This very unique sample was taken in the middle of the ice break! Thanks to the talent of Sacha, “god of pilots” in Igarka according to Anatolii, we were able to collect another Ieniseï sample.Although the anticipation for reaching this sampling point was high, finding a way to the main channel was easy for Sacha, as he avoided huge ice ridges, played with water currents, and stopped the hovercraft on the shelf of the ice right above the sampling point with ease. The result was that we collected the most colored sample ever on a major Arctic river. A perfect sampling day (and very happy researchers)!

We didn’t manage to reach the sampling site today because of…ice
breaking: a huge ice ridge closed the Igarka side channel’s access to
the Ieniseï main channel.  Further along the main channel, ice began
to move quickly this morning. In a moment, the river became a total
moving chaos, with the start of millions of tons of ice making their
way downstream. From the equilibrium of yesterday to today’s chaos, it’s a fantastic phenomenon we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to observe.

Today it’s hovercraft sampling. Before the ice break we will try to get a sample using a hovercraft.

We went sampling on Monday morning, using the snowmobile for the last time. Sampling went well: we saw lots of fishermen on the ice for a big “burbot day”, and we collected a new very colored sample. At night, we went for a walk along the Ieniseï and observed water rising and almost reaching the first flooding plains. This new water level rise marked the end of “snowmobile” part of the mission We are now grounded and waiting for the ice break “party”. Today, Elena and Arnaud left Igarka; the only way to get to the airport was with a hovercraft.

Water color changes everyday with particulate fraction resembling American coffee and dissolved fraction looking like German beer.
In the last 48h, the water level rose up to 3 meters, but we were still able to sample with snowmobile.
Today’s ice thickness was 97cm.

Today was much colder and everything has refrozen again. Today there was 7 cm of water, but still around 1 m of ice. The Yenisei snowmobile barge was very busy today, with many of the fishermen returning to land from the ice. On our way back, we had 5-7 snowmobiles in line after us.

The melt lakes continued to grow and today we found our sledge
becoming a boat. 17 cm of water on the ice today, but the ice depth is still 1 m.

Rain and warm temperature (+5°C) lead to the formation of several ice melt lakes on the Ienisei.
The snowmobile ride was then a succession of slush and lake crossing.
We lost 15% of ice depth in one day but it still remains 1 meter.
We are in our very last day of “sampling on ice” show.

Today continued the frozen trend of yesterday, with the arrival of
more snow and also Elena from Krasnoyarsk.
We immediately took her on the ice and she drove us to our site in the snow mobile.
It was snowing heavily and at one point we couldn’t see either riverbank.
It cleared up enough for us to reach the site successfully and collect
our measurements and 100L of water.
On the way back we had a snowball fight, which Elaina won.