Sea ice ridging statistics obtained from a series of laser surface roughness profiles are examined. Each set of profiles consists of six 200-km long flight tracks oriented approximately perpendicular to the coastline of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. The landward ends of the profiles were located at Point Lay, Wainwright, Barrow, Lonely, Cross Island, and Barter Island. The flights were made in February, April, August, and December 1976, and one additional profile was obtained north of Cross Island during March 1978. It was found that although there was a systematic variation in mean ridge height (?) with season, with the highest values occurring in late winter, there was no systematic spatial variation in h at a given time. The number of ridges/km (μ) also are high during the late winter with the highest values occurring in the Barter Island and Cross Island profiles. In most profiles, the ice 20--60 km from the coast is more highly deformed (higher μ values) than the ice either nearer the coast or farther seaward. The Wadhams model for the distribution of ridge heights gives better agreement with observed values in the higher ridge categories than does the Hibler model. Estimates of the spatial recurrence frequency of large pressure ridges are made by using the Wadhams model and also by using an extreme value approach. In the latter the distribution of the largest ridges per 20 km of laser track was found to be essentially normal. Wadhams' distribution consistently predicts slightly larger ridge sails than does the extreme value approach. The main factors currently limiting the accurate prediction of the temporal recurrence of large pressure ridges are limited knowledge of the drift of near-shore ice and data that would permit the assessment of year to year variability in μ.