Embracing Winter
Cool Ice, Hot Springs and Northern Lights
By Lisa Mann

Fairbanks’ cluttered G.I. Joe Surplus store has one of the last remaining stockpiles of genuine “bunny boots.” These white vapor-barrier boots (which make the wearer’s feet look like gigantic Arctic hare feet) were originally made for the U.S. military and are rated for up to -60 degrees Fahrenheit. Fashionable they’re not, but they saved many an enlisted man’s feet from frostbite — or worse. In 1994 the army went to a different supplier, and the army-issue winter boots became more rigid, cheaper, and not nearly as well regarded. The pre-1994 Bata-manufactured boots are preferred by Alaskans who have been known to spell out in their will exactly who will receive their bunny boots.

I was going ice-fishing. In Fairbanks. In early March. I wanted those boots. And I wanted them bad.

Owner Tom Schwartz fitted me to a pair of clunky, cozy, used bunny boots. “You can tell who is a native of Fairbanks in winter by their boots,” he says. “If they’re wearing Sorels, they’re a tourist. If they’re in bunny boots, they belong here.”

 “Tourists?” Before my visit, the idea of tourists in Fairbanks in winter might have tripped me up. Who comes to Fairbanks in winter? Masochists? The certifiably insane?  The feverish? Well, right now the answer is, “Mostly Japanese.” 

Apparently there is a Japanese belief that children conceived under the Aurora Borealis are blessed with exceptional talent and beauty, which has spurred young Japanese couples — and in fact entire extended families — to make the trek to Arctic climes. The Japanese, originally attracted to Fairbanks for the good odds of a Northern Lights display, are onto something that many people in the U.S. have missed — Alaska in winter can be a lot of fun.
The pervasive image of cold, dark winter days hold true, but only to a point.

It is cold — don’t let the hardy locals convince you otherwise — but with proper clothing (which can be rented) it can be invigorating rather than eviscerating. The days are short, but dawn and dusk are long and beautiful. Photographers will rejoice in the low arc of the sun, which stays close to the horizon all winter, providing long shadows, dramatic lighting, and subtle colors. And of course, short days make long nights, which mean a greater chance of seeing the Northern Lights.

I had been in Anchorage for the ceremonial start of the Iditarod dog sled races. “It’s so temperate in Anchorage,” Alaskan natives told me. “You should go to Fairbanks or Nome if you want to experience winter.”

“It’s 10 below in Anchorage,” I whimpered. But I wanted to not just experience winter, I wanted to embrace it, so I went to Fairbanks.

Luck was with me. I arrived in Fairbanks in time for the World Ice Sculpting Championships (held in March every year).  Sculptors from around the world gather to create massive, intricate ice sculptures. The professional entries start with 10 blocks of ice—52,000 pounds worth. Using only snow, water, and their allotted ice, the sculptors create ethereal masterpieces that will melt by June, but in March you can view them in all their glory lit at night with colored lights.

You can even put a chisel to ice yourself by entering in the amateur open contest. A $75 entry fee buys you an 800 lb. block of clear ice, and a pass to the competition for two people. The “real” competitors are exceptionally generous with their tools and advice, and the process will give you a deep appreciation for the skill of sculptors. 

I signed up for my block of ice eagerly, but after a quick stroll of the sculpture grounds, I was intimidated by the skill of the sculptors — even the amateurs — around me. My ineptness must have shown on my face, and soon sculptors had gathered around to offer advice and show us how to use an iron to smooth the ice or how to make more efficient chisel cuts. Our strategically primitive Easter Island head was clearly no competition, but I was absurdly proud of it. “You’ll be back,” warned Carole Elven of Portland, Oregon. “This is our fifth year, and it’s pretty addictive.”

The Ice Sculpture Grounds are open for the entire month of March, though the best viewing is about March 16 through 22. There’s a warming hut for a quick hot chocolate break, and for the kids, there is an entire playground made of ice —slides, tunnels, and spinning equipment. Even the phone booth is made of ice. 

