OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019The September 2019 issue
of National Geographic
magazine is devoted to
the state of the Arctic.
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with people who had grown up in the Arctic. Talk of the
region swirled around me. The Arctic stopped being
lines on a globe and photos in books, and became a
place I wanted to explore, to write about, to protect.
The Arctic is both part of the state I now call home
and a region that connects the U.S. to other nations,
a place we all should safeguard together. Ice doesn’t
obey borders when it melts into the sea, causing ocean
levels to rise.
My first trip to the Arctic—a mid-July day trip with
a group up to Coldfoot in the Brooks Range—only fed
my growing fascination with the region. How could
one ever spend enough time there, an area that crosses
eight countries and 5.5 million square miles—about the
size of 631 New Jerseys or 34 Californias? How could
I return home ever thinking, well, I’ve seen enough,
or I’ve met enough local people, or I just can’t look at
another walrus? Ridiculous thoughts, all.
Brooklyn-based artist Zaria Forman, who is the art
curator for the new polar ship National Geographic
Endurance, is a case study in the ways travel to the
Arctic can transform a life. Forman’s mother, a photog-
rapher, first took Forman to Greenland in 2007. Until
that trip, Forman “knew of climate change as this dis-
tant subject,” she says, but it opened her eyes to issues,
including the ways locals had to adapt their lifestyles
because of the changes in their environment. Now she
travels to Arctic regions for at least a month at a time,
photographing and sketching areas that are “intriguing
compositionally” and evoke strong emotions, in order
to make large-scale pastels “as realistic as possible to
give the viewers the same feeling.”
“There are so many kinds of ice,” she says. “The
Arctic is an endless source of inspiration.”
Travel to the Arctic changed John Gaedeke’s life
even before it began. I first came across Gaedeke on
Instagram, easily the most accessible way to tour the
Arctic. Gaedeke is manager of Iniakuk Lake Wilderness
Lodge, 225 miles north of Fairbanks and 60 miles above
the Arctic Circle, in the Brooks Range. His parents
built the lodge in 1974. It is still his home for half of
each year. The nearest neighbors are 50 miles away,
in Bettles. Arctic travel grips his guests as soon as they
board the plane to get there. “The big transformation
is on the two-hour flight in here,” he says. “Within 20
minutes of leaving Fairbanks, they don’t see anything.
It’s so remote.” Even the villages that punctuate the
landscape disappear from sight within seconds.
The other day, I added a new item to the list of
places I want to experience in the Arctic, a list whichincludes visiting Ellesmere Island in Canada, watching
polar bears in Greenland, and talking to the people of
Nunavut about what it takes to collect qiviut wool from
musk ox. The new place on my list is called Anaktuvuk
Pass, in the central Brooks Range. I had called the
Simon Paneak Memorial Museum in this Nunamiut
Inupiat village to interview Louisa Riley, president of
the museum, and Vicky Monahan, the curator. When
travelers come through the village, Monahan provides
a quick immersion tour into the life and history of her
people, of how the U.S. government forced them to give
up their nomadic ways. She sees the impact of climate
change on the land and on the Inupiat lifestyle. The
summers are shorter and the winters warmer, making
it harder to harvest the meat, berries, and other plants
they depend on for their subsistence.
“I paint a picture where they get an understand-
ing of what we’ve been through and what we’re doing
today,” Monahan told me.
“We don’t have much choice,” Riley said. “You
adapt. We’re real resilient.”
Traveling to any part of the Arctic takes time,
money, and planning. Here are some ways to be a good
steward of the Arctic before, during, and after your trip:
—Go with tour groups that are “respectful of
Arctic residents and their culture,” says the U.S. Arctic
Research Commission’s Cheryl Rosa. “Too many peo-
ple can overwhelm small villages. Finding tour groups
that work with local communities is important.”
—Take nothing but photos, unless you buy art or
other souvenirs from the local people.
—Learn whose land you’re touring, and ask per-
mission before taking photos of people or their homes.
—When you get home, tell your friends and family
about your trip and help them understand what issues
are in the balance.
Says Rosa: “I do believe most visitors leave with a
better understanding of why the Arctic is important—
and how high the stakes are.”What happens in the
Arctic has an astonishing
trickle-down effect on
the rest of the planet.
JENNA SCHNUER
( @jennaschnuer) is
an Anchorage-based
freelance writer. She
has written for
Smithsonian, the New
York Times, and Edible
Alaska, among others.