Young ice covers the near-shore Chukchi Sea

Remember how when I first arrived here nine nights ago there was a layer of slush ice against the shore, reaching maybe 200 yards out into the night, undulating with the breaking surf rolling in from the dark, roiling ocean beyond? This is what it looks like now. The fellow standing by the four wheeler as he looks out over the Chukchi Sea is Harold Nungasuk, brother of the late, great, Whyborn Nungasuk. Harold was thrilled to see all that young ice, essential to the upcoming spring bowhead hunt. A bit late by historical standards but there it is. And that is good news. 

Text added at 4:36 PM.

Ice surf

Before I arrived, they had a hellacious windstorm here in Barrow and all along Alaska's Arctic Coast. The west wind holds a blanket of slush ice tight to the shore. It is a little hard to tell in the dark, but the slush ice appears to extend a couple of hundred yards out. Beyond that, my eyes could make out frothing surf as waves broke but my iPhone could not pick it up. The surf would then collide with the ice blanket and lift it up into slush swells as it rolled toward the shore where each wave rises one last time and then tumbles to the beach in a cascade of churning slush and small ice chunks. 

Text added at 10:39 PM. The Squarespace nightmare - day 51 and counting.