By Wednesday night, October 19, Arnold Brower’s holes finally started to pay off. At the Thursday morning meeting with Ron Morris and Cindy, Brower offered to try to cut breathing holes clear out to the pressure ridge five or six miles away. In the meantime, village elders thoroughly versed in the ways of their native habitat would search for a way through it. At Brower’s suggestion, Morris tersely ordered Dan Fauske, Barrow’s budget director, to authorize Eskimo search teams to target by land and air weak spots in the massive ice wall. Fauske was not accustomed to being treated like a supplicant. Morris’s request sparked his ire. Who did this guy think he was? Fauske wondered. Only after Arnold Brower interceded, saying it was his idea, did Fauske relent. Eskimo hunters directed their helicopter pilots to promising routes through the ice ridge where they marked potential pathways by dropping plastic bags filled with red Kool Aid crystals. The red markings stood out clearly against the universal white backdrop.
