This time things worked out fine. Together with several other people I went out on the ice sampling air, surface hoar. frost flowers and brine today. The frost flowers are beautiful – we sampled a patch of young ice (1-2 ft thick) with a frost flower age of 1-2 days under clear skies.
The view was absolutely stunning – what a privilege to work in such an environment. Sampling went extremely well. I used my last pre-cleaned bottles and a number of sterile plastic bags for sampling. I brought a canister and pump along for air sampling. I hope that the samples from these individual compartments (frost flowers, snow, brine, air) will give me an idea on how SVOCs distribute between them and what impact on the chemistry this might have.
The trail was in good shape, with a little challenge towards the end; crossing a pressure ridge over ice; easy enough to do, if you had enough momentum with the snow machine and did not brake on your way across the ridge. Went well enough for me despite pulling a sled for the first time.