The windows of the hotel had stopped rattling and so I hoped that the wind had calmed down. The 5 second walk outside from the hotel to the dining hall proved me wrong. A quick check on the internet informed me that 21 knot wind was blowing out of the east, giving the ambient temperature of –6 C a wind chill of –45 C. That’ll wake you up.
The weather improved a little by noon and we headed out onto the landfast ice in the bight of the spit of Point Barrow, where the ice is usually less prone to deforming. Installation of the PVC tubes went smoothly, using the 10-inch auger to make holes in the 80 cm ice. The plastic sheets required a series of four, 4-foot long slots cut into the the ice with the chainsaw, making a square and cutting loose a block of ice. This proved much harder and turned into a constant battle to keep the cuts from refreezing after they were cut while the chainsaw froze-up or ran out of fuel. After a trip back to the warehouse to swap the blade onto a different motor, we retired for dinner cold and tired and with the plastics sheets back on the sled.
Lessson of the day: When cutting out a block of ice, don’t stand on the block as you make your final cut.