Introduction

In August 1985 I took a trip to Alaska, visited Fairbanks and then went on to Barrow. Ever since that first visit I knew that someday I would satisfy an urge to return in the middle of the winter and see how Alaska “really” is. When I think of Alaska I think of snow capped mountains and ice cold.

My friends told me I was crazy to go to Alaska in the middle of the winter. I told them I am adventurous and want to fulfill one of my life’s dreams and experience the “real” Alaska. It turned out to be one of the greatest four day weekends I ever experienced and it cost me next to nothing since I used my miles to go on this trip. This is probably the longest distance anyone can fly on a free domestic ticket, from Fort Lauderdale to Barrow, around 4,200 miles. The trip would have cost me thousands.