Polar Bear & 80* North (day 4, 6/12/12)

Hey Everybody!

Once again it is nearly midnight...impossible to get settled for the "night" any sooner out here. That was especially true today as we reached 80* North just after 9pm this evening. 80* is the point from which we could see walrus in the distance. Moffen Island is a walrus sanctuary. Therefore, we were not permitted closer than 300 meters. Hopefully, we'll have better viewing opportunities tomorrow during a shore landing. 80* was also the point of the ice pack - meaning the point where traveling further north is an unknown. We are the first ship this far north this season! 80* North is quite a feat - it is only 600 nautical miles from the north pole & very few people ever get here.

In fact our snowshoe prints today were (most likely) the first human prints of the season in Worsleyneset. It is named after Frank Worsley, a polar explorer. But they were not the first signs of life this season...we'll get to that. The other interesting note about the snow in today's spot is that it will probably be melted in two weeks time.

The first zodiac excursion today was a cruise, not a shore landing. We arrived at Monaco Glacier (named after Prince Albert 1 of Monaco who led expeditions mapping glaciers in 1906-7) and set out in search of polar bears and to view the three glaciers in this bay. We did find a polar bear that was "still hunting" on the ice through breathing holes & I'm posting a photo, but as you can tell we were not very close. The "stick of butter" is the bear! It was almost impossible to see with the naked eye, but the camera got a look. It's a start! We have 6 days left on the cruise, so we remain hopeful.

One of the guides for the trip is Ian Stirling - not only does he have a mountain named after him in Antarctica, but also he is the world's foremost polar bear expert. I asked him during a lunch conversation if he were hopeful regarding polar bears. He said he wanted to be with a look that revealed his doubt. There is very little ice for this time of year, so the truth is many of us were just relieved to see the bear had ice from which to hunt. The day before all the tracks we saw indicated that the bear had gone from mountain to mountain in search of a meal.

Speaking of tracks....here we are on the ship as it breaks into the ice at its edge. There are polar bear tracks in front of us. Next are mama bear & cub tracks as they cross the ice looking for food. Finding these tracks out on the ice highlights the vastness of the arctic region, the solitary life of polar bears, and makes real the possibility of the collapse of polar bears as we pass through ice-less places.

Our second zodiac excursion was for snowshoeing where there are animal bones and an old trapper's hut, but first a glimpse at the "mud room." The mud room is where we get ready - put on boots, parkas, and life jackets (legal term of course is: personal flotation device). Just outside on the deck we are required to rinse our shoes in a cleaning solution so that we do not contaminate the landing sites. We saw lots of tracks here....bear, reindeer, and arctic fox.

 

The photos I'm posting just cannot do justice to seeing and experiencing it for yourself, but I hope it conveys an idea of it. We continue to have some snow each day, but somehow our zodiac excursion weather always turn out nearly perfect.

It gets cold - colder than I want to admit at times. I have a constant wind burn on my face as a result of my denial! The snowshoeing was fun and easy. I did fall once because I tried to take a step back; you can't really do that! But... our guide fell before I did, so I don't feel too badly about it. Snow was soft :-) And at least I wasn't the poor guy who fell into a hole (crevasse in the ice) - he was fine - stuck, not hurt. Worse still, he had to wait for help out because people were photographing him. Not me...I was taking pictures of old animal tracks.

Guess I better stop for now. Thanks for stopping by! More soon....