Barrow Alaska: Polar Bears etc.

Emergency Actions if you see a polar bear: do you run? NO! They will outrun you! Go into the nearest house. Everyone keeps their front doors unlocked for this purpose. What? You want to walk to the beach to put your feet in the ocean?? No. Beaches aren't safe- polar bears. Someone can drive you. How about the tundra? No. Tundra isn't safe. Do not assume that if you see a polar bear they do not see you. Guess what? They do.

Barrow Alaska is way up at the top of Alaska. During the Fall/Winter, the only way in or out of Barrow tends to be by flight. COVID restrictions have limited flights in and out of Barrow, so you have one flight in and one flight out a day. There is one day in the winter in which an ice path forms from Barrow to Prudhoe Bay and you can drive the 300 or so miles to Prudhoe Bay.

So what is one to do in Barrow, you ask? How much does it cost to get there? As I am confident that this is NOT a tourist destination, I will be as thorough as I can be.

There are currently (as of 10/2020) TWO hotels open for business and ONE bed & breakfast. If all of these are booked out (which they may be for people flying up to Barrow for business), it is advised that you cancel your trip. The costs to stay in any of these establishments is between $200-220 a night. Round trip flights from Anchorage to Barrow (there are no other direct flights to Barrow): roughly $300. Taxi service ranges from $6-10 a ride. Food in Barrow? There is one "supermarket" and two little shops that carry a few groceries. There are a handful of restaurants including Arctic Pizza. As ALL food is shipped into Barrow from other regions, the price for one medium sized pizza is about $40. The "supermarket" sells washers, dryers, canned goods, other food, grocery supplies, and winter clothes. EVERYTHING in the supermarket is expensive. One gallon of milk costs $17.

Advice for new teachers: according to the proprietor of the gorgeous B&B I stayed in, Barrow has become a hot spot for recruiting new teachers to fly into remote villages. Perhaps you have never flown out of state. Maybe you weren't provided with a survival guide. Let me do the honors:

You will be flying to a remote village and will have a difficult time leaving for several months to a year. You need to arrive to the village prepared to survive for an entire school year. I hope you were provided with a general pre-stipend so you could prepare for this journey. You could do the bulk of clothes shopping at the Walmart in Anchorage. In terms of food, there is a website (I cannot remember) where you can buy PALLETS of food. This is what you need: Food to survive for a year. Use the internet to your advantage to connect with other teachers who will be stationed in the same village. This way, you can coordinate school supplies.

Hello Darkness My Old Friend: Winter time darkness is legit. You will have 65 days of darkness. In Alaska, I learned that there is a difference between sunlight and daylight. Daylight may just mean daytime- without light. In the "city" of Barrow, population 4000ish, there are street lamps. In the small villages? I have no idea. I didn't make it there.

Why did I go to Barrow? To put my feet in the ocean. I am not brave enough to do a full-on Polar Bear Plunge, where you jump into the ocean. Besides, the hotel that issues certificates for this behavior (Top of the World Hotel) is currently closed.

What do I wear in Barrow? Bring layers. I wore long merino wool pants, waterproof snow pants, t-shirt, long sleeved base layer, wool sweater, heavy snow jacket, warm woolen scarf, fleece lined wool hat, snow gloves. Advice from locals: you need something to cover your face from wind chill. I used my scarf. Initially, I didn't feel cold at 17 degrees. Then the wind struck. Layers are good.

Barrow is NOT a tourist location. I wasn't able to find any Barrow stickers. Life up there is rough. Approximately 1700 of the 4000 people living there, work in oil industries or for the government. I met one gentleman who explained that he works for six weeks (12 hour days 6-7 times a week) and flies back to his home state of Arizona for two weeks. Repeat. For 20-some-odd years. I asked if he enjoys his job. "No. I do it for the money. I am looking forward to retiring." "Yes?" I asked "when do you retire?" "In 17 years," he told me.

Safety for women: in general, I got the perception that it's not safe to live in Barrow as a female. According to the gentleman listed above, the indigenous people up north culturally do not respect women and he has had to intervene in physical confrontations between men attacking women. Most people living up there have guns/weapons. If anything, a weapon may keep you safer from the polar bears. Yes, there are polar bears. My sadness was learning that they are NOT cute and cuddly. They are dangerous. Very Very Dangerous.

The primary "tourist" site: a photo in between whale bones. Indigenous people hunt traditionally and harvest the meat. I have some gruesome whale harvesting photos, but at the risk of disturbing anyone, have left them out.