The Kuskokwim River freeze-up appears to be behind schedule. That’s the conclusion of the first of several aerial surveys put on in a joint effort between Bethel Search and Rescue (BSAR) and the Kuskokwim Ice Road crew.
Mark Leary is a member of Bethel Search and Rescue and was on the plane that surveyed ice conditions on Tuesday Nov. 18. He said that this time in 2024, the river was a little more frozen and safer to travel on. Leary said later freeze-ups have become more common.
“We always hold our breath during November,” Leary said. “In November, anything can happen.”
Leary and the aerial survey crew will continue to monitor the Kuskokwim River’s ice conditions from the sky throughout the winter. The surveys function in part as a public safety measure: to get information out about areas of concern or danger. But they’re also to start planning for the annual ice road, which last year spanned from Kasigluk to Crooked Creek in 300 miles of marked road.
According to Leary, the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) has formally requested that the Kuskokwim Ice Road crew extend the road to Tuntutuliak to assist with disaster relief efforts, conditions permitting. That’s roughly 42 miles beyond the normal southern extent of the road at the mouth of the Johnson River.
“Our job right now is to watch, and to get out there and start marking as people start moving around and establishing trails,” Leary said. “We’ve got to make sure all the open water is marked.”
Right now, Leary said that people should not travel on the river, even in areas that appear to be frozen up. He said that all travel should happen over land at this time. He said that part of the delay in freezing up could be related to ex-typhoon Halong, which brought high winds and flooding to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta early last month.
“We barely had any time to recover after the typhoon storm,” Leary said. “The land is still very wet and saturated all over in low-lying areas.”
Leary said that the snowfall that followed could also be a slowing factor, keeping land waterlogged and insulating the ground from freezing. He said that the warmer temperatures on Nov. 19 may allow the snow to melt and help the river freeze when temperatures dip back down again.
Leary said that while overall the river is behind its average freeze-up, sections of the Kuskokwim River are farther along than usual. After flying over the tundra villages of Atmautluak, Nunapitchuk, and Kasligluk, Leary said that things looked like they had recently frozen over.
The edge of the river ice was about 10 miles below the mouth of the Johnson River, 5 miles further downstream than on the same day in 2024, which Leary said feels encouraging.
But close to Bethel there are still dangerous amounts of open water near Church Slough, the Bethel bluffs, and at the mouth of the Gweek River. There are several large sections of open water between Napaskiak and Napakiak and upriver near Kwethluk.
Leary said that people across the region seem to have caught on to the slow freeze. He said that from the air you can see evidence of people staying closer to home.
“That was one thing I noticed throughout the flight was that there were less nets set and less manaqing than is usually going on this time of year,” Leary said. “And that’s just reflective of the kind of conditions we’ve had going on.”
Leary said that even during some of the warmest winters, the crew have been able to maintain a “nice” ice road with significant mileage. He said that it will work out, "one way or another."
