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Saving Face

Even in the springtime, the air and winds in the Arctic can be so cold that skin grows raw and wind-burned after just a few minutes. The moisture in your breath can quickly turn to ice and frost, freezing into face masks, beards and mustaches, noses, ears, and even eyelashes. And with so much bright snow and ice-covered landscape, sunglasses are a necessity, not a luxury. With this image, photographer and WHOI research associate Chris Linder (shown in the reflection of the sunglasses) showed the only exposed skin on science writer Mike Carlowicz’s body during the Polar Discovery trip to Resolute Bay one of the coldest inhabited places on Earth in April 2007. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)