January 7, 2018

Adventure Bikes and Whale Bones - Bjørn Olson

In the summer of 2017, four Alaskan adventurers, Bjørn Olson, Kim McNett, Daniel Countiss, and Alayne Tetor, set out from the village of Point Hope and fat biked and packrafted to the northern-most community in the United States, Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow).

Photos and captions by Bjørn Olson.

Loaded fat-bikes rest against a bowhead whale bone garden in the village of Point Hope. In the summer of 2017, four Alaskan adventurers, Bjørn Olson, Kim McNett, Daniel Countiss and Alayne Tetor, set out from the village of Point Hope with the aim of cycling and packrafting to the northern-most community in the U.S., Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow).

Kim McNett, Daniel Countiss, and Alayne Tetor ride over the firm tundra of the Lisburne Hills, the westernmost extent of the Brooks Range.

Packrafting in Front of Corwin: Three Alaskan adventurers packraft in front of the Corwin bluffs in the far north of Arctic Alaska. As the four-person team made their way from Point Hope to Utqiagvik by fat-bike, they often employed Alpacka packrafts to cover unrideable terrain.

Skull Cliffs: Kim McNett deflates her prototype packraft on the northern end of the Skull Cliffs. This series of miles-long cliffs was the last obstacle the team had to circumvent by packraft before being able to ride their fat-bikes to their final goal, the summit of Alaska, Utqiagvik.