Review of Alaska Airlines flight Barrow → Prudhoe Bay/Deadhorse, AK in Economy

Outbound:
• EuroAirport - Amsterdam / J KLM E190: NO CATERING
• Amsterdam - Brussels / Y KLM F70: SUITCASE OR NOT?
• Brussels - Amsterdam / J KLM E190: WHERE IS THE CREW?
• Amsterdam - Seattle / J DL A330: SOMETHING ABOUT PARADISE
• Seattle - Anchorage / F DL B737-800: WORST FLIGHT EVER
• Anchorage- Fairbanks / F AS B737-400: STAND BY DRINKS HER BEER
• Fairbanks - Prudhoe Bay / Y AS Dash 8-Q400: AURORA BOREALIS
• Prudhoe Bay - Barrow / Y AS B737-400 Combi : NO TRESPASSING

In between:
• Barrow - Prudhoe Bay / Y AS B737-400 Combi : Here you are.
• XXX - XXX
• XXX - XXX
• XXX - XXX

Return:
• XXX - XXX
• XXX - CDG
• CDG - EuroAirport / Y AF E170

After a good 36H in the northern most village of the USA, it's time to head back south.

My flight is leaving at 08:20P and without stress my easy going driver picked me up at 07:20P. I scheduled my pick up time at 07:00P knowing that the transfer would take 10 minutes as a maximum. A few minutes before the pickup time, my driver called me in the room, said she was at the airport waiting for passengers from the earlier flight, not to worry, she informed the check in I would only arrive by 07:30P. As this is a very small community, this works really well.

This is the terminal building:



Inside the terminal, very small as you can see. Here as well, you go through TSA just before boarding.



We are 10 people to SCC and onwards to SEA, but from SCC the plane is scheduled to be full as most of the oil workers are heading back home for the Christmas break.

Our plane:



The plane was quite empty, here some cabin shoots:



On time take off for the 30 minutes flights to SCC. Orange juice and pretzels are handed over:



We were treated with a beautiful aurora borealis, but from the plane it does look nice:



Very steep approach to SCC, full flaps and very hard landing followed by heavy braking.



As I am flying all the way down to Anchorage, I stay on board. I chatted most of the time with the very nice cabin crew members.

To finish, a little Barrow bonus. There is absolutely nothing to do there in winter, apart from the whale bone arch and the ice sea on which you can walk a bit. This was the aim of my trip actually, walking on the Arctic Ocean :)

That's a view from my room at around 11:30A, beginning of day light:



The sun does not rise in winter time, maximum daylight is at 01:00A, that's the time that I choose to go out. From mid-November to mid-January the sun does not rise and stays below the horizon. If it’s not cloudy, you can get a bit of daylight though.

My hotel, All of the heated buildings in Barrow must be constructed on concrete stilts. This is to prevent thawing out the permafrost, which would turn it into a bog and bring down the building



No sunrise today:



The whale bone arch:



And the frozen arctic ocean:



Walk on the beach:



Time to walk on the ocean! It's an amazing experience. The snow and the ice cracked under my feet but I have been told there is absolutely no danger as long as I don't venture too far. I went maximum 10 feet away from the coastal line. That was enough for me.

The crack is more or less where the beach ends:



At that time, I was the northernmost guy in North America :)

Some more pictures:



To end, this is the Top of the World hotel in Barrow, a very nice accommodation but very, very expensive. USD 220.-/night. But everything is expensive in Barrow. It was no surprise to me.