Cold and dark, hot and bright: for some, life in Alaska is just right

Airman, Oct, 2004 by Chuck Roberts

There are two distinctly different attitudes about life at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, and Senior Airman Jessica Miller has lived both.

The 23-year-old network administrator thought she always wanted to go there, but "hated it and wanted to go home" soon after arriving. Her sentiments continued.

"I complained so much I realized how much I was complaining," she said of the contempt she held for the cold and dark days of winter, the lack of a nearby big city and the opportunities for nightlife. But then one day she stopped and told herself, "I can't be like this for three years."

So she turned off her television and left her dorm room in search of what Alaska had to offer. Showing her the way was Airman 1st Class Sara Hills, a 19-year-old outdoor enthusiast who swapped an impending assignment to sunny Florida for Eielson because she "thought it would be cool."

Airman Hills took her new friend to the ski slopes at nearby Fort Wainwright and introduced her to the world of snowboarding.

"I loved it," said Airman Miller while sitting inside the ski lodge at Eielson, which opened its slopes for the first time in seven years. Now her winter weekends are spent at the base resort where the two 354th Communications Squadron Airmen run the equipment rental shop. It offers skis for downhill and cross country enthusiasts, as well as sleds, tubes and snow shoes.

In addition to winters on the slopes, Airman Miller now spends her summers camping, hiking and being active in squadron activities such as softball and picnics. Now, having lived at Eielson as both dorm dweller and outdoorswoman, she offers this advice to newcomers: "Don't go off looks. Get out and see what it has to offer."

Eielson, located in the middle of the state in a flat expanse of land surrounded by mountains, offers a lot of extremes that can make life a bit trying at times, even for sourdoughs who've lived there for decades. Temperatures vary from a crippling minus 60 to a sultry 100 degrees, and winter months drag on in darkness while the summer light endures up to 21 hours. And, some might consider the size and the number of mosquitoes on the extreme side.

"You hear the horror stories," said Sidney Hinch about the stories newcomers often bear about Eielson before arriving. But the director for the outdoor recreation/ adventure office said those willing to bundle up in winter clothing and liberally apply suntan lotion and insect repellant in the summer have much to enjoy. Everything from deepsea fishing to glacier sightseeing, hiking, biking, rafting, river fishing, camping, paintball, all-terrain vehicle trips and snow machining (that's Alaska speak for snowmobiling) through pristine forests and over frozen lakes. They can also try fly tying classes, ice fishing for trout, arctic char and silver salmon in the comfort of a heated tent, and boat trips for admiring sea lions, dolphins and whales.

With a short but spectacular summer, usually beginning in mid-May and ending in mid-August, Bryan Littlejohn has adapted a lifestyle to maximize his summer enjoyment.

"I hibernate in winter, and in summer I just go without sleep," said the shift manager at the base service station. "By the end of summer, you're ready for some down time. You're just flat worn out," he said, from cruising the county in his eight-wheeled amphibious vehicle searching for halibut that weigh as much as 200 pounds. When fishing, the almost endless sunlight makes it difficult to keep track of time, he said.

"All of a sudden it's 3 a.m. and you realize you've got to be at work in three hours." A small price to pay, he said, for life in the last frontier. "To me you just can't beat the outdoors and how beautiful Alaska is."

But soon comes the spectacular fall colors of the birch tree, signaling the fast approach of winter and the long dark days that took a heavy toll on Mr. Littlejohn after his arrival in 1987.

"You Just have to find things to keep you busy," he advised, noting that for him, "bowling is the name of the game in winter."

But for others the adjustment can be more difficult, said Dana Baugh, a base exercise psychologist. She briefs newcomers on coping with winter darkness including the less than four hours of daylight in February. Newcomers often gain five to 15 pounds as a result of not changing eating habits while hibernating from minus 30 temperatures. She advises newcomers to get outdoors and take advantage of winter activities such as traditional snow shoeing or something more unusual such as skijoring, in which skiers are pulled by a dog.

But for some, the lack of sunshine can cause seasonal affective disorder which may lead to depression. In addition to making changes to diet, sleep and exercise, Mrs. Baugh offers base residents some quality time under her "happy light" which can alleviate the lack of vitamin D caused by too much time in the dark. Thirty minutes underneath her photo-therapy lights, she said, can help take the edge off the cabin fever she's even susceptible to toward the end of March, when she admits to "getting a little snippy."