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21 Days North of the Arctic Circle

Lyndon,

Just curious, how fast do you drive on that road? I've been to Montana twice in road conditions like that. 1st time, I spun a couple 360's headed up Manida (sp) pass (45mph). Last time, this December I hit some ice about 20 miles into Idaho from Utah and flipped twice. Was only driving about 50MPH. Wife said,"road looks icy". I let off the gas and next thing you know we are sliding sideways. Apparently, letting off the gas was incorrect.

Yet, you indicated you've been doing this for 17 years without a wreck.

You drive in 4 wheel drive the whole time?

Two pluses from the accident. One, finally got rid of that Nissan Titan and Two had enough money left over from insurance to buy snowcat.


Anyway, amazing pictures your providing us. Very much enjoy reading your articles and viewing pictures while sitting here waiting for something to either break on our Network or someone trying to hack us. :w00t2: Keep'em coming.
 

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Well I'm Beat! 160+ Miles in borderline Phase 2 conditions was trying. they are up-grading the computer system and it's slow a molassas.
First Pixie's questions: I don't know what the Bar was on the Godzilla Rolligon. But a couple of these had both global positioners and Radar in an attempt to be able to drive them in complete white-out conditions.
The Day's are a bunch longer!
The BOC, BP's "Metal-City", has: 2 gyms, an indoor track with glass end walls just barely visable(center bldg), an Olympic sized Pool, A full size, slanted floor Theatre, and a glass Atrium that is 2 stories tall, and filled with nice plants. You can sit in it and have "Tea", like being in the Tropics, only in the Arctic.
Rooms at the BOC have private baths. The chow is 4 star. BOC Stands for BP OPERATIONS CENTER
It also has Sauna's(several), besides the dining hall there is a snack bar that is open 27/7 with ice cream and cookies and sandwiches, several huge TV Rooms, TV in every sleeping room, Phone in every room, a chapel, a Full Emergency Room like in a Real Hospital, lots of training and meeting rooms with 2-Way TV for Teleconferencing. Several Pool tables, and all sorts of fitness equipment. Three other similar facilities exists elsewhere on the 'Slope'. MCC, PBOC, & Kuparuk, and have all the same amenities, except the Atrium and the pool.
 
UTAHWILSON:How we avoid accidents: 1) we drive slow! The slope is posted with very low speed limits. Max is 45, but many places it's 35, 25, and as low as 5. This place is run like a Millitary base, security everywhere, with radar. Also it's comparitively flat in Prudhoe. Not so with the Pipeline "Haul-Road". Probably the single biggest incentive for careful driving is: Screw-up, Loose your badge. Say good-by to that cushy high paying job. 'Cowboys' get a ticket home, and don't get invited back up.
Not always in 4 wheel drive. I ran about half of today's trip in 4 wheel, ramming thru drifts, and when accelerating from a stop. But pulling tight turns and backing up in the paring lots NOT in 4 wheel. The snow grips pretty good, and the Ice get's lines scratched in it by a special attachment on the graders. the attachment is a "Scarifier" and leaves lines in the ice. Sort of like groved concrete roads.
 
3 ROLLIGONS. EACH "AIR-BAG"(WHAT THEY CALL THE SPECIAL TIRES) HAS IT'S OWN PRESSURE REGULATOR AND GUAGE. THEY RUN AT JUST A FEW PSI, CONTROLLABLE FROM THE OPERATOR SEAT. WHEN THE MACHINES ARE STORED FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME THE TIRES DEFLATE, THUS THE HUGE METAL SAW-HORSES FOR THEM TO REST ON.
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BOC THE SNACK AREA, CALLED THE "SPIKE-ROOM", OPEN 24/7.
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AND YOU THOUGHT THE "CAMP" MEANT WE STAYED IN A TENT?
 
ONE OF 3 SPECIALLY BUILT TRACK-HOE'S. IT CAN OPERATE ON HARD GROUND, SNOW, ICE AND FLOATS ON THE WATER. BUILT SPECIFICALLY TO TRENCH-IN THE UNDERSEA PIPELINE TO NORTHSTAR. HERE THE OCEAN FLOOR IS PERMA-FROST.
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"SPINE ROAD", which is esentially the "Main drag" thru the Prudhoe Bay Oilfield. Here renamed RT 66, after Phiillips/Conoco took over operation.
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One lone soldier Tucker Sno-Cat, operating at my facility, Milne Point. Have a great afternoon!
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GREAT pictures :clap::clap: Thank you very Much !!!

The camp looks like a hotel inside.

If you're gonna send that Tucker on down..... could you make it one with a bucket ? :brows: :flowers:
 
I don't want to take over and dominate the Snowcat Adventure & Useage Category, especially for that poor snow cat owner that is desperately trying to sell their machine. My intent was to give those interested a bit of a glimpse of what it is really like on the "SLOPE". I won't be hogging the site for another 21 day's, but if I come across something I missed I will add it. On my 'Hitch' that I started this tour of the North Slope, I didn't ever leave Milne Point, but yesterday and today I got to "travel". I just "lucked-out" that an Arctic Survey was on-going, and this Forums Forums topic area IS SNOW CATS. HAVE A GREAT DAY!
 
