Ice Dodging and Rushin' the Russian

A dear friend has reminded me many times that adventures that go awry usually make for great stories. A recent 2 day excursion with my good friend Brady has the distinction of having come off without a hitch (or at least not a serious one) and having a few good tales (or tails as you'll read below).

Brady is the young fellow that helped me get the job up here in Alaska. He works up on the Slope periodically throughout the year and after his last trip stopped off in Anchorage to start his R&R. I feel particularly privileged to have had his company seeing as how he hadn't seen his wife in about a month... thanks Molly! Our first day out started with an early call in Whittier to go off on a paddle through Blackstone Bay. Thanks to my friend Pete (of Alaska Sea Kayakers) we were able to rent gear and piggy back on a charter... this has the advantage of saving a few bucks, being self guided, and getting to Blackstone Bay and back in one day.

We were dropped of at 17 mile lagoon on Willard Island and left to our own devices. After a brief gear check and paddle plan discussion we were off down the southeast shore. We crossed from the tip of the island to apoint between two glaciers, had a bit to eat and headed over to visit Beloit glacier first. It's a funny thing being within 500 yards of something as big as a glacier while you're in a sea kayak... only a foot or so above the water. Funnier, or stranger still, is the deep chord struck within when you hear the glacier crack and thunder. Absolute peace and quiet... a few small waves lapping against the hull... whispers of wind in the trees along the mountainous shore and then... KARKOOOOOOM! The learning point from this is one: don't get too close to a glacier that might be ready to calve (which is every last blessed one of them) and two: that glaciers crack fairly frequently but don't calve (or dump a small city sized load of ice in to the water) every time they crack. For all the ice thunder we heard I only recall seeing relatively small amounts of material cascading in to the water on two occasions.

Next, we paddled back across the point to Blackstone Glacier. It's freakin' huge and not only comes down to the water but flanks to the North and down a long ridge line with a waterfall near the end. I should mention that up to this point and throughout most of the day we had clear skies and very little wind.

Our next leg took us to the toe of another glacier in Blackstone Bay that I don't recall the name of. The toe was a short hike back from the shore so we beached our kayaks and headed inland to have a look. Hiking in Alaska is a bit different then in the "Lower 48" even if it's only for a short distance. Hikes are seldom quiet (because loud talking or singing scares away bears) and usually require a bit of extra gear (because pepper spray or a large handgun scare away or defend against bears). Did I mention that there are bears in Alaska? All kidding aside the best tools when hiking in bear country are knowledge and vigilance... let's just say I've been doing a lot of reading, talking to locals, and zero solo hiking (which in other parts of the world has been a long cherished past time). A stream runs out from underneath the glacier or more correctly bubbles up in to a pool from underneath the ice and then cascades in two streams down to the bay. We started to hike up the side of the toe to get up on the ice but decided against it as we weren't roped up and then there's that whole crevasse issue :) Like two fat cats on a lazy afternoon we beached our selves for a nap in the sun after our hike as the other group from our charter waved hello and passed by headed North. I knew they had planned to hike up a trail along the other side of the glacier about that time and I was surprised to see them stop short of landing, turn, and head back out in to the bay. We later found out that there was a black bear cub and likely proximal but unseen sow about a hundred yards away from us. We never saw or heard them but it's pretty likely they knew we were there.

After our rest we headed back out in to the bay and began crossing over to Willard Island to meet the charter for pickup. When we hiked down from the toe of the glacier we noticed a few billowing, white clouds poking up over the North ridge of the bay. These clouds were a bit more pronounced when we hit the water again but conditions were still pretty calm. By the time we were about half way across, or about half a mile out, winds started kicking up from the southwest and then quickly shifted and came out of the northeast. The interesting thing was a swell out of the northeast that preceded the wind shift. Pretty soon we were having an awesome and fun paddle in to the wind and 2 foot chop for a great end of day work out.

Both parties made it back to the pick-up point with plenty of time to spare, the boats and gear were loaded and we headed back to Whittier. Here is where the advantage of a water taxi became apparent... the channel between Blackstone Bay and Passage Canal was howling with wind and 4 to 5 waves... yikes! We ended the day by excepting a kind invitation to grill out with the owner, guides, and other friends of Alaska Sea Kayakers, made the 11 pm tunnel to get out of Whittier (you have to drive through a time regulated one way tunnel to get there) and pulled off the road in Portage Valley to pitch a tent for the night.

