Greg Olsen is the president and a groomer operator for the North Country Snowmobile Club of Northern Ontonagon County. It was in 2018 that a friend of his in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, first offered him a job running a SnowCat on the frozen shores of the Arctic Ocean in the northern tip of Alaska.

“Temps are always below zero. Right now, we’re at 30 below,” Olsen states. “The company I work for is UIC, a Native Alaskan company that supports the oil and gas fields in Alaska.”

Olsen is a mechanic, operating a Piston Bully SnowCat on the Arctic Ocean.

“I maintain the ice roads for semi-trucks. The trucks, like those shown on the TV Show “Ice Road Truckers,” haul material to a man-made island. That island is 14 miles out on the ice.”

Northern lights at the northern tip of Alaska

Olsen is very familiar with Piston Pully, as that is one of the groomers he runs and teaches others to run for the North Country Snowmobile Club. Olsen is one of the leaders who have been instrumental in the success of the club, providing the area between Greenland and White Pine gets snow.

Something they did not have for most of this past winter — “That is if you can call it a winter,” explains Olsen.

As far as the ice on the Arctic Ocean being safe enough for his SnowCat and the semi-trucks?

“The ice is safe enough till the end of April. Currently the ice is 5-feet thick. Plenty safe for the trucks and the polar bears,” Olsen chuckles.

Olsen stays at a camp at the most northern road in all of North America.

Greg Olsen captured a image of a polar bear.

“It’s like a Holiday Inn. Food is great, but no pasties.”

He works 42 days straight for 12-plus hours a day in brutal conditions.

“The coldest it has been so far this year is minus 40, with a wind-chill of minus 78.”

Olsen has seen red fox, caribou, and polar bears on the ice road.

Does he like his job?

A view down an ice road over the Arctic Ocean in the northern tip of Alaska

“It’s an awesome job. It’s an experience of a lifetime. That is if you like winter, which we didn’t have in the Copper Country (this year).”

Olsen will return to be the president of the North Country Snowmobile Club next winter, along with his grooming duties. However, Olsen doesn’t expect any polar bears on the trail from Ontonagon to White Pine.