24 March 2009 Sea Ice & Swimming Pools

Today I did an Arctic duathlon. I went for a run and a swim, and fortunately it was not in the same location. I ran along polar bear footprints on the sea ice in the afternoon and swam in a pool in the evening.

The OASIS team from Canada took me along with them to the sea ice. It takes about 20 minutes to reach the sea ice on a snow machine. Stoyka Netcheva piloted the machine while I held on for dear life. I quickly realized that she is an awesome driver and I did not need to squeeze her so tightly. It was surreal riding through land-fast ice; sea ice that is fastened along the shore. The jagged blocks of ice jutted out in all directions and shimmered blue in the sunlight. It is very hard work cutting a path through the sea ice and it took the science team several days to do it. We eventually reached the Nilas, new sea ice, where the Canadian instruments are located. This ice is only 20 cm deep. It is about 1 week old and will not last for long. It will be decided on Thursday, 3/26 if the instruments need to be brought back in then or if they can stay until Friday.

When you are out on the sea ice it can get much colder than being on the snow. There is no where close to get warm, so you have to make your own warmth. Some people do jumping jacks, or skip to get warm. I decided to run back and forth along the polar bear tracks to warm up. It is very important that you do not stray very far from the guide. Our guide, Roy, carried a rifle with him and was on constant watch for polar bears and dangerous ice conditions. Roy is an Inupiaq Eskimo that works for BASC. Roy personified a safety slogan that I saw on the back of a pickup truck, "Like whaling crews pulling a line, Safety depends on your frame of mind."

The polar bear tracks we saw ran along the new ice. You could also see where a bear came up to sniff around the instruments and decided it wasn't very tasty, so he left. The bear didn't stick around long enough to get his picture taken by the webcam out there.

Roy drilled into the ice to check its thickness. The lead, (pronounced leed) is the stretch of open water in a field of sea ice. From where we were, we could barely see the clouds reaching down to the surface by the lead. In three weeks the whale hunt will start, and the lead will be where we were standing.

It was a wonderful opportunity to see the beautiful frost flowers we have been analyzing in the laboratory up close. They are formed when the brine (salty water) and sea ice wick the moisture out of the air.

I finished up my day and my duathlon by swimming laps in the pool at the local high school. It is located on the second floor of the building. As far as pools go it was not the optimal at 17 yards, no lane lines, and about 86° F. However, it was perfect for me!