The next day we headed down to Ken's Alaska Tackle to pick up brand spankin' new fishing rods and a one day license for Brady... it was time for a try at fishing for red salmon on the famed Russian River. Thanks to great directions from my roomate James we were able to find the most upstream fishing boundary along the river just below the Russian River Falls. The hike in was about 2 miles over easy and gravelled trail. When we reached the viewing platform at the falls you could see a salmon attempting to jump up stream about every minute or so... in the Alaska vernacular this means that "the fish were slamin'!" They were so thick that at spots you couldn't see the river bottom. Each of us must have had about 20 or so fish on the line and we nearly limited out by landing five red salmon in about four hours. It was just what you dream about... fishing with a good friend, hard running, hard fighting salmon, great weather along a near pristine river running down a mountain rimmed valley, only a couple fo other folks around, and actually catching fish!

Then we realized that in our effort to go "country" i.e. bare bones on this excursion we forgot to bring along something to carry the fish in on the hike back to the car. Our solution... parachute chord and my fleece made for a nice gunny sack. Let's just say that our hike back went pretty quick with our effort motivated by carrying freshly gutted, smelly fish through bear country! Fish tails sticking out and all we made for quite a site and were stopped by some tourists dressed in matching black denim and new white sneakers so they could get photos of these "true Alaskan fishermen and their catch". Ha!

After we got back to the car we had to get ice to keep the fish, dash back to Anchorage, look up how to fillet salmon on the web, actually attempt this process, double bag the fillets, and get Brady to the airport to catch his flight to Portland. He wasn't headed home just yet and was able to grill out six fillets with friends on a rafting trip down the Deschuttes River the next day. Whew!

Thanks to B-man for being a great travelling partner and patient fishing-sensai. Laters.

Some of the Ties that Bind

I'm not a huge fan of credit cards and the credit industry in general but... having and extensively using an Alaska Airlines credit card to get air miles is an essential part of surviving in Alaska. It helps you to get the hell out when you need to. Such was the case a couple of weeks back when I took off for Seattle to breathe a little easier and see a few sorely missed friends.

Many thanks to David and Hanna for loaning me their couch, cat, sea kayak and a bike, feeding me fresh baked bread and returning a rental PFD for me :) I had one of the most relaxing afternoons in recent memory lounging on their porch, looking out over lake Union to downtown Seattle while catching up on my reading... a six month full time occupation to be sure. That afternoon my friend Woody and I had a great paddle out at Golden Gardens... no wind, nearly flat water and a couple of tidal currents to play with. A few other friends showed up later that evening for a bonfire and to grill out. Thanks to everyone that came to see me and hang out.

Saturday started with a hot yoga class with David trying it out for the first time. It was good to get in a room and sweat for an hour and a half again despite David's claim that I had designs on killing him. That bugger is so dammed athletic that he was made example of by the instructor as having excellent form his first time in class... teacher's pet :) We came out of yoga class just in time to catch the Naked Cyclist Parade that was kicking off the annual Fremont fair. Many brave souls venture out for this event every year to accolades and applause for their original and creative body paint "costumes" or cries of "More paint!" for those that haven't put forth an effort. Later that day Hanna, David, Kelly, Rob, Brenda and I went to the fair and tooled around for a bit... and yes... I finally put my money where my mouth is and tried on a Utilikit. Just for a laugh though... I don't think it's really my style.

Sunday the tables were turned as my friend Rob tried to kill me on a run up to Twin Falls. As I typically find though I get a better work out in win I have a friend egging me on and calling me a "Nancy" for running too slow. Thanks to Kelly and Rob for grillin' and hangin' on Sunday.

Thanks again to everyone for a great weekend and I promise I'll be back soon.

Kayaking Class in Whittier

UUUUGGGGGHHHHHH! (Insert Charlie Brown type voice here!) Yet another expensive water sport that I've been totally sucked into (or immersed in as the case may be :)

Yup! I finally got around to taking a sea kayaking class and had the shear luck of calling an outfit in Whittier, AK a scant few days before their last Spring class started. We had reasonable weather the first day and fantastic conditions the second. The instructor and other folks in the class were awesome to boot. I really appreciated the attention to detail and repetition on fundamentals... kayak football was a hoot too.

