Heather Harbord – “The Ice Was All Around: natural history from the deck of an icebreaker”

This is what 82.02 degrees N. looked like
– H. Harbord

But it could have looked like this too. This is all “sea ice” and most of it is “drift ice”. Sea ice, icebergs, land-fast ice, drift ice.
– H. Harbord

The ice was all around us
– H. Harbord

Our Captain ponders the conditions
– H. Harbord

Radar was essential
– H. Harbord

Grease ice is beginning to form over on the right
– H. Harbord

This glacier behind Etah has retreated behind a lake that it has formed
– H. Harbord

Most of the Arctic icebergs are not flat topped like those in the Antarctic – 19 survivors of the Hall Expedition lived on an iceberg that was 5 miles in circumference from Oct 15, 1872 to April 30, 1873 before they were rescued.
– H. Harbord

A loud boom signals that an iceberg has calved
– H. Harbord

Lemming with jewel lichen (Xanthoria elegans)
– H. Harbord

Walrus!
– H. Harbord

More walrus basking on the ice flows
– H. Harbord

The lovely arctic poppy (Papaver radicatum)
– H. Harbord

Drift ice
– H. Harbord

 Accomplished writer, long-time club member and global explorer, Heather Harbord again regaled us with her tales of derring-do.

This time it was from the deck of a Russian polar icebreaker…the Kapitan Klebnikov...as it cruised from Resolute Bay to the upper reaches of Ellesmere Island and back again, from 28 Aug-16 Sept in 2008.

Heather got to zoom around in helicopters, watch an iceberg calve in the open ocean, learn about the extraordinary sun-seeking abilities of the arctic poppy, see walrus, lemmings, glaucus gulls and ice.   Rather a LOT of ice, as it turned out.

But Heather was careful to point out that as big and beautiful as it looks, there was actually a whole lot less ice when she visited in 2008 than there was as recently as 1979.   You can learn more about the history and science behind arctic ice measurement here and here.