Winter Seasonal Guide type work? (Fairbanks, Craig: extended stay, university, camping)

[fiddlestick]

Anyone know of any places that hires winter seasonal assistants that help with any type of guide type work such as hiking,hunting,snowmachine,dog sledding tours etc? Anything outdoors basically..........

[Metlakatla]

Yeah...Chena hot springs is a big deal in the winter, with dogsledding and Aurora tours. There are some smaller places around too; look on Craigslist and also on AlaskaList.

[Frostnip]

Being a hunting guide requires special licensing.

[mizzile]

What Frostnip said; and being any type of guide involves lots of training and specialized knowledge. It doesn't sound like you have much of that considering you're asking about a wide variety of activities.

[Marty Van Diest]

Originally Posted by fiddlestick

Anyone know of any places that hires winter seasonal assistants that help with any type of guide type work such as hiking,hunting,snowmachine,dog sledding tours etc? Anything outdoors basically..........

There are people that do winter trips. Do you have winter experience? Most winter guiding does not involve hunting but does involve very cold weather and often dog teams. You might want to work for room and board for one of the winter guiding operations just for the experience.

Better might be to sign on as a caretaker for one of the lodges for the winter. Usually doesn't pay anything but room and board but can gain you winter experience. You need to be able to withstand extended stays by yourself in remote areas.

[fiddlestick]

Originally Posted by mizzile

What Frostnip said; and being any type of guide involves lots of training and specialized knowledge. It doesn't sound like you have much of that considering you're asking about a wide variety of activities.

I'm looking to be an assistant to a guide, not being the actual guide.

Originally Posted by Marty Van Diest

There are people that do winter trips. Do you have winter experience? Most winter guiding does not involve hunting but does involve very cold weather and often dog teams. You might want to work for room and board for one of the winter guiding operations just for the experience.

Better might be to sign on as a caretaker for one of the lodges for the winter. Usually doesn't pay anything but room and board but can gain you winter experience. You need to be able to withstand extended stays by yourself in remote areas.

I'm not sure what kind of winter experience you mean?

[Marty Van Diest]

Originally Posted by fiddlestick

I'm not sure what kind of winter experience you mean?

If you were stranded in the middle of a northern forest at -30 degrees with nothing more than a box of matches...how long would you survive?

You don't need that kind of experience, but you need enough experience to feel confident that you could survive for a week or two at least.

Have you done winter camping with no tent?

Do you have winter experience. Real Winter...below zero weather.

[fiddlestick]

Originally Posted by Marty Van Diest

If you were stranded in the middle of a northern forest at -30 degrees with nothing more than a box of matches...how long would you survive?

Im not sure

You don't need that kind of experience, but you need enough experience to feel confident that you could survive for a week or two at least.

Have you done winter camping with no tent?



Do you have winter experience. Real Winter...below zero weather.

I haven't done winter camping with no tent. I haven't lived anywhere where it gets below 0. The coldest I have slept outside was in a tent when it was 13 degrees out. I would love to camp in a colder environment though. I like the cold and the 13 F didn't feel very cold at all.

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by fiddlestick

I haven't done winter camping with no tent. I haven't lived anywhere where it gets below 0. The coldest I have slept outside was in a tent when it was 13 degrees out. I would love to camp in a colder environment though. I like the cold and the 13 F didn't feel very cold at all.

Well you can check with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, they are looking for some help this winter on some expeditions for the Ice worm work this winter... They live on Glaciers.

Ice worm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ice worm

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Jump to: navigation, search
For methane ice worms, see Hesiocaeca methanicola.
Ice wormScientific classificationKingdom:AnimaliaPhylum:AnnelidaClass:ClitellataSubclass:OligochaetaOrder:HaplotaxidaFamily:EnchytraeidaeGenus:Mesenchytraeus
[SIZE=2]Eisen, 1878 [1][/SIZE]
Ice worms are species of the worm genus Mesenchytraeus that live in glacial ice. They include Mesenchytraeus solifugus, M. harrimani, M. kuril, M. maculatus and M. obscurus.
The first ice worms species were discovered in 1887 in Alaska, on the Muir Glacier .[2] These glacier ice worms can be found on glaciers in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. They have not been found in other glaciated regions of the world. The name "solifugus" is Latin for "sun-avoiding", as ice worms retreat underneath the ice before dawn. Enzymes in ice worms have very low optimal temperatures, and can be denatured at even a few degrees above 0 °C (32 °F). When ice worms are exposed to temperatures as high as 5 °C (41 °F), their membrane structures disassociate and fall apart (i.e., "melt") causing the worm itself to "liquify". Ice worms are several centimeters long, and can be black, blue, or white in color. The ice worms come to the surface of the glaciers in the evening and morning. On Suiattle Glacier in the North Cascades population counts indicated over 7 billion ice worms on that glacier alone.

What the hired help is going to be is to do the snow snake patrol, they are the natural predator for the ice worm. They have very small teeth and since they live in sub zero temps, they are about six feet long, with a seal like fur that is white and have an anti-freeze type of body fluid like some frogs so the cold doesn't affect them. But if they bit you, it is like pouring liquid nitrogen on your skin, you get an immediate case of frost bite. So you would be monitoring the sensors to tell the science techs that they are in the area.... Pay for that type of work is unbelievable!

[Metlakatla]

Seriously, you probably won't be able to find any winter hunting guiding or hiking type of work, but there are places that have dog sled and snowmachine tours geared towards day tourists. You could start out doing something like that. As I aid, Chena Hot Springs might be a good place to start. I think there would be work of that type in Girdwood, as well, which might be a good place for you to start because it doesn't get as cold there as it does up around Fairbanks.