I've been out for an 8 mile solo paddle in Portage Bay since the class. I ended up kayaking after bagging a dive I'd planned thanks to yet another frag out on my dive gear. The weather was good that day though so I shifted gears and thanks to "Ever Patient Pete" over at Alaska Sea Kayakers (www.alaskaseakayakers.com) I was able to rent a kayak and gear in a hurry and head out. The trick was the wind that kicked up literally as Pete was mentioning that it could. Just before I hopped in the boat katabatic winds began sweeping off of Portage Glacier at about 10 knots giving rise to 2 ft. seas. Pete let me give it a try and suggested that if I couldn't visualize being comfortable in winds 5 knots higher that I should bag it and come back. Good training prevailed though and I was pretty comfortable crossing Portage Bay right out of Whittier, then headed down wind to a rocky point past the Rookery, crossed back over to the South Shore and paddled up wind back to the boat harbor. I got a little crazy along the way and took advantage of having rented a dry suit to practice self rescues and have a go at teaching myself how to do a complete roll. Bad idea that! All I managed to do was smack my head off of the stern deck and get the wickedest ice cream headache ever.

Kayaking adventures continued last weekend while I was in Seattle. I was able to borrow a friend's boat to goof off at Golden Gardens and practice some rescues (thanks Woody and David). The paddle with Woody that afternoon was awesome... beautiful afternoon skies, near zero wind, fun tidal eddies to play in and good conversation.

Hope you like the photos... if you click on the slightly amorphous person icon at the bottom of the slide show it should take you to the website I uploaded the photos at... there is an option to down load photos on the right side of the page.

Cheers.

Winter-Spring-Summer-Fall Reading List

Thanks to everyone that sent in their ideas for a good read while I was away on the Slope. The reads that I picked up and finished while there were:

• "Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
• "Arctic Dreams" by Barry Lopez
• "Storms of Silence" by Joe Simpson
• "High Tide in Tucson" by Barbra Kingsolver
• "Denali - a literary anthology" editted by Bill Sherwonit
• The six most recent issues of "The Sun"
• The four most recent issues of "The Surfer's Journal"... oh the agony!

As requested by many of the folks that sent in their ideas I've complied a list of all the suggestions. Have look and if you see somehting that catches your eye... have a read:

P.S. After having just read through the list of books everyone sent in to format it for readability... well... it reminded me how fortunate I am to have so many amazing, wonderful, thoughtful people in my family and circle of friends. Thanks not only for the book suggestions but also your humor, insight and support... cheers.

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Matt,

I am sitting here with Chad and Clifford. Here is what we have come up with as our five favorite books:
Catcher in the Rye by Salinger (Chad - if you want to go old school)
Deep Survivial by Laurence Gonzales (Chad - great book of real tales of survival; very well written;up your alley)
Locos by Felipe Alfau (Barrett - for a very literary mindtrip; characters take over the story; same characters in different roles, etc)
City of the Century by Donald Miller (Barrett - phenomenal, readable history of Chicago through 1895)
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (Barrett - my favorite kid's book; if you've never read this, it's an easy, amazingly creative and classic read)
... by Oliver Sacks (Chad - anything by this author; he wrote the basis for Awakenings... loosely based on his story; all loosely medically based)

Clifford recommends the following authors (all sci-fi):
George RR Martin
Katherine Kurtz
Tolkien (that'll take up some time)
Guy Gavriel Kaye (sick!)
Marian Zimmer Bradley

I believe that these will keep you busy. Are they our favorites? Some days. But in general they are just great reads. Barrett

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I just read a really good one called My Sister's Keeper by Judy Picult.
erin

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awakening the Buddha within
by lama surya das

maybe check out
Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World too--pretty cool story and below is a link talking about the village
http://www.friendsofgaviotas.org/about.htm
take care man,
paul

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The Time Traveller's Wife
Veronica Decides to Die - Paulo Coelho
The Sparrow - Maria Doria Russell
Accidents in North American Mountaineering
The Case for Christ - Lee Stroebel?

(these are somewhat influenced by recent readings - if I remember others from previous years, I'll send them along, too.)

-Suz

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1) Wyoming Stories II by Annie Proulx. Dark, funny, really well written. This is her second volume of short stories set in Wyoming.

2) Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh. Maybe it's because it was the first really good science writing I'd read, maybe it was because I studied so much math, but I thought this was a great read. Right now I'm reading Bill Bryson's A Brief History of Nearly Everything, which is also excellent. I'll have to go back and see if the other is really as good as I remember.

