Preparing for a work/job related trip to Alaska has been pretty exciting with a dash of nervousness. The area is pretty remote, does have a decent sized town (Fairbank) close by and has some very harsh winters.
This is a first trip to Alaska for me, I’m pretty excited and just a tiny bit nervous. The temperatures are extremely cold as of about a month ago it dipped down to -4. So I will try to walk through every step in the preparation of trying to stay alive and warm in such a terrible climate. I started out the prepping yesterday as I ran down to REI here in salt Lake City and track down some very warm gloves as well as some really warm boots.
A few days before the flight, I started to get my luggage packed. I sure don’t know how much you need to bring for a ten month trip, so it was a good amount for a few seasons. I went through quite a bit of cloths, adding and subtracting things from the two large suite cases. Luckily each of the two large suite cases were under 50 pounds.
The flight was pleasant and uneventful with Alaskan Air. We had brunch at Salt lake International airport – Wasatch Brewing company. The coffee wasn’t bad and the Poke Bowl was ok. (It’s tough to have poke anywhere else but Hawaii.)
We had a stop in Seattle and then on to Fairbanks – a first visit to either location. Seattle was overcast, dark and gloomy. We didn’t have any luggage lost or damaged.
After being here in Fairbanks (going on two weeks now), the weather is certainly something to get use to. So far I’ve experienced around -39 degrees Fahrenheit. As I compare it with Utah’s winter’s, it’s such an extreme, sudden, bitter cold. Any time the temperature rises to around zero degrees, it oddly feels warm.