March is also mushing season and dog sledding is the unofficial sport of Alaska. Fans swap stats in bars, and most locals know the names, faces, and sometimes even the dog teams of the Iditarod and Yukon Quest mushers, whose progress is avidly tracked throughout these ten-plus-day long events. But there are shorter races almost every week in the season for every skill group (even kids) and even the amateur races draw enthusiastic spectators. Stop by one of the races for an hour; it’s hard not to get swept up in the dogs’ excitement.

If the sight spurs you, you can book your own dog-sled experience. Many mushers offer learn-to-mush programs; short, invigorating dog sled rides; or even multiple day dog sledding adventures. The Fairbanks Visitors Center has lists of local mushers and their programs.

March is not only Iditarod month, it is also prime time for the Northern Lights, and Fairbanks is right in the path of the aurora borealis. Fairbanks sits under the “Auroral Oval” a ring shaped region around the North Pole. Fairbanks gets over 100 Northern Lights shows a year, but if you want to see them you have to come in winter. In summer it isn’t dark long enough.

Green-yellow lights are the most common, but purple, blue, and even red hues are also seen. The Northern Lights are caused by solar flares that ionize pArcticles in the upper atmosphere. The charged pArcticles are drawn through space to the magnetic north pole, where they travel down the pole like beads on a wire. When the pArcticles hit the earth’s atmosphere, dancing ribbons of color weave together, turning the night sky into a shimmering, ethereal kaleidoscope.

Intensity varies from night to night, but according to the Geophysical Institute, the best times for viewing the Northern Lights are February and March, and from late evening until very early in the morning. Snow or cloud cover can obscure lights, so if you really want to see the lights plan on staying at least a few days.

All of the Fairbanks hotels offer “Aurora wake-up calls” but if you’ve never seen the Northern Lights, you’ll want get out from under the Fairbanks city lights. You can check out the borealis forecast, and head up the road to Chena Hot Springs Resort in hopes of the sublime experience of viewing the Northern Lights from the outdoor hot springs pool, or take one of their snow coach tours up to a mountainside viewing deck. 

In addition to indoor and outdoor hot springs pools, the resort has plenty of lodging and the Aurora Ice Museum and Stohli Ice Bar — the largest year-round ice structure in the world. It was originally intended to be an Ice Hotel but, ironically, fire codes prevent it from being used as lodging.

“Bureaucracy,” grunts one staff member. “There’s nothing flammable in here — everything is made of ice. Unless the guests’ clothing goes up in flames, you’re not going to have a fire. And if you did, it wouldn’t burn; it would melt.”

Instead, the Ice Bar offers tours of the ice sculpture strewn igloo, complete with an apple martini in a glass made entirely of ice (for adults only). The drink menu is limited to martinis; they can’t store anything but alcohol in the bar, everything else freezes. They also rent the place out for special events — and the events can go overnight. If the guests chose to sleep in one of the ice bedrooms during their “event,” that’s their own business, the staff says.

Another superb viewing spot is the Aurora Borealis Lodge’s viewing cabin on Cleary Summit. Host Mok Kumagai will pick you up at your Fairbanks hotel at about 10 p.m. and return you about 2:30 a.m. You can lounge on a sofa, sipping coffee, tea, or hot chocolate in a heated, darkened room watching for the show through panoramic picture windows. When the lights begin, you can watch from inside if the warmth is too hard to give up, or dash out onto the expansive deck to view the lights in the chilly night air, then retreat back into the warm living room until the aurora borealis returns. For an additional $15, Mok will take your photo in front of the aurora.

Fairbanks’ proximity to the Arctic Circle is one of the reasons for its exceptional aurora viewing potential, but it is technically below the Arctic Circle. If you’d like to add the Arctic Circle to your life list, you can book a flight-seeing tour with one of the many bush pilots at the Fairbanks airport to several of the small, isolated villages to the north. The wilderness that stretches from Fairbanks in nearly every direction is astoundingly vast, and though the moose or bear sauntering along the road gives you a glimmer of it, its sheer immenseness can best be appreciated by air.

