Breaking Trail in Barrow for whaling!

[MajikImaje]

In Barrow Alaska; Top of the World; The sun sets on November the 18th for the last time. The sun will not come above the horizon until January 24th !! Although we do not have any direct sunlight for 2 1/2 months; We still have dusk type light for about 2 hours every day.
There is no such thing; as 24 hours of darkness in the Arctic! We do have some light every day of the year; But in summer time we have 3 1/2 months of nothing but pure sunlight 24 / 7.

It is that time of year again; Time to go whaling out on the ocean ice pack. I am going to show you how much work it requires - JUST TO EAT !!

Can you imagine ? Chopping ice; with pick and axe by hand for SEVEN MILES to move skin boats and other equipment out to the lead opening. Just to gather food! No one gets paid for this work; One month of 12-14 hour days of chopping ice @ 20 to 50 below zero & colder - to make a flat smooth wide road for the snowmachines to transport supplies & equipment out to the camp sites - many miles from land; The most amazing aspect of breaking trail - no one ever complains !!

Here are the three guides for this journey - The Eves brothers- They are living legends in the Arctic in all villages due to the quality of Ivory they create working at home.
Come along for a spectacular journey from the warmth & comfort of your home or office.

Just in front of that snowmachine, you can see one of the markers placed on the ice. This lines up with others that are spaced out, to keep a visual record of which way the ice is moving.
Presently at this point in time, we have been out here almost daily for two weeks.
The days are cold, crisp, and refreshing. At the house of Whaling Captain - Eugene Brower - Sleds are dug out of the snow, cleaned off and make ready to head out to the ocean ice.. to ... .. BREAK TRAIL !!

This is it, hard back breaking work, for hours & days upon end, It is no easy task to break trail. I am going to show you .. the entire hunt. from breaking trail, setting up camp and living out on the ocean ice, also inside the umiaq, day by day.

We were requested to specificly join this crew, we received invites from The President of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling commission who is also a board member of the Internation Whaling Commission - Euguene Brower !
Day one was a 'test' to see and determine what type of workers the captain has on his crew.

Today, back out on the trail, they have a 15 foot high pressure ridge to go through, The Captain said, no sense going around it, lets just remove the whole thing and go right through it !
It may surprise you as to why this incredible immensive amount of work is done. Why not just go around the obstacles ?

The whole idea is to construct a smooth wide STRAIGHT road; for when we have to evacuate the ice because of wind shifts and advancing ice towards our location.

 

[MajikImaje]

As I show you these images, then you will understand why. The ice is a very dangerous environment to live. far out there, you better know exactly what your doing and why, things can change out here rapidly, this is the main reason for going through obstacles, rather than around them. A (wide) straight trail is the quickest way off the ice, in an emergency!

That will happen, many times, it depends on the wind ! East wind is good, whether it be north east or south east, As long as those conditions exist, you are relatively safe. But if that wind shifts to any type of West wind, then it is time to pack up and evacuate the ice. IN Pont Hope it is different, North wind is good / safe, South wind is dangerous. Once that wind, starts to push that ice.. ... you will see the results here, in great detail.
Pressure ridges are formed by the crushing advancing ice, Some of these ridges can reach heights of 50 feet. This is the thickest ice, it is packed together and very solid. this is another reason to go through these ridges rather than around them, a snake like zig zag trail, is slow and time consuming and the ice is much thinner, Large areas of pressure ridges is are the safest thickest ice. When you work hard; you sweat; the dumbest thing you can do is to remove your hat; your head instantly frosts up frozen !!

Cracks occur on the smooth parts of the ice. The one thing you must be aware of, is the ice, breaking in back of you, in the old days, once you were gone, you never came back. Many stories are told of hunters lost when the ice cracked miles in back of them, by the time they found out, it was much too late. Now with search & rescue and helicopters, that type tragedy is amost non existent.

30 below zero and long days of extremely hard difficult work-with no pay, just the right to eat !!

I will take the time to re-size all images to proper format; Sorry I didn't see anything for size restrictions!!

 

[MajikImaje]

I will show you the extremes in the temps and the difference in the manner of dress. Out here. it can turn vicious in no time, you must be prepared for what ever happens !

You must always be prepared for changes in weather conditions and temp changes; Do not ever think you are tougher than the Arctic. It can kill you if you are not prepared !!

We are miles from land; no place to go to warm up; We eat out here; on breaks and lunch. This is it all day long for 12 or 14 hours every day!!

VIDEO

Miles and miles to go, to create this trail, I have gps photos of this trail, we received them on day 6. currently we are on day #14. We have had a few days off due to high winds (out on the ice) and temps that were just too darn cold.

Some days is was just wonderful to be out here, other days it was brutal !! Some of the younger members of the crew were trying to convince to the Captain it was too cold, Eugene laughed and said work harder, Mark said .. 'the heat is in the tools' !! to which Eugene burst into a huge belly splitting laugh !!

Let me provide you with a map and a sign to better illustrate where we are located:

This way you will have the info needed when I speak about other places;

This area is the "North Slope Borough" 8 villages that are twice as large as all the New England States ! Total population is somewhat very small; Point Hope has 700 residents - Point Lay 200 (if that). Wainwright 600+ Barrow 4,000+ Kaktovik and all the other villages are very small also. Total population is less than 7,000 people!!

The Captain of each crew; foots the entire bill for his crew of 7 members. FOOD; ammunition; and FUEL for the vehicles. Eugene Brower purchased and spent the money for 3 - 55 gallon drums of Gas @ over 6 bux per gallon!! That was the price of making this road - so we can access the lead opening for FOOD!!

Some captains have jackets made for their crews' as you saw with Olemaun's crew member assisting us in making this road.

