IceBridge: Hike to an Ice Cap

By Carla Voorhees

Lt. Cmdr. John Woods is a Meteorology and Oceanography Officer (METOC) currently teaching in the Oceanography Department at the United States Naval Academy (USNA). He is part of the Sea Ice Thickness Observation team currently participating in NASA’s Operation IceBridge 2011 (OIB 2011).

With three sea ice flights successfully behind us, and the airport being closed on the weekend, we had a day off from operations, and took advantage of the great activities that are coordinated by the community center here at Thule Air Base.

The trip was a hike to the Ice Cap. About two dozen folks (a mixture of Air Force personnel, Danish workers and NASA IceBridge team members) piled into 4×4 trucks and headed off base about 20 minutes drive. The last five minutes of the drive was “off-road” and we went as far as we could until two trucks got stuck in the snow. After a few minutes of shoveling and getting everyone back on sturdy ground, we took off for the 45-minute hike to the ice cap.

It was a pleasant walk over mostly hard ground with some areas of soft snow making for a good workout. We took several short breaks to stop and listen. The silence was incredible. There was no breeze and absolutely no noise. No cars, no power poles, no animals (that we could see at least), just absolute silence. It was a very cool experience. We arrived at the area where the ice cap is exposed, and took some photos. The exposed blue, white, and brown banded ice was another breathtaking sight that I had never experienced before.

After another few hundred yards down the trail, we arrived at the sledding hill with another amazing vantage point after climbing to the top.

On the walk back, I found some fox tracks in the untouched snow that made for a great photo. There was no sign of the fox around, just its left-over paw prints in the fresh snow.

We finished the walk with some hot chocolate and cookies, warming up and swapping stories about each person’s favorite part of the hike.