Day two of our exploration truly exhilarating (and not as debilitating!). We had a snow machine pulling a Nansen sled, which itself dragged a little radar-like system that measures the total ice thickness. Time for some surveys. With the snow machine we can simply cover more territory and build up statistics of the floe. Off again, into the Fortress. Foreboding and gnarly. Huge ridge structures and jumbled fields of ice blocks, everywhere steep and jagged. I climbed to the top of a big ridge to look out at our intended path ahead. How will this be possible? Flat light playing tricks with depth perception, potential big drops everywhere. The Fortress is not welcoming. Yet somehow we managed to find a pathway through, winding our way. Never sure if the bottom would just drop out on us at any moment. Not sure if we’d be able to get out the other side. But inside, it was actually quite appealing. Nice courtyards of flat ice surrounded by sturdy walls. Eventually we made our way to a broad valley heading out to the far end of the floe, with a gateway to exit the fortress. Fantastic adventure. But it was not over. Heading south we then ventured out over wide open and mostly flat plains made of frozen over melt ponds (30cm thick ice) and some older hummocks (~100cm thick). Our path was defined by where I felt comfortable driving the snow machine. Over time we found our way to the southern point, looking out over a narrow lead, perhaps 15-20m across. Not yet frozen and a clear sign of dynamics in the area.
In a second adventure, we returned to the gateway to evaluate the region for the potential of mooring the Polarstern there….. Far to the east of the flow, and then heading north along the shoreline around the outer edge of the Fortress. Light-weight and fast, we traversed the coast and moved quickly over some areas with signs of prior cracking. As darkness descended on us we peered out into what has been referred to as Area 3. Very flat light, hard to see much, but in the distance a huge shape…. Some crazy ice structure but too far to reach now. We leave it for another day. Instead we headed back into the Fortress using what we hopped was a side entrance, picking a path through a big ridge. The snow machined sagged over on its side at one point, the deep snow providing little support. Somehow again we managed to traverse into the inside and back into one of the courtyards, big and wide open. The ice was thicker here, with clearly a lower melt pond fraction than outside of the walls. Some more quick exploration of the gateway, but the bridge wanted us back at the ship….Too dark for safety.
