Bering Sea Ice Adventure

Weather: Clear
Temperature: -25 to -30 degrees F(depending on whose thermometer you use)
Gear: Check



After my foray out onto the frozen sea on Thursday, I really wanted to push the limits of the ocean. I asked several elders and other community members if it was safe to go on ice and the general response was positive. "Yeah, just don't fall in," was a popular response, but I did have someone tell me that it was safe to walk all of the way out to the open water. I decided to head out and turn back whenever I started to freak out. I left behind another teacher's house so that she could check on me with a pair of binoculars.

It was slow going at first. I wouldn't cross anywhere that seemed flat or scary. I kept my eyes open for seals and their "seal holes" they make in the ice, but the only other living creature I saw was a raven after a mile out at sea. Look for the tiny black dot near the center of the picture:



I kept making goals (I wonder what's behind that block of ice just a little farther out...) and following the "pressure lines" of the ice. Two sheets of ice meet and one sheet slides under another, creating a small ridge in the ice and making the whole sheet a little bit thicker. I had my trusty driftwood walking stick with me, and I hadn't heard a single creak on the ice when I decided that I had walked about as far as I wanted for the day:



The village houses were tiny dots on the horizon behind me. I figured that I was about 3 miles out in the Norton Sound:



I was going to turn around, but I felt brazen as I was still toasty despite the -25 degree weather. The sun was shining and the ice was thick, so I went a little bit further. I could see a small few blocks of ice right before a vast expanse of frozen ocean, so I just had to check it out:



Look at the size of those pieces of ice--they can't be much thicker than an inch or two! When I saw that I immediately stopped and waited. I could hear a very slight creak beneath my feet, and I took a few slow steps back toward land. I knew I had reached the end of my expedition when I could feel my heart beating through my 4 layers of clothes! The ice in front of me looked different. You can see the difference in this picture:



The ice in the top 2/3 of the picture is "new ice." The spiny crystals on it indicate that snow hasn't had a chance to blow on top of it, so it hasn't been there for long. This "new ice" stretched out in front of my eyes for seemingly endless miles. Here's a shot of Cape Denbigh after the field of "new ice":



I felt both a chill on my face and down my spine, so I carefully turned around and booked it back to land! The whole expedition only took 1 hour and 45 minutes, but I felt like I'd been to the moon and back.

One final thing--I've been told that throwing boiling water into really cold air will cause it to instantly evaporate. At -30 F, I'd predict about half of it does: