Pressure Ridges

At our new runway (Willy Field) its snow and not ice so the planes use there skies now instead of wheels.




So things are moving along. Were all moved into the new runway and operations are going as normal once again. Its actually a much better location than the sea ice runway with a better view. Im pretty sure making the drive out there in the morning is possibly the best morning commute I could ask for. It takes about 45 minutes to get there but its ok.



The sea ice is melting pretty quickly. I was down at the old runway the other day and there were some definate wet spots over the sea. The weather has been really warm this past week so thats been nice. Things are starting to become routine so im putting together a forcable entry class to teach in a couple weeks which has taken some time up.

I was lucky enough yesterday to go on a pressure ridge tour which was pretty cool. The pressure ridges are the area where the sea ice, ice shelf and land converge, and work somewhat like plate tectonics. This action creates big cracks and holes and moves the ice formations about 3 feet per day.
In the next picture you can see the pressure ridges from far away on one of the roads leading to the kiwi (new zealand) base. To the left is the ice shelf and to the right is the sea ice that has actual seawater about 10 feet under it.