3) The Climate of Man by Elizabeth Kolbert. OK, I haven't actually read this book, but I've read the New Yorker series that it's based on. It's the one I was telling you about, and it has since won some awards, and it's really good. It's also set at least partly in the Arctic. (Can you say that non-fiction is "set" somewhere?)

4) Cassandra by Krista Wolf. This is a retelling of the Iliad from the perspective of Cassandra, the prophetess who forecast the fall of Troy. It's a strange book and wouldn't make sense if you hadn't read the Iliad and people tend to either strongly like it or dislike it. I liked it so it's on my list, though I don't necessarily recommend you read it.

5) Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I'm not sure if I like this better than a lot of other novels, but I liked it a lot and I think you might enjoy it.

Alright, that's it! Let us know what other people recommend, and what you end up reading.Take care,

Hannah

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Any request for a top 5 always immediately causes me to panic and argue that there's no such thing, but here goes some 'topofthehead' recommendations.

recently I've been reading books by a chap called Tom Holt - and I think they're very enjoyable - or is that my love of a dark english sense of humour ;)

if you haven't read the phillip pullman 'his dark materials' trilogy then that will keep you entertained for a while: i don't know anyone who has disliked them!!!!

I've also enjoyed books by andrei kurkov; haruki murakami (start with norwegian wood or west of the border before moving on to something heavier if it works for you);

Phillip Ball's: Critical Mass may interest the scientist inside you;

Jasper Fforde (first book is the Eyre Affair - more of my kind of english humour - about five more if you like that);

personal favourites are: Hitckhikers Guide to the Galaxy and George Orwell's 1984. Many more were that came from... Rich

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Jane Erye by Charlotte Bronte
Simple Abundance, A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach (Men's version is A Man's Journey to Simple Abundance Edited by Michael Sigell)
How To Know God by Depak Choprah
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey
All the Harry Potter books by Rowlings

Love,

Mom

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Book: La sombra del viento, Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I do not know the English title, might sound like: The shadow of the wind, but I am sure you will find it in Amazon, etc. in a good translation.

Regards – Wolfgang

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Heyya Matty, Thanks for the update. Now ThatS! what I wanted in anupdate, pics, personal information, a few details,good job. Hmmm... five favourite books. Well, I'll give you my all-time favourite five books.It's a bit hard, some of them I read a long time ago and they seemed profound or important then, but that doesn't mean I could go back and read them. There's plenty of other books, more recently read, that were great reads. They just don't make it into my"life-time most important book list". Part of the problem, is that some books become a partof my identity, for whatever reason, independent of their objective quality. The same way we might identify with the car we own, our choice of hobbies,our work or our clothes. They're more important than they are good. anyhoo,

1) Labyrinths: a collection of short stories by JorgeLuis Borges. The perfect combination of art, thoughtand sentiment. As short, sharp and clean as an arrowto the heart.

2) Tao Te Ching: Lao Tzu. My grandfather gave this tome when I was 13. I guess it's been the closest thingto religion I've ever been introduced to by someone I truly respected.

3) Tropic of Cancer: Henry Miller. What can I say? Iwas 18, drunk and sleeping on the streets of Paris.

4) Wind, Sand and Stars: Antoine de St. Exupery. Noman is an island, all the time. Yet, it's when we are alone that we have the space to see to the horizon.

5) Quest for the Lost City: Dana Lamb. Only thecoolest, least pretentious adventure book and the only one that convinces you that adventure can be had by anyone with the correct spirit.

That'll keep you busy. If you have the time, it wouldbe great to put everyone's suggestions into one longlist. more soon,

-d

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Regarding books, Immediately I thought about these (not 5, but three)

1. The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco (I loved it, but is really really hard to read). Probably you've seen the movie

2. Sophie's World, by Jostein Gaarder. A very easy to follow introduction to philosophy, in the shape of a novel.

3. Guns, Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond. Pulitzer winner.

4. The Three Musketters, and Vingt ans apres, by Alexandre Dumas. They have been lying on my bed table since I was 12. I know the book so well, that I can open any chapter and read it independently.

That is an interesting mixture. Hopefully you can find something suitable for your polar nights. Or you can read South, by Ernest Shackleton regarding his adventure on the cold Antartic, or his biography. If you get into that, I also suggest the biography of Roald Amudsen.

