a special tribute to the late Alasdair McGregor, who recently passed away. Alasdair dedicated his career to the arts, excelling as a talented painter, writer, and photographer. He was also a valued member of the PTGA community, working as a guide, historian and much more aboard expedition ships.
We know his sudden passing has been felt deeply by his loved ones and friends on ships. Thank you to all the expedition staff at Aurora for sharing your kind words and photos of Alasdair with us. Below is a heartfelt tribute from his dear friend, Robyn Mundy along with some photos from his colleagues.
PTGA: How long did you know Alasdair?
Robyn: Alasdair and I were shipmates, guiding for Aurora Expeditions since 2011. But I actually first met him in 2004 when I was researching Antarctic art. Even then, he was such a generous and articulate interviewee, sharing his expert knowledge on Frank Hurley’s photography and his own deep, heartfelt relationship with Antarctica as a painter.
PTGA: If you had to describe him using just three words, what would they be?
Robyn: Brilliant. Kind. Funny.
PTGA: What was Alasdair’s greatest strength as an expedition guide?
Robyn: Alasdair was a true renaissance man! He was an author, artist, historian, lecturer, and guide—he had an encyclopedic knowledge of Antarctic explorers. He shared that passion every day, whether through presentations, while guiding, or just over a casual drink in the evening.
PTGA: Can you recall a time when his expertise or quick thinking made an ordinary moment extraordinary for the guests?
Robyn: In some ways, Alasdair was an unlikely outdoor enthusiast, but that never stopped him!
Below is a photo of Alasdair in my Zodiac at Point Wild, which always makes me smile. As a Shackleton historian, landing at Point Wild was a lifelong dream that had always eluded him. On this particular day, the bay was choked with brash ice, and we couldn’t get close enough to shore for guests to land. Alasdair decided this might be his one and only chance! The next thing I knew, he leapt overboard, wading through icy, waist-deep water and pushing brash ice out of his way to get ashore. After he had his moment, he waded back, and we hauled him into the Zodiac. I will always remember the massive grin on his face—it made the whole crazy thing completely worthwhile!
PTGA: What was your favorite piece of his art that you ever saw?
Robyn: His series of oil paintings, produced while he was artist-in-residence during the restoration of Mawson’s Hut at Commonwealth Bay, are magnificent, and some are huge! Many would say his oil painting of Douglas Mawson’s bunk (which still holds Mawson’s pillow) is the most evocative. Personally, I love his gouache images of ice; they instill such incredible movement, breath, and color into the Antarctic landscape.
PTGA: What do you believe his greatest contribution was to the ship, the crew, or the expedition guiding community?
Robyn: He was a fantastic friend, and once you got to know him, he was hilarious! He showed everyone that you didn’t have to be the strongest, fittest, or most agile athlete to be a truly wonderful expedition guide, loved and respected by all.
PTGA: What message would you like to share about him for this tribute?
Robyn: Alasdair, lovely friend, you are so missed.
Image of “Land’s End Study II” Cape Denison, Antarctica (Gouache on paper 52 x 38 cm) is courtesy of Alasdair McGregor’s website where you can find more of his paintings including the “The Pillow: Variations on Dr Mawson’s Room”.
You can find a list of our PTGA Accredited Providers here, PTGA Affiliate Members here, and our PTGA Training and Assessment Providers here.
PTGA Members – 752
Senior Polar Guides – 296
Polar Guides – 288
Polar Guide (Aspirant) – 105
Provisional and Full Assessors – 70
Senior Assessors – 6
Congratulations to our new guides!
Polar Guide (Aspirant)
Arnab Rai, Franco Zan Bisignani, Hayley Charlton-Howard, Joshua Coates, Justyna Szot, Karen Waller, Kelsey Simpson, Ken Szeto, Mariele Guerrero, Mira Krizman, Nejc Draganjec, Nwabisa Mndi, Pablo Zenteno, Ramon Sundblad Achaval, Simon Boldireff, Tarryn Fullerton
Polar Guide
Ana Carla Martinez, Bianca Figueiredo, Billy Tait, Carolina Pavon, David Escobar, Erin Scott, Fran Pothecary, Gabriela Kolodko, Ignacio Platoni, Ivan Klochkov, Keirron Tastagh, Mariano Buono, Martin Schoo, Mei Lu, Samuel Abdilla, Scott Sinton, Scott Turton, Seda Tunca, Sydney Carste
Senior Polar Guide
Carolina Carrasco, Jeannine McCormack, Jeff Bullied, Kevin Cheuk (CK), Liam Hopkinson, Martin Enckell, Marzena Kmiecik, Rodrigo Lira
Provisional Assessors
Elena Wimberger, Federico Campanelli, Francois Havenga, Marcos Goldin, Mark Brophy, Mick Davidson, Nicolas Chiarelli, Nicole Genoud, Sebastian Parra