I flew to Bettles, Alaska, with Bettles Air Service for an overnight at Bettles Lodge above the Arctic Circle. Bettels is a tiny village on the edge of the Gates of the Arctic National Park that can be reached only by plane. In the winter, the lodge can arrange dog sledding trips, ice climbing, snowshoeing, or Nordic skiing. Bettles Air Service offers both one day and overnight packages. The lodge will even rent you snow clothes — including the coveted bunny boots — and will wake you up for aurora viewing.

Fairbanks locals are a cold-hardy bunch — their kids have outdoor recess until the temperatures drop below -20 degrees. If you’re visiting Fairbanks in winter, odds are you want to embrace winter — if only for a week. Follow the locals’ lead to make the cold more bearable — wear layers, stock up on hand and foot warmers, and break up your outdoor activities with indoor sights. After an afternoon outdoors, stop by the Fairbanks Curling Club to watch a tournament or even try your hand at this unusual sport, or spend a crisp, brittle morning strolling the lovely (and heated) Museum of the North on the University of Alaska campus.

Most Fairbanks parking lots come equipped with power outlets so you can plug in an engine block warmer, but locals solve the cold engine problem by carrying two sets of car keys — one for the ignition and another for the doors. They simply leave their cars running if they’re going to be a couple hours or less. It’s an eerie sight, but you can read the popularity of a restaurant by the number of empty, running cars in the parking lot.

When you stay active — ice climbing, skiing, chiseling blocks of ice, or even just hiking about in giant bunny boots — you can actually work up a sweat. The cold hits when you stand still for long. Keith Koontz of Chandalar River Outfitters was taking me to Chena Lake for ice fishing, and, well, I know my fishing skills. This was going to take awhile. So I bundled up, put foot warmers in my bunny boots, tucked hand warmers in my mittens, and a couple extra (“just in case”) in my pockets.

Keith scouted the lake, and chose the spots to drill holes, filled out our fishing permits, and set us up at our holes. He chose our spots well; we each quickly caught our limit of lovely silver salmon.

Not far away, a celebratory band of ice fishermen set up, ready to party. They brought a gas barbeque, boxes of food, and a case of vodka, but apparently they didn’t chose their spot as well as Keith. They had everything they needed — except the fish. They dispatched a search party to ask what we were doing right, and we recognized them as a group of Russian ice sculptors in town for the Ice Sculpting Championship. An international alliance was set up on the spot. We supplied the fish, and they cooked them up. The hot fresh fish and vodka served to me in the cup of a frozen daffodil by the Russian ice sculptors warmed my belly, and my big honking bunny boots warmed my toes. Winter in Alaska isn’t so bad. Not so bad, at all.

Ice Sculpture Photo By Lisa Mann

If You Go...

Alaska Travel Industry Association
800-862-5275
www.winterinalaska.com

Fairbanks Convention & Visitors Bureau
800-327-5774
www.explorefairbanks.com

For an Aurora Borealis forecast:
Geophysical Institute Information Office
907-474-7558
www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast.

Where to buy or rent cold-weather gear:

America & Pacific Tours, Inc. (A&P)
907-272-9401
www.aptoursalaska.com

AIE, INC.     
907-272-2648
www.aietours.com

G.I. Joe’s Surplus Store
907-452-6225

Stay:

7 Gables Inn & Suites
907-479-0751
www.7gablesinn.com

Aurora Borealis Lodge
907-389-2812
www.AuroraCabin.com

Bettles Lodge and Air Service
907-692-5111
www.bettleslodge.com

Chena Hot Springs Resort
800-478-4681
www.chenahotsprings.com

Play

Chandalar River Outfitters
907-488-8402
www.chandalarranchalaska.com

Fairbanks Curling Club
907-452-2875
www.curlfairbanks.org

Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race
907-376-5155
www.iditarod.com

World Ice Sculpting Competition
907-451-8250
www.icealaska.com

Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race
907-452-7954
www.yukonquest.org

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