
First ice station: ready, set, go! A mass of red-clothed people flooded the ice and was ready to start their measurements – before a polar bear was spotted sitting on the same floe a couple hundred meters from the ship and sniffing around. Everyone was called back inside and we decided on a stricter polar bear protection mode, with additional people watching the bear at all times. A first test to our nerves. But all went well, we were able to successfully conduct our measurements on the ice: snow and ice properties in the footprint of the radiometers standing on the upper deck of the ship. And on the second day of the ice station, the polar bear had taken off, and the ice work could continue with slightly less jittery nerves.

When the excitement doesn’t come from the outside, you have to generate it yourself: on the last ice station day, we accidentally dropped a phone in one of our ice holes (its drilling can be seen in the picture above). The ice was already drilled down to the sea water, so the phone could have simply taken a 4000 m dive, but it got stuck on the icy walls of the hole, and fortunately the crew provided us with long gripping tongs and we could recover the phone. And we’re proud to announce that the phone is still working!
