The last few days have been rather busy. After reaching 80N and 150W we headed south to 78N and then east. It was light ice conditions on our steam east (mostly this winters ice) until we hit the multi-year pack at roughly 76.5N 137W. It is fascinating to watch the formation of the new ice pack in the central Beaufort. A vast sheet of ice has forms, that is cracked open with leads running north-west for many miles. The leads made travel east into the heavier ice pack relatively easy. In the last 3 days we had two ice stations, where we made ice thickness and snow transects and took many cores to study the physical and chemical properties of the ice. After that we started on our return south. Right now we are at 75N, 140W. A storm is forecast, so the next few days could be rather active for the ice. Though we will probably not be active on the ice!
~Jenny Hutchings
