Back from the Arctic

My two day survey job ended up taking a week. I'd have probably passed on it if I knew that it was going to be that long. Our survey department head wouldn't have pulled a bait and switch on me, would he? I'll have to ask him.

Barrow has no movie theatres, and is a 'wet' village. That means that no alcohol is sold in it, but if you bring some with you, you can drink it yourself. Not knowing this, and being in a hurry to get to the airport, we brought none with us.

What was I doing on my way to Barrow? I'm a mechanical engineer, but my employer also owns a civil/survey company (yea, he's the same guy who dropped off a fridge full of moose meat yesterday for whoever wants it and left the smoked salmon this morning in the break area) and since I work for him, I'll do anything (within reason) that he askes me to do. Besides I love the outdoors and it was a state job that would be paying Davis Bacon wages which means I'd be getting a raise while on this trip. On top of that, I'd be working 12 hour days so I'd be getting overtime.

The big trick for a successful trip outdoors is to be prepared. I brought hip waders since there was a lagoon alongside the runway I'd be surveying. I was also told to bring warm clothing. Typically, I prepared for the coldest that I thought it could get, wool socks, long johns, extra fleece jackets, and a big ski jacket.

One of the funny things about Alaskan's is anything anyone outside would call a pond, we call a lagoon. Another funnything is Barrow, like most of the North Slope with all it's untapped oil reserves, is categorized as an arctic desert. Why a desert? Because it gets less than 2" of precipitation a year.

Who ever said deserts can't be wet. Barrow is surrounded by a swamp. It may get less than 2" of precipitation per year, but that water doesn't go anywhere and it is so humid it doesn't evaporate either. It just sits there and looks like this:


Lucky for me, everything was frozen. Frozen enough for me to walk on it and I had enough warm clothing for it. As hard as it was, walking on the ice was alot easier than wading through swamp.