Living in Deadhorse
During my time working on the north slope I live in the Schlumberger camp in Deadhorse. There is basically nothing up here except for oil companies so all of them have to provide housing for their employees. Our camp holds about 75 people at one time. Most people work up here on a two weeks on / two weeks off rotation so everyone kind of checks in and out of rooms. 
This is our cafeteria. We eat all three meals in here unless we decide to go to someone else's camp to eat. The food is usually fairly decent because the companies realize they need to feed the big guys who work up here pretty well.
This is one of our TV lounges with a big screen and satellite setup. It is one of the popular places to spend time when you're not working. People also like to play cards, play ping pong or fooseball, get on the computer, read, or drive to the big BP camp to play basketball during their down time.
This is my new room; I got moved outside to this unit about a week ago. It is essentially the same as the other rooms on the inside. Basically everything out here is built in modules like this because construction is such a challenge up here. It's not bad having to go outside the main camp to get to my room since it is the summer. It has actually warmed well into the 60's recently. The main draw back of being outside is that the world famous Alaska mosquitoes are beginning to appear
The good thing about being in the annex units is that I have a pretty good view of the tundra now. This is a picture of a caribou from the steps to my room; this buck was within 50 feet of me when I was going to bed. Oh yeah, just so you know, this picture was taken after midnight. The sun doesn't go down for 82 days at this latitude.
The caribou are starting to migrate back to the coast from the Brooks Range. It is mostly males now, but there should be a whole herd up here within a couple of weeks. The caribou wander everywhere including onto the gravel pads at the drilling rigs. You can see two caribou to the left of me in the picture. You can see I have a new green hard hat. They give them to all the people who have been in the field less than a year to warn others that we may do something stupid at any time!
I have seen a ton of Caribou and two arctic foxes since I've been here. There are also a lot of birds who like the wetlands formed by the snow melting. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a bear yet. This is a picture from last year of a bear right outside the wireline shop where I work. I'm still hoping to see a bear and a musk ox before I return home. (I bet I could have said that was me in the picture and scared the hell out of my mom!)
This is our cafeteria. We eat all three meals in here unless we decide to go to someone else's camp to eat. The food is usually fairly decent because the companies realize they need to feed the big guys who work up here pretty well.
This is one of our TV lounges with a big screen and satellite setup. It is one of the popular places to spend time when you're not working. People also like to play cards, play ping pong or fooseball, get on the computer, read, or drive to the big BP camp to play basketball during their down time.
This is my new room; I got moved outside to this unit about a week ago. It is essentially the same as the other rooms on the inside. Basically everything out here is built in modules like this because construction is such a challenge up here. It's not bad having to go outside the main camp to get to my room since it is the summer. It has actually warmed well into the 60's recently. The main draw back of being outside is that the world famous Alaska mosquitoes are beginning to appear
The good thing about being in the annex units is that I have a pretty good view of the tundra now. This is a picture of a caribou from the steps to my room; this buck was within 50 feet of me when I was going to bed. Oh yeah, just so you know, this picture was taken after midnight. The sun doesn't go down for 82 days at this latitude.
The caribou are starting to migrate back to the coast from the Brooks Range. It is mostly males now, but there should be a whole herd up here within a couple of weeks. The caribou wander everywhere including onto the gravel pads at the drilling rigs. You can see two caribou to the left of me in the picture. You can see I have a new green hard hat. They give them to all the people who have been in the field less than a year to warn others that we may do something stupid at any time!
I have seen a ton of Caribou and two arctic foxes since I've been here. There are also a lot of birds who like the wetlands formed by the snow melting. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a bear yet. This is a picture from last year of a bear right outside the wireline shop where I work. I'm still hoping to see a bear and a musk ox before I return home. (I bet I could have said that was me in the picture and scared the hell out of my mom!)
posted by Patrick at 10:53 PM
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