Ben gives a pretty good overall summary of life on the slope.

Just a few minor corrections/additions to the geography. ANWR is east of Pt Thomson. ANWR extends from the east edge to Pt Thomson Field all the way to the Canadian border. The tiny Alaska Native village of Kaktovik is in ANWR, on the coast.

From Deadhorse the road extends east to Endicott Field, and west to the end of Kuparuk Field. It isn't a long road, but seems like it because the speed limits are low (and strictly enforced). A pipeline extends west of Kuparuk across the Colville River to Alpine Field, but no road so people going there need to fly. There is a small Native Alaskan village at Nuiqsut on the Colville River. West of Alpine Field is NPRA (National Petroleum Reserve Alaska), and Barrow is west of that (a long way west). Wikipedia has a nice map from the USGS showing the overall geography.

The Dalton Highway (the "Haul Road") runs south from Deadhorse about 400 miles to connect with the Elliot Highway, then it is another 70 miles to Fairbanks. The public can drive all the way from Fairbanks to Deadhorse. The roads leading from Deadhorse into the oilfields are not open to the public. Driving up the Dalton is a great trip (in the summer), but the only gas and other services are at two spots on the whole route, at the Yukon River bridge and at Coldfoot.

Because of the great distance, "slopers" (North Slope workers like Ben) all fly. The oil companies have their own private airline (operated by Alaska Airlines) to take workers to and from the slope. Alaska Airlines also flies regular commercial service to Deadhorse.

Oh quite right. ANWR is the no man's land to the east, and NPRA is the west side excursion zone. Unlike ANWR, NPRA is limited/restricted access, not exclusive. Sorry for the confusion. I am heading back up tomorrow.

I am a project control specialist. I do cost and schedule analysis to manage performance and changes to contracted work as a method of variance control. I also dally with contract and risk management.

I used to be a project/program control manager, but the politics and the non-stop meetings and currying was not what I wanted to do. I like to keep my hands dirty actually grinding the numbers rather than spend endless hours arguing with egos about what the numbers really mean. I am not an accountant, and accountants really struggle with project control work. Some people think I use a crystal ball, and if so, it is a darned accurate one.

Ben, is that storm in bound to Alaska going your way. If so good luck and prayers your way.Please keep us up to date?

BOATMAN
John

It is unlikely there will be much direct impact of that storm on mainland Alaska. Also remember that severe winter weather is not an unusual thing on the N Slope. Those facilities are well prepared for it.

People need to remember how big Alaska is. It is both huge in land area (twice the size of Texas), but also very spread out. Consider this map. The storm is in the western Aleutians and Ben is at Prudhoe Bay. On the lower 48 map that is roughly equivalent to a storm at San Francisco and and someone in Duluth.

Although the storm probably won't directly hammer the mainland, there will be indirect effects. Some reports have indicated that the storm may help push the polar vortex south, leading to colder weather in the lower 48.

I knew Alaska was big, but the map was eye-opening. Never saw it that way before.

There is a joke that Alaskans tell:

"We should split Alaska into two states. It would be easier to manage that way. And Texans would be really PO'd, because they would then be the Third largest state!"

It is true that in terms of land area, Alaska is a bit more than twice the size of Texas.

Got back into town on Monday. Finally caught up with everything that had to get done. The big storm didn't really have an effect on slope. We had a couple days last week of blizzard, and we went to phase 3 for a few hours (phase 3 means restricted travel). Not sure the two were related. It has been unseasonably warm up on slope and very little snow. Monday morning it was finally cooling off; down to -7 deg f.

Meanwhile, here in Anchorage, where's the snow? My daughter said it's not been this warm and dry here since 1976? We did get about 1/2 inch of snowfall today out on the east side of town. I keep telling the wife the snow will be here soon enough, and we will have to deal with it for months after that. But then I do not subscribe to the notion of global warming.

Tomorrow's turkey day, so it will be spent in the kitchen until 3:30, then the dining room until 4:30, then the living fighting the tryptophan nocturne while watching the Seahawks ruin thanksgiving for San Francisco, heh heh heh...

