For those in the more common culture/lifestyle, an eight day interruption in our planned schedule would be a huge event. In a different culture, perhaps not so much.

I am sitting looking at a sunny sky on a pleasant day in SoCal - far removed from the Alaskan scene and from their lifeways. It would be great to hear from the principals in this event and get their slant on the situation, or from any native Inuit., for that matter

As was stated in an earlier post, survival is graded on a "pass/Fail" scale. Bottom line - they passed. Not so sure I could do the same, even with abundant equipment. I am no stranger to cold weather, but nothing as unrelenting as an Alaskan winter.