Archive > The Amazing Race 18 Spoilers and Speculation
TAR 18 Pre-Race Speculation
Dånooky:
I wonder how will WRP decide the teams this time (if it indeed is an All-Stars)
inomu:
--- Quote from: mjriches2005 on October 23, 2010, 12:37:50 PM --- Even an actual Pit Stop in Canada or Finland would be nice. Canada has been visited only twice and Finland once and both of these countries were either a intermediate stop or in Finland's case a TBC point.
--- End quote ---
I really doubt that they're coming to Finland because northern Finland = northern Sweden/Norway (except less mountains, more forests). And southern Finland in November/early December is the most boring and ugly place on earth (and I can say this because I'm Finnish). But if they'll come to Finland I got my camera ready!
Plaidmoon:
--- Quote from: mjriches2005 on October 23, 2010, 01:32:17 PM ---
--- Quote from: DrRox on October 23, 2010, 01:20:56 PM ---
--- Quote from: mjriches2005 on October 23, 2010, 12:37:50 PM --- Fairbanks or Barrow
--- End quote ---
You are really not serious are you?
--- End quote ---
I am serious, everytime the race visits Alaska, its mainly around the Anchorage area. Fairbanks is a good sized city and Barrow is the most northernmost city in the US. Fairbanks has alot around there and Barrow is right next to the Arctic Ocean. Imagine teams taking a dip in the frozen sea as a task, they swam in a frozen lake in South Korea during Season 4. Plus Juneau the state capital is also on my list due to the mountainous backdrop and the nearby glaciers.
--- End quote ---
I doubt that TAR would visit Fairbanks or Barrow during a season showing in the winter/spring period because it's just too cold. From the weather underground, I found this weather data:
Fairbanks
November 25th (a random date a month from now that I picked)
Average High Temp 7F Record High Temp 54F
Average Low Temp -11F Record Low Temp -43
June 4th (a date that would have occurred near the end of the running of the current season)
Average High Temp 68F Record High Temp 86F
Average Low Temp 45F Record Low Temp 29F
Barrow
November 25th
Average High Temp -5F Record High Temp 30F
Average Low Temp -10F Record Low Temp -36F
June 4th
Average High Temp 35F Record High Temp 47F
Average Low Temp 27F Record Low Temp 8F
If they visited either place in late November or December, they would be running around in zero or sub zero temperatures trying to accomplish tasks. Possibly as cold as 20 below zero. They would have to limit outdoor time greatly to avoid frostbite. Not to mention that poor Phil would likely be out there for hours unless it was an indoor pit stop. Polar bear plunge dips in the ocean would be very unwise. At the very least, you'd have teams shivering and complaining about how cold they were. That's not great TV. Also, camera and sound equipment might have issues being used in that kind of cold. I know that Fairbanks is prone to ice fog in the winter. That could impact air travel. Day time is down to about 5 hours and 15 minutes in Fairbanks and even less in Barrow.
If they ever go to either place, it would have to be in early summer for the seasons that start airing in September. Juneau is a slight possibility for November/December, but it also is subject to weather problems impacting air travel. They get some strong storms.
DrRox:
I still remember a particularily delightful day in Deadhorse. Deadhorse is about 150 miles ESE from Barrow. We actually worked outside in -75 F and a nice 70 mph breeze. We didn't work very long or very much. We kept having to go inside to warm up. Plaidmoon didnt post it, but the wind blows ALL THE TIME in the winter. See if you can find a chart with the wind chill for those conditions.
It is also very very DARK at that time of year. You would have to have a lot of extra lighting equipment/people to shoot any kind of TV production outside. So why go up there to shoot in a bldg....I am sure everyone was so excited to see the interior scenes of the ice block storage bldg in Kiruna.
As long as TAR keeps its present shooting schedule of odd numbered races in late spring and even numbered races in late fall, it would be beyond ludicrous, into the realm of absurdity to go there around the winter solstice to film TAR18. The best time to shoot TAR on the Slope would be late July/early Aug and thats to close to the start of the fall TV schedule.
I once spent an hour layover for my flight in Barrow in the winter....it was about 59 minutes to long. To be quite frank, TAR has already shown the interesting native stuff in Alaska in previous TARs. The only thing left, that would not be a repeat, would be something related to the oil industry/pipeline related activities around Deadhorse.
Fairbanks is in a hole between the Brooks Range to the north and the Alaska Range to the south. In winter, it is notorious for white out conditions. It the summer, you could do some of the gold panning stuff or do some military stuff at the army fort or air force base, ala Guam.
Plaidmoon:
--- Quote from: DrRox on October 24, 2010, 06:23:12 AM ---I still remember a particularily delightful day in Deadhorse. Deadhorse is about 150 miles ESE from Barrow. We actually worked outside in -75 F and a nice 70 mph breeze. We didn't work very long or very much. We kept having to go inside to warm up. Plaidmoon didnt post it, but the wind blows ALL THE TIME in the winter. See if you can find a chart with the wind chill for those conditions.
It is also very very DARK at that time of year. You would have to have a lot of extra lighting equipment/people to shoot any kind of TV production outside. So why go up there to shoot in a bldg....I am sure everyone was so excited to see the interior scenes of the ice block storage bldg in Kiruna.
As long as TAR keeps its present shooting schedule of odd numbered races in late spring and even numbered races in late fall, it would be beyond ludicrous, into the realm of absurdity to go there around the winter solstice to film TAR18. The best time to shoot TAR on the Slope would be late July/early Aug and thats to close to the start of the fall TV schedule.
I once spent an hour layover for my flight in Barrow in the winter....it was about 59 minutes to long. To be quite frank, TAR has already shown the interesting native stuff in Alaska in previous TARs. The only thing left, that would not be a repeat, would be something related to the oil industry/pipeline related activities around Deadhorse.
Fairbanks is in a hole between the Brooks Range to the north and the Alaska Range to the south. In winter, it is notorious for white out conditions. It the summer, you could do some of the gold panning stuff or do some military stuff at the army fort or air force base, ala Guam.
--- End quote ---
I couldn't find a wind chill chart that covered conditions as extreme as you described, but I found the wind chill formula at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/windchill/index.shtml. If my calculations are correct (and I'm not all that certain they are - I had a much higher number the first time I calculated it), the wind chill for -75F (-59.4C for those more familiar with Celsius temperatures) and 70 mph winds is -144.7F (-96C). That sounds nightmarish. :holysheep The worst i saw during my 3 winters in North Dakota was roughly -30F (-34.4C) with a 35 mph wind. That was a -69F (-56.1 C) wind chill. That was bad enough, I can only imagine how much worse it would be to drop it another 75 degrees.
I've never been to Alaska, so I can't vouch for the winds up there. North Dakota is much further south but it did tend to be windy. I had a friend in North Dakota who had lived in Barrow for seven years and he said that people mostly stayed indoors during the winter unless they had a good reason to go out. He said there wasn't a lot to see or do up there aside from the oil industry. That and polar bears. :escape
He did say that because the oil workers made so much :toast, they had quite a few of the fast food outlets you'd see down here. While that's interesting (at least to me), I don't think it would be an attraction for TAR.
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