A tale of a frozen family

Here’s another weekly dose of useless Alaska knowledge

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline moves up to 88,000 barrels of oil per hour on its 800 mile journey to Valdez

The fishing and seafood industry is the state’s largest private industry employer

Dog mushing is the official state sport. The Alaska Legislature adopted it in 1972

 And for today’s lesson, lets discuss Prudhoe Bay.  I figure since my area of responsibility at work is all of Prudhoe Bay, this would be an easy one to cover.

Despite the harsh climate, drilling activity and the oil industry have led to increasing development and settlement of the Prudhoe Bay area.

There’s a joke in Prudhoe Bay that “there’s a woman behind every tree.”  Of course, it’s so far north that there are no trees at all.  There are, however, a few female workers which I’d estimate constitute less than 5% of the workforce there.  Most are found in engineering (waving my hand), administrative, or housekeeping occupations.

Here’s a picture of the one and only forest in Prudhoe Bay!

Virtually none of the 3,000 workers on the North Slope actually live there, except for a few Eskimos from the surrounding villages.  Employee transportation to and from Anchorage is provided at no cost by the oil companies, who operate a pair of Boeing 737s for that purpose.  They make between 3 and 5 flights a day, 6 days a week.  For safety, the aircraft have flight attendants, and they also offer snack and beverage service, just like a regular airline (although alcohol is served only on the flight home, never on the way up.)

Shift work is usually 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for the duration of your hitch.  The most common shift is 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off.  But there are some that do a one & one, some do a three & three, and then there are some poor souls that do 6 weeks on and 2 weeks off *gasp*.  More power to them!   2 weeks at a time up there was LONG enough for me!

For those lucky enough to have some free time, there is some recreation available, the quality of which depends on your employer.  Some contractors are housed off field and live merely in glorified atco units (a small trailer) For those that work directly for the oil companies, they can work out in a gym (with swimming pool), see a movie in a small theater, or play piano.  Contractors usually just have a TV room and possibly a smaller gym with some workout equipment.  In the summer, you can go running or hiking outside, and even fishing for char or Arctic grayling in one of the local rivers. Alcohol is not permitted in Prudhoe Bay, partly for safety reasons, and partly out of deference to the native Eskimos, most of whose villages are dry.

Sleeping arrangements come in two different settings.  There are dormitory-style, with two or more to a room, and a common restroom/shower area for each sex down the hall. (Facilities for females are usually smaller, as there are simply fewer of them.)  Or if you are lucky (like me) you get your own private room.   The bathroom is shared with the next door neighbor (who were always men in my case) but all in all, I had some pretty nice digs!  

Here is an example of what a camp looks like.  This isn’t the camp I stayed in. (this is much much smaller)  I guess it never occurred to me to take a picture of it.  I was always too depressed when I was on the outside (coming on shift) to care what it looked like, and going off shift, I was too excited to be leaving to take a picture! 

My offices were in the same building that my camp was in, so when I came to work I literally didn’t have to step outside once the entire 2 weeks I was there.  Comes in handy when it’s 80 below!

Being that far north, you also experience extreme daylight (or lack there of).  Here’s some more tidbits.

Longest Day:
63 days, 23 hours, 40 min.
Official sunrise: 12:09 AM - on 20th of May
Official sunset:11:18 PM - on 22nd of July

yes… you read that right… 63 DAYS folks!

Shortest Day:
1 hour, 3 min.
Official sunrise: 11:42AM - 24th of November
Official sunset: 12:27PM - 24th of November

and on the flip side:

Longest Night:
54 days, 22 hours, 51 min..
Official sunset: 12:27PM - 24th of November
Official sunrise: 11:18AM - 18th of January

Yep.. again.. that is 54 DAYS! with no daylight.
 

Shortest Night:
26 min.
Official sunset: 11:43PM - 19th of May
Official sunrise: 12:09AM - 20th of May

And of course, we can’t forget the weather…. the coldest day recorded was 28th of January,1989 - Temp of minus 54 degrees F and Wind speed of 31 knots (36 mph) - Gave a chill factor of minus 135 degrees F.

What we were talking about… oh yeah.. the camps!  They always had the best steaks…. speaking of steaks.

The food services are what makes life on the Slope truly bearable.  In most camps, restaurant-quality meals are served 4 times daily (to accommodate 24-hour operations) and it is all you can eat.  The cooks are so amazing, and accommodating.  When I was early on in my pregnancy with Emma, and my morning sickness was WICKED, the morning cook would have what I ate every morning (oatmeal and watermelon) boxed up for me and ready to go, so I could just run through the buffet line and grab it from him.  The smell of all those eggs and bacon in the buffet was BRUTAL for a couple of months.  Friday is normally steak & shrimp day, and for special holidays, lobster tails are served.  In addition, the oil companies provide what are called “spike rooms”–these are large snack bars (almost like small convenience stores really) that include: sandwiches, soup, chips, hot dogs, nachos, fruit/veggies, small frozen pizzas, donuts/cookies, ice cream, and beverages among other things, available 24 hours a day.  And incredibly, it’s all free–you can take whatever you like, as long as you’re not obnoxious about it and abuse the privilege.  The spike rooms are open to all workers and business visitors to Prudhoe Bay.  Why do the oil companies do this?  Well, part of the reason is to make a bleak, remote place seem a little more like home; another reason is that doing hard physical labor in subzero temperatures for 100+ hours per week burns an astronomical amount of calories.  Still another reason is that field units are encouraged to keep stocked with food at all times in case a winter storm of unforeseen severity strands them for days, miles from the nearest camp (it’s happened.)

Wow… so I’ve written a small novel, and we still haven’t gotten off the topic of camps yet.   I guess we’ll do a continuation of Prudhoe Bay next week and venture outside the doors of the camp and out and into the oil fields!  So for now…

to be continued.

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