Time to buy up all the junk silver I can find in town. The silver market looks like it is about to burst, and the price won't be going back down. Scoop it up now, otherwise the Russians and the Chinese will have it all.

Next week is all about getting my archery set-up complete. I acquired a fine take down recurve bow while I was out of town (thanks to oldest daughter and wife stopping by Cabelas). So I need to get a few dozen arrows, some good broadheads, and various assorted accessories and tools. I signed up for the archery club up on slope and intend to take that recurve with me so I can spend my down time practicing and conditioning. A pretty good deal that they have an archery range for us. I wish they let us shoot guns up there too, but the bureaucracy will not support such an endeavor.

Gonna bake up half a dozen fruitcakes to take back with me next rotation. Looks like Christmas will be spent up on the slope. I am okay with that. My kids are grown and no grandbabies yet, so the wife and I will celebrate later when I get back in January.

Otherwise, I am networking with co-workers to arrange for some quality hunts. I missed every opportunity to go this year, and I'm not interested in repeating that. With all the time off I am up for, I think I can come up with some decent plans. Beef prices are jacked up. I guess my cattle down in Texas are paying off. I keep rolling that investment, so the herd keeps growing.

I'll keep posting while I'm in town. Up on slope I can't access the site without it costing me a boodle.

Welcom home and a very happy Thanksgiving Day to you and your DW!!

Well, I've noticed a trend with my work routine that is a bit distressing. It seems every time I come home, I end up with a cold. I am pretty sure I am catching it on the plane, although the curious part is I am not catching a cold on the way back to work, even though I am flying on the same planes. Consequently, I am going to begin utilizing some prophylactic on future trips home to try and avoid becoming infected.

On the brighter side, I have acquired a couple of takedown recurve bows and a method of transport suitable for taking back to the slope. It is absolutely amazing to me how little you can spend on a quality archery setup that is also quite portable. Using a fishing rod case made for dealing with the gorillas at the airport, I put together a heavy felt wrap for each bow, a pouch for the arrows, and a pouch for accessories. They all fit snugly in the case, and using a firearms cable type padlock, the case is quite secure. Since we are required to check our archery stuff separate from our regular checked baggage, I am fairly certain that my gear will survive the trip. Last time I went up, I took a new bag, and the gorillas managed to bust two foot pads off it right off the bat, the brutes.

I am making up a few fruitcakes to take up and share with the crew. In fact, I will be packing quite a bit this time for the Christmas celebration since I am staying over. Not too many sweets this time; the crew prefers meat products, like jerky, pepperoni sticks, smoked salmon. They keep eating like that, they are all gonna be on high blood pressure meds from all the sodium they are consuming, heh heh heh. I wonder if potassium chloride is as effective at persevering meat...

Went to see the nutcracker with the wife last week. We had balcony seating, and wouldn't you know a small tremor hit just before the show started. Being suspended like we were, the feeling was amplified enough we noticed, even though the tremor was pretty small. The show went on without event, and we enjoyed ourselves. We wore our fur coats (the wife's is shaved mink, mine was natural dark beaver). It was too warm for my coat, even outside, and I took it off to avoid sweating in it too much. It would be quite functional up on slope, but I am not taking a $3,500 garment up to work. I have a decent Carhartt coat that suite me just fine.

We finally got some snow here in Anchorage. About 4 inches since I've been back, enough to warrant breaking out the snow thrower and going over the operation with the wife. I hope it survives the season with her behind the controls! Due to the warmer temps, we have more ice on the roads than snow now, so driving is a bit more trouble. I loaded my pickup with 600 lbs of bagged traction sand and it really helps keep that beast under control. With studded snow tires and 4WD, it is quite functional in wintertime. I still haven't put a canopy on the back, but with a crew cab, I have enough room for the extra gear I pack for winter travel.

I'll post again before I leave. Cheers

A beaver coat? I am jealous.