This year the ice is getting further and further north. The last trip, we had to go all the way to 83ºN to find ice. A great experience, but also sad to have to travel that distance. What was also shocking, was the quality of the ice we found. Even at only 770km from the geographical North Pole, the ice only consisted of relatively small floes being pressed together, not the fast sheets one would expect.

Even though we did find two bears in the ice, it was clear they would have preferred to have different ice. Here there were hardly any seals, but also they regularly had to jump from floe to floe, instead of being able to walk over the big floes. Another problem with this ice is, of course, that when the wind turns to the north, it will quickly drift away and melt further south, pushing the ice edge even further north.