For three weeks in mid to late August 2010 I joined the Norwegian Polar Institute’s research ship Lance together with a team of biologists, oceanographers and sea‑ice physicists on a cruise north and north‑east of Nordaustlandet, Svalbard. We mapped sea-ice thickness, tagged bears, deployed drifting instruments and sampled the ocean and ice while the air hovered around 0 °C and the pack began to refreeze after the summer melt.