Ended up being stuck for four weeks due to cooler temperatures compared to last year. Pretty rough. We only got on the water three times (in the water once…oops…). So here’s a couple pictures of that plus flying back from Umiat (I started in Umiat but transitioned to Deadhorse via Fairbanks. Ideally I would have flown the 120 miles from Umiat to Toolik by helicopter but the weather was so bad I flew back to Fairbanks and then flew Fairbanks to Deadhorse. 36 hours in Fairbanks was extra nice though, got to catch up with out of town friends and a few in town ones, too.
Deadhorse was rough. The first day there we went out for a couple hours but it was blowing 40+ mph so we didn’t stay long. Then over the next two weeks we only got out three more times for a couple hours each. Just had the wrong kind of weather. So we alternated between getting ready and then not going out and spending all day in our hotel room (2 single beds, 2 end tables, 2 narrow closets, 0 chairs). I had a camp chair sent up and after that life became more bearable. Tough to do anything when the only thing for sitting on is the bed. But, had time enough to whip up some more things for the home station and some of our other stations. Eventually we got out for a couple of days. It was rad catarafting. I drove while the ADCP measured. It was blowing 10 increasing to 20 over the course of our time on the water. You’d think that would be rough but the cataraft was like a sail boat, point it at the right angle and the wind pushes both directions across the river. Way there was still rowing involved but could have been way worse. Got to coexist on the water with icebergs. Mostly they were to small to notice so we’d be keeping an eye open and then would see one floating close but already downstream. The clear ones were like that. The bigger white ones you could more often see coming down but they were pretty sporadic. This was all bottom ice breaking free after being frozen to the bottom during winter.