Cheers,

Pato & Co

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As for your list of 5 favorite books, I can't really narrow it down to 5 but here are some that I love:

Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Crime and Punishment - Doestoevsky
Rabbit Run - John Updike
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (really, anything by Steinbeck is very worth reading)Anything by George Orwell
Anything by Flannery O'Connor

All the best,Robin

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A book that I think you will enjoy:

Blink, non-fiction about understanding where instinct comes from and how to recognize it in our brain. AWESOME BOOK.

Stay warm, remember, when you feel sleepy and your outside, it means your brain is freezing. Little lesson I learned in Kenai, AL.

Love

Sylvia, Brian and Logan

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Sounds exciting! I've never been to Alaska, but I've seen spectacular pics. As for the books, check out:

Confederacy of Dunces (comedy),
War and Peace,
Don Quijote (the classics).

The first one is a much easier read, yet very intelligent. Good luck!

John Byers

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I really like Martin Eden, a famous Jack London book. But anything by London going to be alright.

I liked One flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo's nest.

Also, if you can find a book called The Tracker, I guarantee you would like it.

I like the L'engle books, fantasy space/time travel/telepathy etc etc- but they are very much fantasy.

I read Ultra Marathon Man, its OK too from an intense point of view.

Alaska looks pretty cool- and from what you say and the guys here that worked on the Slope remember, it seems like it might be a good place for me to bring my cold-weather experience sometime in the future.

Hope you have a good Vokhtah!!

Later,

Trale

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1. Dragon Tears DEAN KOONTZ
2. Fear Nothing DEAN KOONTZ
3. Seize the Night DEAN KOONTZ
4. Watchers DEAN KOONTZ
5. Icebound DEAN KOONTZ

Had to put the last one in there. Good luck with the reading. If you do read any of these tell me what you thought.

Kevin

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My top 10 books I would recommend for you, in no specific order:

1. Gone Baby Gone, by Dennis Lehane
2. The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
3. Bringing Down the House, by Ben Mezrich
4. The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell
5. Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell
6. Marley and Me, by John Grogan
7. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
8. The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
9. Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
10.The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman

watch out for the polar bears! see you at christmas, hoepfully you got someone good for the grab bag!

c

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A Walk to Remember
The Notebook
The Giving Tree
All the Places You Go
Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office
The Bible- by God :-)
Heart to Heart - by Britney Spears

I will try to come up with additional good reads and send them your way!!!! :-)
Happy Reading!

Catie

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Haven't read:

Collapse by Jared Diamond
The Hero with a thousand faces by Joseph Cambell

Awesome:

Ancient Wisdom Modern World by Dali Lama

If you haven't read it, you MUST get Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. Absolutely stunning book about the arctic. Good info about history, nature, science, & good reading.

Lastly, Bear Attacks their causes and avoidance by Stephen Herarro - this is the definitive book about bears, and it seems like it may be relevant to where you are.

Just got back from teaching a mountaineering I course through the ORC; all went well. Gotta unpack all my wet crap then do some homework & sleep.

Take care,

Logan

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Given you work for an oil company, I recommend "ThePrize: The Epic Quest for Money, Oil and Power" byDaniel Yergin.

I also recommend "The Path Between theSeas" by David McCullough, which is about the buildingof the Panama Canal.

By the way, you really are crazy. You hoping to marry an eskimo up there?

Chris Kroll

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Books:

1984 - Orwell
Clockwork Orange - Burgess
Fight Club - Palanuik
The Old Man and the Sea - Unknown
Lonesome Dove - McMurtry

Wade Osborne

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not much time today to write, but a couple books pop readily to mind:

Hunger - Knut Hamsun
The Snow Leopard - Peter Matthiesen
Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Prisig

Jason Killian

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Ah, this is easy!

Water for Elephants (just published this year…FANTASTIC…everyone I know keeps telling everyone else to read it too!)
Battle Cry, Leon Uris…old book but always on my top 10
To Kill a Mockingbird…you’ve probably read it a few times already….still my favorite!
In Cold Blood…another old favorite
Innocent Man….new John Grisham…very, very good…his first non-fiction

Jan Mosely

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...as for the books, I always have been a Kurt Vonnegut fan, and I liked Tolkein's Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but read the Hobbit first. Sorry, these are old books, but I have not had much free time to read lately. Most of my time is spent taking care of my daughter or working around the house. We watch a lot of Disney/Pixar type movies, such as Madagascar, Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and Cars, over and over again. I suppose I complain a lot, but it has truly been an incredibly wonderful experience to have a daughter.

