Life up North

What's it like up there?

The typical question whenever I tell someone I work on the North Slope. The answer really depends on what your job is and how you deal with being isolated from your friends or family. There's hundreds of people who work up here who are basically just laborers. They have no office, probably share a bedroom, and work hitches that can see them up here for 4 or 6 weeks at a time. No private space whatsoever and they work a vast majority of their time outside.

You couldn't pay me enough to live like that.

For me personally, it's not even remotely close to that horrible. It's not Club Med, mind you, but it's a workable situation. I have my own bedroom. I share a sizable office. I'm up here two weeks at a time, but I don't have to go outside very often. -45 degree weather in the winter and mosquitoes in the summer? No, thanks. The facility I live in houses about 40 people, so it's a small community here. It's not often an engineer will get a chance to rub elbows with operators, maintenance crews, and other field based employees. It brings a perspective on the work I do I've never had before, and because of that, the experience has been invaluable.

I don't know too many people who can say they've seen the Arctic Ocean, or an Arctic Fox, or the last sunset for the next two months. I saw a Polar Bear a few weeks ago. It was miles away, mind you, and I had to get the binoculars out, but I saw him!