At Barrow, Alaska, local Iñupiat whaling crews annually construct a
network of semipermanent trails through the landfast ice during the spring
hunting season. These trails originate at predictable locations along the
coast and pass through (or circumnavigate) a range of diverse ice features
before terminating at the landfast ice edge where whaling camps are
established. The Barrow sea ice trail map shows the location of the current 2009 trails. Continuous ice thickness and topography measurements using
electromagnetic induction sounding and DGPS are being made along much of these
trails. The 2009 ice thickness map will be posted soon. Last year's preliminary ice thickness data is available for select trails in early April 2008.
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