A DARING explorer has discovered an abandoned Soviet base deep below the surface in Antarctica after spotting a head poking out of the ice.
Chris Brown, 62, told how he and son Mika, 28, got “trapped” in -28°C conditions when their plane broke down on the frozen continent.
The dad-of-two from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, frequently shares discoveries from his wild adventures on social media and has gone viral since revealing the terrifying ordeal last week.
The only clue to their unique find was a giant bust of the former Russian leader, Vladimir Lenin, poking out of the snow and ice in the remotest part of Antarctica, known as the Pole of Inaccessibility.
In the video uploaded to TikTok, Chris shared a slideshow of images from the discovery.
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He explained the bust was found on the pair’s trip to the Antarctic region in January 2023.
He also showed a photo of the “unburied” Soviet base beneath Lenin's head, leaving viewers shocked.
The old Soviet meteorological research station was built in 1958.
The bottom three quarters have now been entirely buried beneath the ice and snow.
“I was not expecting it to be THAT buried,” one viewer said.
Someone else added: “There’s an entire building under the bust????” [sic].
The statue atop the base is positioned towards Moscow, but it hasn't always been that way, Chris explains.
“The Lenin bust is on top of a wooden plinth, none of the rest of the building is visible because it's under ice,” he said.
“When the Russians put it there, they positioned his face so he was looking towards Moscow.
“But apparently, a couple of American explorers who visited the site several years after it had been abandoned by the Russians, turned it around so it faced Washington.
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“Not long after that, the Russians sent an expedition back out there and turned it round so it was facing Moscow again.”
Some of the bust’s attributes remain a mystery.
Chris added: “When we got there we had quite good weather. It was only -30°C, whereas the average temperature at that location is -58°C so we spent quite a lot of time looking at it.
“And on top of the wooden plinth there is a cable attached with a screw on the very top, and similarly, there is a screw on the front face and on the side face and they are all joined together with cables.
“I was wondering what this is, bearing in mind it originated from the height of the Cold War and the Russians were probably fed up with the Americans turning it back to face Washington all the time.
“I wondered what those cables were, and what would have happened if we tried to open up that wooden box.”
Chris has embarked on a quest to be the first person to visit all seven of the world’s land-based Poles of Inaccessibility and has almost succeeded in reaching five of the Poles so far.
That includes being the first person ever to the African Pole – with only sites in the Arctic and Eurasia (North West China) remaining.
He set himself the mammoth task after getting to know other explorers at the regular South Pole in 2016, including second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin.
Chris also met Hamish Harding, the billionaire who perished on the Titan submersible’s voyage to the wreck of the Titanic last year.
Elsewhere, one of only three rare submarines in the world vanished during an underwater hunt at the "Doomsday Glacier" in Antarctica.
The 23-ft vehicle, worth £3million, was exploring the treacherous icy terrain when it disappeared without a trace earlier this month.
And Vladimir Putin has accepted an invitation to join Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on a trip to Antarctica amid tensions with the West.
The tyrant agreed on the frosty escape after watching Russian polar explorers open a new wintering complex at the Vostok station during a video call with Europe's longest-serving president last month.
