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This morning we began our journey home, and I’m writing this blog from a cozy restaurant in Longyearbyen. This month has been incredible for me, and it will take a while to process everything we’ve done and experienced. One of the things we’re hoping to do is to put together a short video describing

The past two days have been spent wrapping up the field work and winding things down. Tomorrow we pack up the equipment, and on Thursday we fly back to Longyearbyen to begin our travels home. ##The weather improves Yesterday the day started foggy (like Sunday) but it cleared up and we ended up doing

The last bell rang on June 8th this year, the earliest since I started teaching 21 years ago. This was partially due to the fact that our system got rid of traditional snow days, casualties of the new tech world that swallowed our school system due to COVID-19. Goals for summer included travel

Fogged in Today we made a valiant effort to go out to the fjord. After a late brunch we got out in the boat around noon, but had to turn back as a thick bank of fog shrouded the glaciers. It’s just not safe to go out in the fog, given the dangers of icebergs, falling ice if you get too close to

Saturday hike Saturdays here in Ny Ålesund are a little more relaxed. Instead of breakfast and lunch they serve a brunch from 10-11. The weather forecast was also dicey, so we planned to start our field work late, after brunch. Xander, Kelly and I decided to get up early anyway and do a hike

Swapping sand for snow Well, the COVID pandemic has again derailed my narwhal expedition, but never fear! I'm still learning and doing some traveling this summer! Instead of going to the Arctic, I spent a few weeks studying in Boulder City, Nevada, in >110° degree weather - it was one of the

Data Collection Continues Both yesterday and today we spent long and productive days on the fjord. The weather was gorgeous today! It was around 8°C (46°F) with very little wind and bright sunshine. We spent most of the day doing bathymetry (mapping the seafloor) which is very slow work, but with

The past few days have been very busy, so I haven’t had much time to create a blog post. So I’ll catch you up on what we’ve been doing since Friday. ##Evidence of Ice Retreat The sonar bathymetry equipment (for mapping the seafloor depth) is finally working, so we spent the days slowly driving lines