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The Light and Dark of It

We already explored the effects of living in virtual darkness during Alaska's winter solstice. But what about the flip side of living with 22 hours of light during the summer solstice - what would that do to your psyche? .  Photographs by Chad Windham.

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With the exception of obituarists and Dear Abby, journalists tend to be gluttons for life-threatening situations. It was for this reason that my photographer, Chad Windham, and I found ourselves on a white-­knuckle flight around the summit of the 20,320-foot Mount McKinley­ in Alaska's Denali National Park during last year's winter solstice, and it's the very same reason why we decided to return during the summer solstice. Only this time, we decided to up the adrenaline ante by actually landing on a nearby glacier, God willing.

Of course, this isn't the sole purpose of our journey. After hanging out in Fairbanks last December to see what life without light was all about (the town plunges into 22 hours of darkness during the shortest days of the year), it was decided that the opposite would be interesting as well. How does one sleep when there are 22 hours of daylight, especially when those other two remaining hours aren't really all that dark, anyway?

Naturally, we had to find ways to fill all those hours - and how better than with perilous activities, like landing a five-seat Cessna 185 prop plane on a pack of ice high up in the jagged peaks of the 600-mile Alaska Range? After getting my will in order, I quiz the pilots at Fly Denali as to the exact stupidity level of an excursion such as this. "How do you know you aren't landing on top of a crevasse?" I inquire. "You don't," says pilot James Hoffman. Fabulous.