MADE YET ANOTHER TRIP TO DEADHORSE: MEETING A CRANE, FOLLOWED BY SNOW REMOVAL FROM THE 2 RECENT "BLOW's". STILL "DIGGING-OUT"
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THE ARCTIC SIZEMIC SURVEY GUY'S ARE THE MOST AVID USERS OF TRACK-RIGS ON THE ARCTIC. THEY ALSO OPERATE THE "CAT-TRAINS", MOBILE CAMPS ON SKIIS.
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NODWELL'S & TUCKER'S: The first row hides a second row of Nodwell & Tucker Track Vehicles.
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-30, -50 W/windchill today. I made one final trip to deadhorse yesterday to pick up my alternate. He got his first helicopter ride from Badami. He's the one with the white "Hard-Hat" getting off the chopper.
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Got caught behind this Rig Camp Move on the 38 mile treck back to Milne. It gives a whole new definition to "Traffic":
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There must be some major project going on at one of the "remote" locations that is not accessable by road as I counted SEVEN, fully layden(and I Mean REALLY loaded!) Rolligons preparing for a convoy to somewhere. They carry 2000 gallons of fuel so that they can operate for a week or so with out re-fueling. Here are 5 of the Rolligons preparing to take off. I saw 2 more in another 'yard' a mile up the road. that 'Tanker', all those Containers, and a Box Truck are loaded on these rigs.
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At 1.5 to 2 Million dollars each, and with the second row of machines, which is obscured by the first row, it amounts to a sizeable investment in machinery. They are very smooth riding. Each section has a truck sized Diesel Engine that powers a massive Hydraulic pump. The "Air Bag's" each have a gnarled alloy roller pressing against the tire that is driven by a Hydraulic motor. The cab is impressive with it's 16 pressure regulators and 16 guages for each tire, a "Dual-Reading" Pyrometer that compares the exhaust temperature of the 2 engines. Instead of trying to keep the 2 engines at the same RPM's, they attempt to keep the temperatures that each engine run's at close. Not fast, but capable of carrying literally TON's over unpacked snow, like a track machine. They probably wouldn't do very well on steep, rough terraine, but up here it's comparitively flat. You know how they carry 5 gallon 'GI' gas can's on Jeep's and Army Trucks? I was really impressed by the one I rode in because it had (4), 55 Gallon 'Drum's', on each fender to the right and left of the cab and one could still stand on the fenders there was enough extra space! They are 16 feet wide! I think the single most impressive thing is that I have never seen one anywhere else before.
 
You just HAD TO ASK!. YOU KNOW NOW YOU'VE JUST OPENED UP A REAL CAN OF WORMS! Rolligons were manfactured by the ROLLIGON company for the US Millitary shortly after the Korean war. They were steel and loosly resemble the current machines. AND THEY WERE AMPHIBIUS! Designed to work in Swamps. But they never caught on with the millitary. Many of the early military one's used to sit at an Army Surplus Dealer outside of Augusta Ga. Tires, or 'Air-Bags' were almost impossible to obtain. 20 ot 30 years later, Bectel, possible the 2nd largest contractor in the world, bought out the rights when they were building the Trans Alaska Pipeline. After they left Alaska it passed thru various owners. Then somehow the original company came back to life. I don't know all the details, but they now have a website that shows some of their earliest attemps. If someone out there finds it, set up the linc please!
 
I don't know if I covered this before, but we vertually never have anything go "thru" the ice. That's because 1) at 300 miles North of the Arctic Circle it's a bunch colder than where the ICE ROAD TRUCKERS show takes place. 2) our water is shallow, and freezes solid. 3) The bottom's of our lakes, ponds, and the Ocean floor, are Perma-Frost. So what you have is Ice, resting on more Ice. Not much oppertunity to go thru anything here. 4) The Corps of Engineers, "God, over the Ice Roads", won't let us even start building Ice Roads untill there has been a certain amount of snow cover, and the temperature had been below a certain threshold for a specific duration of time. We had a drill rig, about 2,000,000 Lbs, go thru the Sea Ice road to Alpine in 2000, but the 5 foot thick ice only sank about 4 feet and came to rest on the ocean floor, so all that happened was the tires of the rig got wet. They successfully backed the rig up onto solid Ice, and laid out "Rig Matt's" to re-inforce the Ice, and went around the bad spot without any further problems. It was 23 or 26 miles to Alpine over the Sea Ice road. Later that same winter we transported 15 MODULES, weighing up to 3000 Ton's( 6 million Lbs) over the same Sea Ice road without a problem. The duration of our Ice Road complex, sometimes as much as 300 miles, is usually 2 months longer than the ones that serve the Yellow Knife mine and BMP in the NWT(Northwest Territory). ARCO, the original developer of the Alpine, insured the Modules with LLoyds of London. Lloyds, put a bonified, Ice Road Engineer, who had a degree in Ice Roads, to oversee the project. He instructed the construction company building and maintaining the Sea Ice road to layer on an additional 5 feet of ice around where we previously had trouble. There wasn't even the slightest hint of a problem. In the 15 years I've been up here I only know of one other case of a D9 Cat going thru the ice. It's not so much that it Doesn't happen or Can't happen, it's more of a 'We Don't Let It Happen' cautionary approach. The Oil companies in Alaska probably take "Safety" to further extreems than any other industry, certainly any that I have worked in. Our "Safety Culture" is a rigerously enforced program. It makes it a great place to work.
 
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