The goal was to take my measurements (snow and ice thickness) and subtract Aly's measurements (just snow thickness) to determine the exact thickness of the ice beneath our feet.
In order to collect unbiased data, I had to pull the sled in a straight line no matter what. Lasse and I walked up and over ice ridges and through snow drifts while the S.A. Agulhas II grew smaller and smaller in the distance. Lasse was monitoring the sled data on a small electronic device. Aly stopped every other step to stick her probe in the snow. She wore a backpack with a GPS tracking antennae, so as the snow probe measurements came in, they were electronically linked with her exact location on the ice. After walking about 1.5 kilometers (roughly a mile), we stopped to watch the penguins for a few minutes and catch our breath. Pulling a science sled is hard work! The penguins were molting (getting a new coat of feathers), so they looked very scruffy and there were small feathers all over the snow. We were surrounded by ice and snow as far as we could see. It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful.
We turned right and continued in a straight line for another kilometer (about 0.6 miles), and then turned right again and walked directly back to the point where we started alongside the S.A. Agulhas II. Another sea ice scientist named Jakob from Germany completed his triangle-shaped survey of a different area of the ice floe at about the same time. I helped scientists Jukka (from Finland) and James (from South Africa) load their ice core samples onto the basket, and we all traveled together by crane back onto the deck of the ship. It wasn't until we had finished putting away the equipment that I realized how tired I was!
