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Around the arctic ocean for years. Back then, floes grew to be so large that passages like nares strait were often blocked for months or even years at a time. These floes are too thin to withstand collisions with other floes. Theres isnt anything big enough here to plug nares strait. To me, its alarming. In this area theres nothing that stops sea ice from escaping the arctic ocean. Yeah, you see this big mumbojumbo of ice, you think hmm, might be sledging today not just sledging, but lifting kayaks, fully loaded kayaks, thats the part. You see how were going to go across there, thats going to just aghhh alright, so the one thing we want to be careful of here is actually that we dont damage the boats, right . Steves got a ton of experience with this place and i think even he is just baffled right now. And as its going down, youre just going to ease it down as much as you can. Ahh, watch yourself. We thought this was going to be kayaking every day, but its turned into pretty much sledging, pulling the kayaks every day. Wait, mike. Wait wait. Ahhhh dont pull, dont pull, im getting pulled underneath it. Give me a second. Looking out there im not too optimistic about having open water or actually really sea kayaking. There just doesnt seem to be any let up. Personally, its a bit of misery. Weve made it about 35 miles as the crow flies in 14 days. And the ice is rubbled up and compacted and so here we are stuck behind a huge wall of ice and not very clear on where were going, or how to get there. Yeah do you imagine like that this is going to clear out like when we get a blow or could there be a break or ice jam up higher, like or is it just going to be more of this, what we have . Like, what do you think is going to happen . Well, the only thing i can see us doing because of all of this pack ice, because there is absolutely no way of stepping off the icefoot. Like we cannot leave the icefoot. We have to stick with the icefoot. And the only time we can travel is when the tide is high. The power of each chunk of ice the power of that chunk of ice, you know, is just we cant deal with it. Were 260 nautical miles from our final destination. We may need to come up with an alternative plan. Our closest option for evacuation is Carl Ritter Bay. Theres no actual runway, but planes have landed there before. Its heartbreaking. Watching the arctic ocean losing its ice. Lets go up here. Climate models might say theres still a lot of old, large and thick sea ice here, but thats not what im seeing. That were not seeing any large floes here means theres no large floes in the arctic ocean either. The sea ice thats left its young, ephemeral, and its easily broken into small pieces. Ill get on the ice. This transition from old ice to young ice has occurred decades before we expected. Its telling us it wont take much for summer sea ice to disappear altogether. Oh, all right. All right. To me, its fascinating. The way i think about it is, the arctic ocean is white. Its white ice. If the ice wasnt there, if it all melted, the ocean would be dark, like super dark. An analogy i think about is, its a hot day, and youre going to send your kid out to play. What tshirt do you want your kid to wear . Do you want your kid to wear a white tshirt, or a black tshirt . And we all know, wear a white tshirt. And so what ive learned, is that the arctic ocean is kind of like the white tshirt for the planet. There we go. Hey. Hi. Hows it going steve . The kayak just slid backwards against that chunk of ice. Yeah, you know why it slid back is because you told us to go harder. In fact, you pulled it and then i was in the back, and i couldnt hold it and it slung in and hit the rock. And i was tired, and if you hadnt pushed it and made us go faster, that would not have happened. Well, we have to get to a place where we can get a plane in. I get that. Thats all there is to it. Its like we never get a break. Well, were gonna take a break, and your point is well made, and then were gonna have to go back at it, and were going to have to be more careful. Are we feeling collectively good enough to go back at the icefoot . Well, this brings up a question in terms of end goals. Mike and i were talking about this yesterday a bit, i dont know if you guys have chatted. End goals . Like, right now the end goal might be carl ritter. Yeah. So, do you think maybe right now our primary objective is get to carl ritter . And then assess as soon as we get there what well do next . Yup. Carl ritter bay is 33 nautical miles away. Im actually questioning whether well be able to make it there. We need to put the science on hold. With these ice conditions, we have to focus on getting safely out of here. Our way forward is completely blocked. We have no choice but to go out into the fray, and to join the parade of ice floes headed south. Okay, stop. Yup. Okay, beautiful, keep it going, keep it going. Keep it going, keep it going, nice and steady. Fast. Okay drop the line let go let go let go okay alright we are witnessing the breakdown of this ice. Weve seen the wind and waves bashing it to bits. This ice is so thin that sometimes just jumping from floe to floe is enough to break it apart. Before i came on this journey, i had no idea how the arctic ocean ice melted. What happens . You know, does it stay up in the arctic and melt . And what im learning on this journey is that, at least some of that ice is going south in currents. So thats the ice that we see going by us every day, just flowing down nares strait, just like its flowing out of a bathtub, down the drain, down south where its going to melt. So many hours of intense slogging, and weve barely covered 