Journey to the Far North

Pleading for sleep under the midnight sun

Midnight sun

By Jack Hamann
Special to CNN.com

Check out the synonyms for the word "arctic" in our handy thesaurus: Freezing. Frosty. Chilly. Cold. Bitter. Icy. Numbing.

The thesaurus is only half right.

From November through February, the sun disappears in most of the Arctic. Cold? You bet. Polar bears and frozen ice? Sure. Igloos? Not many left, but you might find a few.

But between May and September, any igloos would be a pool of water.

The truth is, the Arctic is bitter cold only half of the year. The Arctic Circle, at roughly 66 degrees north latitude, marks the southernmost point where, on June 21, the sun never sets. The farther north you go, the longer the "no-set" period extends. Strangely, the farther north we traveled, the warmer the air temperature became. By the time we reached Tuk, it topped out at a balmy 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

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At first, traveling into the land of the midnight sun is a great rush. For several days, we'd marvel when our watches read 10 p.m. and the sun was still high overhead. Without the usual clues of darkness, we had little incentive to fall asleep, and stumbled into a pattern of nodding off late and waking up early. Eventually, of course, it caught up with us. We began suffering from a rarely diagnosed travel malady: north-south jetlag.

Tuk sunset, 2 a.m.

The farther north we traveled, the harder it was to tell east from west, since the sun essentially circles the sky, dipping briefly at some latitudes, and never leaving the sky without light. For photography, the much-loved "golden hours" of low light come in the wee hours of the morning, leaving many middle-of-the-day shots washed out in flat light.

The northern lights still dance in summer; you just can't see them. Ditto for stars, and much the same for the moon, lost in the perpetual daylight. We began to miss the dark.

Obviously, the people who live here year-round have a different appreciation for the sun, especially when they spend most of the winter without it. Yet we heard locals begin to pine for a little less sunshine, despite big vegetables that thrive in 24-hour photosynthesis, regardless of tiny electric bills because residents so rarely need lights.

But complaints about daylight aren't well received. Winter's relentless dark follows summer's unending light. There'll be plenty of time to whine when the sun stops shining..

If you'd like to ask Jack Hamann a question about his trip, send him an email at cnnjack@aol.com

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