A long day on the ice, but these days are so important for the floe selection process. Exhausted. Fully. We arrived at a potential candidate floe…. People a bit concerned about the floe we already explored, and the news from AkademicFederov being more of the same. But this day has been useful. A bit slow at first as we are still sorting out the logistics and safety of going on the ice. Where do we get radios? How about ice drills for thickness measurements? What else needs to go on our trip? We loaded into the ship’s “mummy chair” to be lowered down to the ice. I took the first step onto that ice….. one small step for mankind……. But finally we were off on this first adventure, me leading the way with my big breaker bar to probe the ice conditions. I learned back at SHEBA that if you lightly throw such a bar down to the surface from about 10 inches up and it DOES NOT break through, the ice is safe to walk on…. One of those pieces of knowledge that continues to be serviceable over time. Out we go into the white “eye” of the floe, pulling sleds with equipment for assessing the scene. Deep snow at places, making walking difficult. Trudging into what looked like a war zone of crumbled ice, all jumbled together. This rugged terrain is what looked so bright on the satellite imagery….. With big surrounding walls, we were entering a fortress.
Two walking adventures on this day, both into different parts of what I’ve now named the Fortress. Collecting important information about this potential home. At the end of the day, a fully body ache. Lacking on some food, feeling a bit under the weather, headache, and my back and shoulders felt entirely finished…. Lugging around that heavy bar!