Richard

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Nice pics. Hope all is well.

My five in the non-fiction category are as follows:

1. Bar none, my first pick is: "Endurance" by Alfred Lansing [topic: Shackleton]...(but I think you have read that one); so a second pick is "The Last Place on Earth" by Roland Huntford [Amundsen and Scott's race to the South Pole].
2. "The Second World War" by Winston Churchill (its 6 vols, but heh you have time)
3. "Track of the Grizzly" by Frank Craighead [First radio tracking of grizzlys in the Yellowstone area, circa 1960]
4. "West with the Night" by Beryl Markham [First westward transatlantic flight]
5. "Cadillac Desert" by Marc Reisner [water in the West]

Bonus Pick: "A Stillness at Appomattox" by Bruce Catton [last year of the civil war in the east]

Enjoy,
Lee

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Forgive me if you've already read any of these, but:
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond (Paperback - April 1, 1999)
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond (Hardcover - Dec 29, 2004)
Arctic Grail: The Quest for the Northwest Passage and The North Pole, 1818-1909 by Pierre Berton (Paperback - Aug 2000)
Ghosts of Cape Sabine: The Harrowing True Story of the Greely Expedition by Leonard F. Guttridge (Paperback - Nov 2000)In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick (Paperback - May 1, 2001)

The last three are about tradgedy and despair in desolate wastelands, which should be fitting topics while up on the North Slope. If you're not in the mood for non-fiction, I recommend the entire Patrick O'brian "Master and Commander" series (aka Aubrey/Maturin series) if you enjoy Royal Navy historical fiction.

Beer and coffee,
Chad McMullen
Seattle, WA (capital of the state of Alaska)

Anatomy of an Ice Road

A few of you have asked exactly what in the hell I'm doing up here in the middle of Winter. Aside from freezing my horses patoot off I'm helping to build a series of ice roads in the Alpine oil field.

Ice roads are built every Winter season in this section of the North Slope field (as well as in many others) to allow for resupply of the drilling facilities with materials that are too expensive to or not possible to fly in. We are also building a larger separate ice road to facilitate gravel mining, hauling, and placement operations for expansion of one of the satellite drill pads. Every permanent facility in the oil field is built on a gravel pad and every permanent road is constructed from gravel. It's actually considered a wiser practice from a health and safety standpoint to build a separate ice road for a major gravel haul to keep haul traffic away from smaller truck traffic.

The method of construction for an ice road is essentially similar to the way in which an asphalt road is built. Conventional roads are built by cutting in the road alignment, placing a base course, and then laying down an asphalt emulsion. For an ice road you start by "walking in" the initial alignment (the alignment by the way is set by some crazy surveyor on a snowmobile dragging a sled with gear and survey stakes) with a large rubber tired water truck called a "water buffalo." As you pack the snow down with the tires you spray out water from the back end of the truck to freeze the snow in place (i.e. your base course). I should mention here that the idea is to do zero damage to the tundra during the initial and all following stages of road construction. Before this was practice materials used to be dragged across the tundra by bulldozers pulling steel sleds... cat tracks from up to 30 years ago can still be seen scarring the tundra today. To that effect the AK DNR doesn't allow tundra travel each year until sufficient snow has fallen (~6") and the top layer of the tundra has frozen (-5 deg C at -1 meter for ~ 5 days). If/when damage to the tundra occurs it's reported to DNR so they can go back to that location after the Summer breakup to see if the damage was permanent.

Instead of an asphalt emulsion we lay down ice chips and water to build the remaining layers of the road to achieve the minimum 6" thickness. The chips are ground off of the surface of adjacent lakes and rivers with a large roto-tiller and loaded in to 30 cy end dumps (aka Maxi Hauls). The Maxis take the chips to a section of road where they are needed and dump them out over an area that has just been watered. Next, a road grader blades out the chips and then that section is flooded with more water. When the temperature is optimal at about -20F this new section will freeze in a matter of minutes. When a large enough section has been completed the grader comes in to give the road a final shave and then that section is capped with another flood; usually from a large 325 BBL tanker. The water we use is pumped from arctic lakes that have a permitted allowable volume to be used each year.

