Due North

As Aaron mentioned in his video, we unexpectedly ended up taking the polar route in our flight from DC to Beijing. Even the flight attendants were excited about it; apparently the atmospheric conditions on their usual route are squirrelly because of volcanic action.



No flying reindeer or elves, but there was a boatload of open water on the way up,



and cracks in the pack ice on the pole,



And then a bit later we flew over the Gobi…