David Andersen
Fairbanks “Base Camp Manager”

Age 54
Married, with twin daughters (age 28)
2 grandchildren
Hometown: Fairbanks, Alaska
Interests: Aviation, Arctic Travel, Wildlife, Alaska Native Cultures

I moved to Fairbanks 34 years ago to attend the University of Alaska and have been here ever since. I studied wildlife management in school, graduated in 1976, and began a long career with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (now retired). My wife and I raised our twin daughters here, built a log cabin in the woods, kept a team of sled dogs for a while, and have enjoyed the beauty and challenges of living in the far North which we are now passing on to our grandkids. I now run my own small consulting company specializing in subsistence issues and working with Alaska Native communities and elders to record, document, and preserve traditional knowledge. 

An early interest in aviation led me to get a commercial pilots license. Between pleasure flying and job-related travel I’ve been fortunate to have visited almost every corner of Alaska. This sparked an intense interest in seeing other parts of the Arctic and meeting the people who live there. I began making long-distance trips by snowmobile in 1999 on the Trans-Nunavut Snowmobile Expedition from Yellowknife, NWT to Iqaluit on Baffin Island. Since 1999 I’ve logged a little over 15,000 kilometers by snowmobile on 5 major expeditions, mostly in the Canadian Arctic and Barrenlands. I will be sitting out this trip! As “base camp manager” for the Alaska Canada Barrenlands Traverse I will be organizing the outreach program with schools and forwarding field reports from the crew to the website so we can all track this amazing adventure.

........................Off Baffin Island in 1999......................................... Hornby Bay, Great Bear Lake, 2006...................