In the Middle of Nowhere

The first full day here in Alaska Camp at Thompson Point has been great. The weather has been better than I could ask for: low of -20 and high of around 5 with mostly cloudy skies and nearly no wind. Not your typical Slope weather and quite welcome. Right now there are blue skies emerging through fingers of puffy clouds and the sun is low but still bright and cheerful. Its rays are reflecting off the pad that is nearly complete. The pad they are building is acres big and made up of two layers of metal reinforced wood on top of a gravel pad. From my window it looks like a huge dance floor. With the towers of the fuel farm at the south end of the pad, flanked by the Nanuq/AFC camp and our Alaska camp, it reminds me of a music festival.

The Nanuq/AFC camp has been here since August in one form or another and is a skid camp. This means that each unit (boxcar size) is on skids and completely separate from the other units. There are approx. 25 units including offices, mess hall, TV room and quarters housing a population of nearly 80. With the 20 or so that are here at Alaska camp so far, the kitchen there is feeding nearly 100 and doing it well.

Morale in the camp is surprisingly high considering the rough conditions they have had to deal with all winter. Just getting to the latrine would have demanded a complete bundle-up during the thick of winter. Right now we are enjoying the benefits of cold weather acclimation and do not wear a jacket or gloves even in the sub-zero evening when outside. Work around the camp is non-stop but not frantic. Even in the 24 hours that we have been here there is significant progress made on the pad and the fuel farm is nearly complete. (A fuel farm is huge silos that will hold enough diesel fuel to operate the rig for over 6 months).

Parts of McKinley Camp are on the ice staging pad, waiting for its pad to be completed before it can be assembled. The SPOs (sewage plant operators - essentially camp maintenance personnel) have been putting in mega hours trying to work the bugs out of Alaska Camp, but we will have water tomorrow and be able to shower, cook and even go to the bathroom without being shuttled over to the other camp. I am sure the SPOs are not looking forward to assembling McKinley Camp but we have been told that we have a small army of people on the way here next week and need someplace to house them. Getting McKinley together should be much smoother as it is a brand new facility (as opposed to the aged Alaska Camp) and they have worked out much of the bugs when it was first assembled in Deadhorse.

I have taken some pictures but did not bring the cables to upload the pics, so anyone reading this will have to be patient and visit this blog after I return to Cooper Landing on my R&R. Some of the pics turned out well and will be of interest.