2 nautical miles. Its ironic. Theres less sea ice than ever in the arctic ocean, and yet here we are, forced ashore by the ice, hauling. Thats it for today, guys. We can pull, we should pull them up into here and walk up and find a place to camp up there. We have to go on to the rubble, and this is not the time to go onto the rubble. I wonder how we are going to get out of here . Its unclear. Weve got behind us no icefoot, or in front of us no icefoot. And immobile, messedup, ridged and screwedup ice. Are you stressed out at all . Well they are only Hurricane Force winds, nothing serious. It doesnt matter, you can get all the technology in the world, the satellite phones, the sos buttons, the whatever you need but when the weather is doing what its doing thats it, were at the whim of the weather. So, if something really goes wrong, we have to be able to deal with it out here. Thats all there is to it, we cant we cant depend on the outside world if something goes wrong and the weather is bad. I didnt go camping until i was in grad school. I have never really been outdoors. Im not a wilderness person. There is very little wilderness exposure for scientists. A lot of the work thats being done in science is computer driven, its desk driven, its mathematics. I dont know any climate scientist thats done this. so chris, come to the arctic. Itll be great. i dont know for what. I thought you called yourself a polar oceanographer. I am. I could do that at a desk, my friend. This isnt oceanography. Im sitting on the land in the wind. This is atmospheric science. But if youre a true polar oceanographer, then you need to be able to savour the delights of. If i was a true polar oceanographer, i should have flippers, i should be swimming in that ocean. This is a sham. The wind has dropped. Were up against a low tide, otherwise, conditions are good to go. Hang on hang on alright moment of truth. So what youre going to do is get it down so its tailend is in the water. Yeah. You guys are going to walk it towards me, youre going to hand me the line, and im going to walk it down. Beautiful, keep er going keep her going. Yup. Okay. Beautiful keep it going. Keep it going. Its going right into the water. Exactly. Keep it going, keep it going. Nice and steady fast okay, i got the line, let go, let go, let go. Ok. Alright, whos in this boat . You can even stand up and pull those paddles out whatever you need to do, mike. First person is in. Okay. Im gonna pass. Yeah, not yet, but youre almost there, but you cant sit down on your paddles. I know, i know. We have to make progress before the ice drifts back in on us again. What is it . Could this be from the greely thing, steve . Well yeah, its old. These square nails, these are very similar to the nails that we find up at fort conger, that greely left up there. Same kind of nails, you know, so probably same era. You know, there were quite a few ships that went down around here. They got crushed in the ice. Wow, yeah look at this, it goes down. The men of the Lady Franklin bay expedition wouldnt recognize this place today all of these batteredup bits of sea ice. Theyd be astonished to see how this ocean has changed. To me, its really disturbing. Polar oceanographers like chris are reporting that the arctic ocean has lost three quarters of its sea ice volume in the past 40 years. And were barely acknowledging the impact of these losses on the cooling system of our planet. In all my previous expeditions, id be surrounded by seabirds almost every day. These are the first guillemots weve seen on this journey. Its required being here for this five weeks to show me what the outflow of the arctic ocean where where the sea ice is supposed to endure the longest is really like. Coming here really shows me that this is a dramatically changing environment over periods of time that are smaller than my life. Weve lost an area of sea ice larger than the United States in the last 40 years. Could be even bigger. Thats incredible i mean thats just such a big chunk of the globe. Like imagine if we lost that much landmass all of a sudden like imagine if if every single area that was populated by rainforest turned to desert over a 30 year period. Thats what its like. Its changing the surface of the earth over the period of a human life. Ahhhh, carl ritter i love you Carl Ritter Bay is sheltered from the winds of the strait. And with protection from the wind theres life. Theres even a lone muskox. A few miles away, the ice streams past on its inevitable journey to warmer waters. And knowing that is bittersweet. The plane will be arriving in three days, which is good because we dont have much food left. Weve got around 1,000 feet now of ceiling, and it breaks up in places like. For instance, weve got mountaintops sticking out in a few places to the south of us. Looking out towards greenland, weve got more than five kilometers visibility. Thats thats the status. Its a challenging situation, but theyve got their challenges weve got our challenges. Yeah, but its like you can go out, we have one day, and if we dont get you that one day, well get you in another month . Like excuse me . Well if they get going now, you know, theres a hope of them getting in here before things really change again. But as the evening cools off, as we know, things change. So thats the other factor in all this, its like theres definitely a nowornever element to this. I cant believe the plane got here. Okay. Its like going over an icefoot. If we hadnt come up here, i think itd be hard for any of us to grasp the extent of the shifts that are going on in this region. And how those shifts affect us all. Mbient music

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