These are very proud people intent on giving thanks to the creator of all things. Nothing is ever taken for granted out here. Thanks is constantly given joyfully.

 

[MajikImaje]

The Patkotak Sisters are extremely famous all throughout the entire state of Alaska; they have produced 4 big hit selling albums of gospel music which is heard regularly in all the households throughout the NSB region and stretching through the entire state.
Lets go back to the ice; it is a new day and there is so much work to do;
I will show you the extremes in the temps and the difference in the manner of dress. Out here; it can turn vicious in no time, you must be prepared for what ever happens

Chop ice and remove what ever is in our way !!

Charles Brower - working away, not bad for a man in his 60's. working hard all day long! TWO long weeks of this, no pay, no place to go, to warm up, once your out here, you are here, no place to go, cept to keep warm by working hard !

 

[MajikImaje]

Everyone works all day long; even the captain !! Out here; everyone is the same. work work work. We have an important job to do. We have to feed the entire community. Sharing food; is a Captains responsibility !! Cost is no object - whatever the cost - Native people need their food.

Bunny boots; Are in a class all by themselves; nothing in this world can keep your feet as warm as bunny boots, in fact; if you were to go through the ice; and that boot fill up with water & ice. that water will be very warm before your foot ever begins to get cold. At $200.00 per pair. they are well worth the investment; you have enough to worry about out here with face & hands; There is nothing worse than frozen toes.

When looking out, at the ice, you cannot possibly determine the size of the ice chunks, until you see something normal near or beside them !!

distances are very confusing, as well as the actual size of objects.
Chop down the high spots, fill in the low this trail will only be as good as the amount of work that is put into it.

 

[MajikImaje]

Make a game out of it.. have fun. Lots of laughter. But the job has to be done and no one else is going to help. So work and get the task at hand finished.

The entire month of March is devoted to chopping ice; April & May we hunt for food out at our new homes - many miles from land in a frozen world of ice.

See how small the camera is we are using ?? it is the size of an iphone ! A $100 dollar LUMIX - 10 megapixel !! I am out to prove a point, here (at the point).

According to the spec's for this camera, the temp range it will function at is 32 degrees ABOVE zero ! Well we sure proved that wrong !!
.Minus 40 below zero - & the wind is blowing the controls on the camera are very sluggish. It takes considerable slow effort to move something moveable. The steam coming off the water at the lead opening. The dark area of water (reflecting) up to the bottom of the clouds is what makes it possible to discern if there is open water - even when you are many miles inland.
Breaking Trail doesn't begin until first we have a destination to chop towards.

When you see people dressed like this, it is darn cold, we all have frostbite marks on our faces, these temps are not bad, (- 40) at times. but the wind is what cuts your face up.
You best be prepared or your gonna be hurtin for certain !!

I don't know how long these cheap-o cameras will last, but they sure do a great job !! Just goes to show you, you do not need top of the line equipment of the top name brands, virtually any camera will do the job in the hands of a skilled person. I like to compare photography to a 'pencil'. Everyone has a pencil in their house. everyone knows how to use a pencil, but not very many people can pick up that pencil and draw an exact likeness of a person or individual. It is a skill, the same is true with photography !!
The bottom photograph of this block of photos shows clearly what can be accomplished with a cheap-O camera in the hands of a skilled person!! White on white - and the textures of each 'white' are noticable

 

[MajikImaje]

Stories, stories, that is the #1 request from most people on all of the forums. Well you are all in for a treat today, I have two new stories of events that actually happened up here, out on the ice. (chuckle)
Ya just never know, what is going to happen out here. Last night we went out on the ice pack to check the trail we have been working on. We spotted polar bear tracks, in the snow, coming from Barrow - and headed out to the ice.

If anything - is in your area; you will see evidence of that animal or person. You can't hide out here;
Unfortunately, we did not see this bear, the ice is a vast place and it is easy for a bear to hide.

The two whaling captains I am with are Eugene & Charles Brower, as we were checking out the polar bear tracks, One of the captains told the story, .. .. " it was an evening just like this, we came out to check the trail and we were near the lead opening,

At the edge of the water, a polar bear was standing up, looking down into the water, the polar bear turned and walked a couple of steps and bent over to pick up a big large piece of ice, He picked it up, and then decided to put it back down and grabbed a much larger piece of ice, a huge piece, he walked over to the edge of the ice and waited and watched, he dropped the ice into the water, then he jumped in, these two captains were astonished to see the polar bear climb back on the ice and pull a 10 foot beluga whale out of the water !!
If you want verfication of this true story, just write, to Eugene Brower in Barrow Alaska, He is the President of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, he is also a member of the board of the International Whaling Commission. And perhaps the most respected Whaling Captain in Barrow !

I hear these stories and I am amazed, just as you are, but one thing that amazed these two hunters when they saw this was the intelligent thinking, that took place by that animal, to obtain food !!

One of the great things about whaling, is the story telling. Bizarre events of all types are retold up here, with much laughter. These are such happy people, unlike any I have ever met any other place in my limited travels about the east coast, the west coast and all over Alaska.
The other humous story was told about a whaling captain in Point Hope, who was up here, whaling with Barrow Captains, he was wearing a jump suit from work, overalls, he had to go to the bathroom out on the ice not far from camp, Well these same two whaling captains, happend to come upon his private spot and saw him looking around, this way and that way, looking for something, they asked, what are you looking for, He laughed and said. I was going to cover up, what I just did, but I can't find it or see it on the ground, they each broke into huge laughter, as they saw the 'steam' coming from the 'log' in his hood!!

 

[Formatted]

Time to go whaling out on the ocean ice pack.

I stopped reading there.