Wally Carlo is an Athabascan who was born in 1946 to Poldine and William Carlo in Tanana, Alaska, and grew up in Ruby, Galena, and Fairbanks. Despite living in the city and getting an education in business, Wally grew up living a traditional subsistence lifestyle based upon hunting, trapping and fishing. He learned how to travel and survive in the wilds of interior Alaska and to be a keen observer of the world around him. In fact, between 1969 and 1980, Wally lived in Tanana and hunted,... Read More

Bill Demoski is an Athabascan who grew up in Koyukuk, and lived in the Galena area on the Yukon River in interior Alaska, living a traditional hunting, trapping and fishing-based lifestyle. His father, Aloysius Demoski, was a dog team mail carrier in the 1920s and 1930s who depended on good lead dogs to help him determine where the ice was unsafe. Bill moved to Fairbanks around 2006 where he has applied his general knowledge of river ice to the Tanana River.

Bill shared his knowledge... Read More

Larry Hinzman is Vice Chancellor for Research and a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Previously, he served as the director of the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks from 2007 to 2015, and has been a professor of water resources. He is a specialist in environmental engineering, environmental quality science, hydrology, and ice dynamics, with a particular interest in surface and subsurface flow and... Read More

Originally from Norway, Espen Jervsjo has lived in Manley Hot Springs, Alaska for twenty years where he has done a lot of traveling on the Tanana River in the winter. He has been a trapper and since 1997 has set trail for the Iron Dog Snowmachine Race. According to Espen, he drives thousands of miles each year on his snowmachine on the river. He has come to understand the challenging ice conditions that develop on the lower Tanana River from Manley to Tanana and knows how to be safe when... Read More

Originally from Norway, Knut Kielland is an ecologist and associate professor of ecology with the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He has traveled extensively on interior Alaska lakes and rivers in winter, both as a scientist and as a dog musher. His perspective in the Dangerous Ice Project Jukebox is a mixture of personal experience and observation, and scientific understanding.

Jack Reakoff was born in 1957 in Anchorage, Alaska and came to Wiseman, Alaska as a boy in 1971 with his parents Rick and June Reakoff and his sisters, Heidi and Missy. Jack has been living there on and off since, and by so doing has become one of the longest-term residents of Wiseman. Jack lives a subsistence-based lifestyle focused on hunting, trapping, berry picking, and gardening. He has worked as a trapper, hunting guide, commercial fisherman, and tour guide. With an interest in history... Read More

Dr. William Schneider was the curator of the Oral History program from its inception in 1980 until his retirement in 2011. He has devoted his career to the preservation of the tradition of oral storytelling and oral history though his creation of Project Jukebox, a vast collection of oral histories gathered from all over Alaska that brilliantly combines modern technology with a sensitivity to the richness and immense cultural value of oral traditions. Bill is well known and respected for his... Read More

Peter grew up in the McGrath area on the Kuskokwim River in interior Alaska. His father was a captain on the riverboats that supplied the villages. Peter grew up learning about unsafe ice conditions. He has worked with the local search and rescue squad in McGrath and is particularly interested in sharing what he knows about survival skills. Peter shared his knowledge and experience about interior Alaska river ice conditions at the 2004 Dangerous Ice Workshop.

Originally from New Mexico, Matthew Sturm earned his Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1989. He has spent thirty years studying snow, ice and permafrost in the Arctic. His research concentration is thermal effects of snow cover, spatial distribution of snow and vegetation, and effects of climate change. He has been the leader of more than thirty winter expeditions in pursuit of his science, including many long-distance snow machine treks across Alaska and Canada... Read More