Sunning on the Sea Ice

Today was a really fun day. After shift I rushed home to drop off my bags, then walked up to the post office/mail room to pick up package mail. I was expecting the last of the boxes that I'd mailed to myself, but to my surprise I had a some goodies from my mommy and a postcard from a friend at home. It was much more fun to receive fun mail that was so unexpected! Thanks everyone!

After that I hurried back to my room, changed in to my ECW and went off to a Sea Ice safety training course. I wasn't really sure what to expect and had no idea what we'd be doing. The day started off with an hour or so in the classroom going over the info and learning what we would need to know about the sea ice in order to safely work or play on it. After the classroom we all loaded up with our gear and lunches into the Hagglund and headed out for the hands on sections. Our first stop was a patch of blue sea ice where we learned how to safely secure a tent on the ice using only one ice screw. The ice was so clear and really cool how you could see down into it and see the deep cracks and bubbles. Anyhow, using one ice screw you drill one hole down into the ice and then drill a second one at an angle into the first such that the holes meet at the bottom. After the holes are cleaned out and you are sure they meet you drop a looped cord down into one and then stick a little wire with a hook bent into the end into the other pulling the cord out through that hole. With the cord you can then tie off one corner of the tent. You continue for each corner of the tent and it's a clever system of securing a tent on the ice with a single screw. Pretty slick indeed! Oh, and by the way, although the ice comes from frozen salt water, the salt leaches out as it freezes and it tastes like a really clear clean ice cube. Tasty!

From there we loaded back into the Hagglund and headed out to find some cracks to profile. Along the way the views were spectacular. The weather was pretty warm, the winds were light and the way the sunlight was hitting the glacier through the clouds was simply gorgeous. At one point we the road runs parallel to a pressure ridge that is about 100 yds off the road. It's calving season for the seals and there were around fifty seals and pups lying about on the ice next to the ridges. We didn't get to stop to get a closer look, but we still had a decent view out the window.

Shortly after the seals we stopped to check out a crack that ran across the road. It's not always easy to spot cracks as they are typically covered with snow. We learned in class about the different types of cracks and what features to look for that will help tell you where they are. We shoveled it out a bit to get a better look. This one spanning the old Cape Evans road was a straight crack that was approximately 12-22" wide depending on where you were on the road. Based on the crack's width we knew that we couldn't cross it in a wheeled vehicle and even a mattrack vehicle shouldn't really attempt it. This section of the road was also right next to an old roller that has now grown into a pressure ridge. Our guide told us that the flags that they place on opposite sides of the rollers and ridges to measure the movement were 104" apart only a matter of months ago. When we measured them they are now only 46"apart. The flags that were in the low point in the roller are nearly completely buried now. Pretty impressive movement for ice, huh? This other picture is of a sheet of snow that had been formed by the blowing wind. It was very thin, not much thicker than a thin sheet of cardboard, and about the size of a large piece of construction paper. Everywhere you turn here the landscape throws something unexpected and gorgeous at you.

Our next stop was to a spot further down the road where Eric, our guide had discovered a crack when they were surveying the roads. For this one we pulled out the shovels and dug a couple of trenches to do a true profiling. Most of the group began digging at a spot just off the road. I decided to head a little further off the road to dig another trench and see what I found there. You can see slight changes in the pattern of the snow above a crack and so you have to dig it out widthwise such that your trench spans further than you expect the cracks to go. I started digging and found one crack pretty quickly in the center and then moved outward from there, eventually uncovering three (maybe four, depending on how you look at it) different levels of ice and cracks. The ice was under snow that was nearly waist deep but pretty easy to shovel out. As I was crawling out of my trench I noticed the most beautiful snow crystals down in one of the air pockets above the ice under the snow. Again, the simple yet complex beauty here is like nothing else. There are lots of air pockets under the snow right above cracks and therefore the snow is very unstable in the center and it's super easy to fall through. Luckily, the ice shelf is very safe here as we are quite far from the shorelines. After the levels are all uncovered you drill down at each different level to determine ice thickness. There is a formula that you use in profiling cracks that after you've dug out the crack you drill the different levels and then measure the length of the areas that are 30" or less. You also have to figure in 1/3 of the length of the vehicles track or wheel contact area. If the 1/3 of the track length of your vehicle is less than the combined length of the ice sections that are less than 30" deep you cannot cross at that point. In the classroom this whole math part was a bit tricky, but once we actually did the measurements in the field it made much more sense to me.

After this class I feel much more secure in knowing that at least at this point in the season the ice is thick enough on the ice shelf that a person couldn't really fall through. To get a vehicle stuck is much easier as the weight is much greater and the treads can be shorter than required to safely cross. However, over the land it's a very different story as the cracks can be deep crevasses and it's possible to fall to almost forever. That would really hurt.

Hey Rob, Happy Birthday!!!!