From Irving Penn

Arctic explorer Peter Freuchen and his wife, Magdalene Vang Lauridsen. Irving Penn, 1947

Freuchen was a Danish explorer, author and anthropologist who spent many years living amongst the Inuit in the far north of Greenland. He played an instrumental part in establishing the trading post of Thule in 1910, which would remain an important part of northerly trans-atlantic trade. The name for the post was chosen as a reflection of the term ultima Thule, a phrase from mediaeval geographies denoting any distant place beyond the borders of the known world.

Freuchen was a very active socialist in his native Denmark, becoming involved with the Danish resistance movement against the Germans during World War II. During the war he suffered imprisonment and was sentenced to death, but he managed to escape the Germans and flee to Sweden. All of this despite having lost a leg to frostbite in 1926. He lived a long life in America after the war.

I hope I look as bad ass as he does when I’m all suited up.

Inspiration 3

M. Napolitano

 

Jan Erik Waider – Arctic Dawn

 

 

Zaria Forman

 

 

Letha Wilson

The Explorers Club

Last spring I became a Student Member of The Explorers Club. You may have heard of their lavish dinners (with a variety of unusual foods to sample) or perhaps heard some of the amazing objects they have on Radiolab’s Things episode. I am thrilled to be a part of a club that played a part in so many historical events of exploration, and it’s great to have a place where the crowd totally gets me when I want to talk about the intricacies of wooden propellers, man-hauled sledging or the cultural and societal atmospheres surrounding various expeditions.

Carrying the Explorers Club flag into the Crystal Cave of Giants

Inside the club headquarters located here in New York City

All of the Explorers Club flags return to the club and are displayed around the club, including the flag that went with Apollo 11 to the moon.

I also have acquired some Explorers Club patches for my jacket and my backpack, which I will wear proudly on my upcoming trip to Svalbard!

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Got some @the_explorers_club patches today sew to my backpack and parka on my expedition next year! #explorersclub #svalbard2015 #arctic

A post shared by Katherine Akey (@katherine.akey) on Sep 15, 2014 at 7:05pm PDT

Frost Flowers

“It is as beautiful as it is rare.  A frost flower is created on autumn or early winter mornings when ice in extremely thin layers is pushed out from the stems of plants or occasionally wood. This extrusion creates wonderful patterns which curl and fold into gorgeous frozen petioles giving this phenomenon both its name and its appearance.” from Kuriositas

Ice is absolutely amazing. There are scores of different kinds of ice out there, depending on salt content, the temperature and speed at which it was frozen, the pressure it was put under as it froze, etc. Sailors, whalers and other seagoing people near the poles kept extremely detailed, diligent notes of the types of ice they encountered on their journeys, and as such we have amassed an incredible collection of wonderfully named types of ice.

Some examples of sea ice:

Frazil ice is made of fine spicules or plates of ice suspended in water, a kind of “new ice” made when ice mixes with the upper layers of ocean water.

Grease ice is basically Frazil Ice formed under calm sea conditions, allowing it to settle on the surface of the sea

Shuga ice is spongey, white ice collecting in clumps

Nilas ice is particularly cool. It’s a later stage of new ice in which it has consolidated into a thin elastic crust, stretchy enough to swell with the cresting ocean underneath it

Pancake ice is formed from grease, slush or shuga ice freezing together, or alternatively from the break-up of ice rind or nilas.

An Ice Breccia is a chunk of ice pieces of different ages frozen together. When we talk about ice age, we are actually talking about how many summers the ice made it through without melting. New ice tends to be thin, flexible and/or less dense than older ice, which becomes richly colored and harder than metal.

Hummocky ice is made when ice becomes uneven and hilly, and can be exaggerated by the pressures of shifting icebergs and ice sheets to create pressure ridges, some of which can be amazingly tall.

More about ice to come!