Tim' Journal:
It is a warm morning (-10 degrees F) and it was light out early. There is a lot more daylight here than the amount that we had in Fairbanks. We were told by Dave Ramey of BASC (Barrow Arctic Science Consortium) that it will be only about a month before there will be 24 hours of daylight. After breakfast in the ARF (Arctic Research Facility) Aaron and I go into the equipment room to check out our Arctic gear. There are many neat rows of survival suits, parkas, bunny boots, etc. Just about anything that you would need to survive out here. It takes a while but we finally piece together our gear and boy is it warm. These clothes are not something that you would want to wear indoors for more than a few minutes. Just after noon Dave Ramey stops by to take us over to the BASC equipment shop to check us out snow machines. We sign out two matching Skidoos and Dave goes over the basics with us. Dave has secured us permits allowing us to travel on UIC (Ukpeagvic Inupiat Corporation) lands. UIC is the Native Corporation responsible for a great deal of the territory around here.
At just after 2 PM we meet our guide as she roars up to the ARF on her
Polaris. Jill Exe is a Barrow Schoolteacher originally from Montana. Jill
is an avid snowmobiler and a great guide. In our nearly 4 hour tour she
will take us out to Point Barrow, whale harvest dumps and an abandoned
barge. 
Jill and Aaron on the snow machines.
Our trip out onto the Arctic Ocean is great. There have been
windstorms so that the ice has shifted and made two-foot
high ridges everywhere. It's rough going for the snow
machines but the sights are worth it. The land and ocean are
nearly indistinguishable. We are surrounded by an
uninterrupted white wind sculpted plain. The wind has
whipped the snow and buckled the ice creating fantastic
shapes. At Point Barrow, the northern most point in North
America, we stop and drink some of Jill's hot chocolate and
eat some of the elk jerky that her father made. Jill
explains that this is the best weather that the North Slope
has seen in some time. It is very sunny but at 0 degrees F
in the afternoon it is tough to travel at 30 miles per hour
on a snow machine.
Aaron's Addendum:
I have dressed up for some cold skiing and winter camping before at home,
but never anything like this. When Tim and I finally emerged from the
extreme weather gear room at the ARF, we were a sight to see. Heavily
insulated snow pants, a very thick down parka over our winter jacket,
hats under our hoods, enormous mittens, and inflated "bunny boots" that
looked like something Neal Armstrong wore on the moon. By the time we
were outfitted, we had to get outside before we passed out due to the
heat. All of this was in preparation for a snow machine trip across the
Arctic ice.
Aaron and Tim on the Arctic Ocean.
As Tim said, having Jill Eve as a guide made the trip a pleasure. After riding the snow machines across the ice for a few minutes we were able to appreciate the extent to which we were insulated. A forty mile-an-hour Arctic breeze blowing by certainly necessitated the kind of clothing we were wearing. The trip was a blast, and we really got a good feel of what the frozen ocean is like. Particularly interesting was the polar bear factor. Dave Ramey strongly advised a shotgun, and all the time we were on polar bear alert. For the first time I learned the true meaning of riding shotgun.
