Work Extreme Arctic! - Live and Work in Alaska's Arctic - Experience the Midnight Sun - Witness the Awe-Inspiring Aurora Borealis
We operate three remote camps in Alaska's Arctic: Yukon River Camp, Coldfoot Camp, and Deadhorse Camp. All three camps meet the important food and lodging needs of Arctic travelers. We take pride in cooking delicious handcrafted meals, ensuring absurd cleanliness, and welcoming our guests to the Arctic wilderness we love with a spirit of soulful hospitality that is genuine and authentic.
Our Camps are located along Alaska's arctic wilderness highway, the Dalton Highway. The Dalton stretches north 500 miles from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay. Along the highway, you’ll encounter the Yukon River, the Arctic Circle, the Brooks Mountain Range, and the Arctic Coastal Plain before the road’s termination at the shores of the Arctic Ocean.
About Work Arctic
Alaska Arctic's location at the top of the world means that we have 24 hours of sunlight, and almost 24 hours of darkness during the winter. What does this mean? We experience some of the most extreme seasonal changes on earth.
Arctic Midnight Sun Season [spring/summer]
By mid-March, the sun returns to Alaska’s Arctic. This is the beginning of our midnight sun season: meaning, an Arctic landscape bathed in 24 hours of daylight. The famed 24-hour-day brings with it robust recreational travelers and work crew activity at each of our Camps.
As a bonus, in addition to experiencing the summer midnight sun, those candidates hired will have the opportunity to experience the aurora borealis during fall--from late August to early September.
We will begin formal recruitment and hiring for positions at ALL camps for the 2020 season in late November 2019. Again, an ideal summer season candidate will be available to start work during the month of May.
Arctic Aurora Season [fall/winter]
August arrives in Alaska’s Arctic: by mid-month, daylight hours will be shortening, and “aurora season” returns to our region. Our Camps’ unique location under the Aurora Oval offers aurora-watching opportunities that are unrivaled anywhere else on earth. The chance to view nature’s most amazing light show first hand brings a growing number of travelers to our Camps from around the world.
Ideally, a successful “winter season one” candidate will be available to begin work in mid-September to early-October (or, even earlier), and will be able to work through 15 Jan 2020, or beyond.
About our camps
Yukon River Camp: This camp borders the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge on the banks of the legendary Yukon River.
The Yukon, the world’s fifth largest river, drains the entirety of Alaska’s Interior--the vast inland region delineated by Alaska’s two major mountain ranges. The Yukon River’s 2,000-mile length boasts the world’s longest salmon spawning migration.
In the present day, the Yukon River’s winding path is populated by remote villages whose residents depend on its rich natural resources to sustain subsistence lifestyles.
Coldfoot Camp: Neighboring the Gates of the Arctic National Park north of the Arctic Circle in the Brooks Mountain Range, Coldfoot sits just sixty miles south of the northernmost extent of the tree line. Today, the Central Brooks Range is--and always has been--one of the most remote and unpeopled wilderness areas left on earth.
Deadhorse Camp: Deadhorse neighbors the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Everything is extreme about life on the Arctic Coastal Plain: severe winter weather conditions give way to a summer marked by a 63 day, 23 hour, 40 minute timeframe where the sun never drops below the horizon.
The near-24 hours of sunlight highlighting the earth's most dramatic seasonal transition is the remarkable return of abundant wildlife [birds/waterfowl, caribou, musk ox, grizzly bear] to the Arctic Coastal Plain each summer.
Arctic Base Camp: Located in Fairbanks, the "Arctic base" team provides the support services critical to making the everyday operations of our arctic Camps a reality.
Fairbanks, a warm and welcoming city situated on the southern edge of Alaska's Arctic wilderness, offers Arctic Base Camp coworkers the perfect launching pad for exploring ALL of Alaska's Arctic.
The Employee Experience
In the spirit of honest and transparency, you deserve to know that we don't use the "e-m-p-l-o-y-e-e" word in our work culture.
Instead, we call ourselves coworkers. And those talented individuals who we are fortunate to call our coworkers work with us, not for us.
As for our coworker experience, you might ask: why work Arctic?
WILDERNESS 24/7: It’s a paid working vacation. Not a mere visit to Alaska's arctic wilderness, but an unparalleled opportunity to live it.
AURORA BOREALIS: Viewing nature's most impressive light show is absolutely a "bucket list" experience. The absolute magnificence of the lights can only truly be understood when witnessed firsthand.
MIDNIGHT SUN: 24-hours of daylight, day after day after day. Indescribably surreal and unbelievably cool; also wonderful for hiking and exploring the surrounding wilderness.
GREAT COWORKERS: Great wilderness attracts great coworkers—perfect teammates for a season of life, work, and play.
HOUSING/MEALS: No rent, no food bills, no commute.
EARN IT, SAVE IT: Which is to say, we’re in a wilderness environment where the options for spending money are as scarce as the options for wilderness exploration are robust.
Yet, "working arctic" is not for everyone.
Many (even most) Alaska work first-timers may find our camps to be too remote.
For these persons, a Denali Park-type experience might be a better fit: a couple thousand fellow co-workers create a spring-break like social atmosphere, restaurants and bars are in close proximity, Walmart and movie theaters are just two hours away.
Other Alaska-work first-timers might have an expectation that their work days will be spent in a glamorous structure built by a Marriott or a Hilton.
This is not our camps.
Our camps are what they are.
Simple and unglamorous structures, staffed by great coworkers, serving guests who are thrilled to find the very thing that led them to a decision to explore off the beaten path in the first place: authentic hospitality, and a real, un-contrived atmosphere.
Ideal Candidate
Yukon River Camp, Coldfoot Camp, and Deadhorse Camp are owned and operated by a small Alaska-based company.
We recognize it is the quality of our coworkers that provides the critical ingredient to the creation of a great hospitality experience for our guests.
A great workplace starts with shared values. So, it’s our goal to attract coworkers who believe that:
-
Professionalism and integrity are not innate characteristics but daily decisions;
-
that because we are what we repeatedly do, excellence is not an act but a habit;
-
a great workplace cannot be achieved if it is not built on a foundation of positive, trust-based coworker relationships--an impossible task without the shared values of respect and joy.
Many great coworkers have found their way to our Camps.
Many coworkers return to our Camps for consecutive seasons, while others simply never leave, having found themselves at home in Alaska's Arctic.
How to Apply
If you have read this far and still believe that "working arctic" might be right for you, we encourage you to learn more by reading the detailed information found at www.workarctic.com.
After further research, if you remain interested in being considered for employment at one of our Camps, please complete/submit our online employment application. The completion of the online employment application is an employment requirement.
We will review your application upon receipt, and those applicants who appear to be a good fit with the work/life experience offered by our Camps will be invited to participate in a 60-ish minute information phone conversation.
Please remember: all of our Camps are committed to providing a drug-free workplace (including marijuana) in accordance with the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988. Thus, all applicants should feel comfortable submitting to pre-employment, random, and "for cause" drug testing.
Contact Info
- Brett Carlson
- work@northernalaska.com
- www.workarctic.com