In other cases we have to construct an ice road over a naturally frozen lake or river. In this case a "pumper" is used to ground the ice prior to chip placement. A pumper is essentially a medium sized New Holland tractor with a custom mechanism on the back... one part stainless steel auger and another part submersible pump housing. The real trick is that by pumping water from beneath the ice you don't actually see the build up on the surface. As you place water on top of the existing ice it freezes and becomes additional surface ice that due to it's weight sinks the existing ice beneath it. When the ice sinks far enough to touch the river or lake bottom then it's considered grounded and you can begin placing chips and water to build the road to an elevation higher than the natural ice surface. This is sometimes considered an "ice bridge" with a design thickness of up to 11 feet required to carry ~ 500,000 lb. loads (i.e drill rig or camp module sections). The idea here is that grounded ice is safer than floating ice. Road safety is also enforced not only through design and construction methods but by controlling speed... they use security personnel with radar guns... imagine getting a ticket for speeding in the Arctic! There has been cases though of heavy trucks moving fast enough over an ice bridge to create a frontal pressure wave. When this wave reaches shore it breaks open the ice and results in a sunken truck and a driver under threat of death from exposure if help isn't close at hand.

The weather up here is no joke. Typical temperatures have been -30 to -50 F with winds averaging around 15 to 20 mph daily. Under these conditions exposed skin will become frostbitten in less than five minutes. I usually walk from camp to the trailer that I work out of but it's a less than ten minute walk and the gear that keeps me warm is arctic grade and very expensive... worth every penny though... fill face mask and ski goggles are the norm and my favorite part of the gear... perhaps because it reminds me of diving :)

The Arctic... it's not just about Aurora Borealis anymore.

This is the only photo out of only a few attempts that turned out... it was -60F without wind... the cold kept killing my camera battery... and I could only go a minute or so with my hands out of my gloves.

So... despite telling people that I was working on a blog... this has turned out to be yet another chance to say "Better late than never?" Apologies for taking so long to get something out to all you kind folks that have been wondering where the hell I am and what ever in the world I've been up to. I'll claim averaging ~ 90 hours a week since the first week of January as my excuse.

It's been a long hard Winter up here. I suppose that seems a bit silly to say given my surroundings but I have to admit I didn't expect things to be as challenging as they have been. Now... for those of you that I've spoken to on the phone recently... don't worry! I didn't start this blog to continue the tirades that I've tended towards over the past few (gulp) months (yikes!) The challenges haven't risen from the weather. They've stemmed more from the consistently long hours (12 hours/day, 7 days/week at a minimum) and the fact that the key to success on the North Slope of Alaska (aka the Slope) is to be the biggest jerk with the least amount of scruples... not something I've set myself to excel at in life... no comments from the peanut gallery.

As with all twists and turns in life there is allways a positive outcome to all situations. At the very least I know what I don't want to spend the rest of my life doing. I've also picked up the following useful information:

• Metal will in effect burn your skin once it gets cold enough; I have the callouses from opening the pad lock on my office every morning to prove it... and no... I can't wear gloves while spinning those accursed little dials.
• Generally speaking an adult polar bear has a way bigger paw print than my boot print... yes... a no brainer... but the distinct difference between imagining it and seeing it first hand... right outside my office door... justify this comment.
• If you are tired enough after spending three days stuck on an offshore, man made island in the Beaufort See with temperatures at -80F due to the +60 mph winds and you've just seen a 1200 lb. polar bear at 50 feet and all the food is in the trailer with you and the "bear hazing" shot gun is in the other trailer... you'll still fall asleep.
• People don't turn their trucks off in the Arctic... for seven months straight.
• It's incredibly frustrating to work in the middle of such austere beauty and not be able to get out in it... we are forbidden by law to set foot on the tundra without a very difficult to come by permit... this relegates us to the existing gravel pads and roads or the ice pads and roads that are built in the Winter.
• You can eat anything if you put enough honey on it.
• And... right... wrong... or... indifferent... I... really... like... using... an... ellipsis.

That's all for my first post. My goal is to sort through the many photos I've taken and write about the circumstances surrounding the photo itself, the happenings of that day, etc. I may have lost the "fresh take" on my time up here but perhaps you've already gathered from my previous comments that time and a wee bit of perspective is a good thing.

Ah! One more thing... I'm currently living in a construction camp in the Native Village of Nuiqsut. Here is a link to the May 2006 NG cover article discussing the section of the oil field we are in and the impact on Nuiqsut:

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0605/feature1/

It's very informative. I have a few comments on the topics covered that I'll post at a later time.

Hope everyone is well.