Midnight in the afternoon

I booked flights today for a business trip to Fairbanks that will have me there a few days before the winter solstice. Which means in the middle of the day the sun – actually just a tease of it – will grudgingly ease itself above the horizon for less than four hours. That’s four total hours of SOME sunlight, not four hours of blazing orb. Otherwise, the landscape will be shrouded in darkness.

At approximately one o’clock, Ol’ Sol will make it all the way to two whole degrees above the horizon before rolling over and slipping back into somnolence. But you see, Fairbanks is about a hundred or so miles south of the Arctic Circle, so all this is to be expected.

Did I mention it will be butt cold? I’ll have my Alaska coat and my two pair of heavy socks within my hiking boots. This is not a trip calling for business casual. And I’ll have my note-taking materials because if you live in the lower forty-eight you don’t get a chance to see these sights and feel these feelings every day.

How cold, you wonder? Well, the rental car will have a plug hanging out under the hood. This is so you can power the block warmer so your engine doesn’t freeze while you’re asleep in the hotel. Or just in the store grabbing groceries. Parking lots have poles at each slot with outlets so you have a place to plug in said block warmers. 

Next to my favorite Fairbanks restaurant is a ramp down to the river. In the summer it’s a boat ramp. But in December it’s an on-ramp for a very convenient shortcut taken by drivers and snowmobilers alike. (I took that route one time years ago with my boss as passenger and found out later he was scared blankless during the whole adventure. Oops! My bad!)

Not to worry, we were safe. This is the river from which a couple months later they will begin harvesting massive cubes of ice for the International Ice Carving Championship. I’ve been there for that event, and if you haven’t it should really be on your bucket list. It’s an amazing event with sights you can see nowhere else and at no other time, ice carvings being, you know, perishable.

I know there are people including some beloved friends who will read this, shiver and make allowances for my sanity. And I understand your idea of a wonderful vacation is an umbrella drink in hand, shade bonnet overhead and sun-drenched ocean in front of you. If you ever considered Alaska, it would be during the summer and most likely from the deck of a cruise ship.

I don’t blame you; I was the guy with a camera on the South Rim while others hiked to the bottom. But please, at least consider going in winter to a place with midnight in the afternoon. Drive north of the city lights a few miles and see the aurora borealis the way it’s meant to be seen. I promise this is not one of those things that can be appreciated from photography.

And seriously, bring a good coat. Because when you’re in a place where folks can tell the temperature within a few degrees by the brittleness of their nostril hair, you’re gonna need it.