Extreme commutes

[MooMoo2]

What's the longest, toughest, or most unusual commute you've done on a regular basis? Having a job as a long haul truck driver or pilot doesn't count.

My longest one way commute was 55 miles and involved an elevation change of 5000 feet. If I didn't go anywhere else besides home and work, I'd spend about 3 hours on the road each day.

I wasn't the most extreme commuter in my office, though. One of my co-workers lived 400 miles away. She flew back to her home every Friday night and rented an apartment in the city during the weekdays.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by MooMoo2

What's the longest, toughest, or most unusual commute you've done on a regular basis?

Not sure this exactly matches your criteria, but I once climbed eleven flights of stairs three times in three hours. In the dark.

Once to carry up a fully charged UPS, a second time to carry up a generator to power the UPS, and then a third time to carry up a tank of gas to fill the generator.

Electricity was less reliable back then in Bim, and that site was a critical relay site....

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by MooMoo2

What's the longest, toughest, or most unusual commute you've done on a regular basis? Having a job as a long haul truck driver or pilot doesn't count.

I know a fellow who is a pilot that lived in Seattle, but his standard assigned flight that he flew was Hawai'i to Japan. So, to get to his starting spot he would have to dead-head to Hawai'i, that is the commute to the job.

Heard tell of a fireman who lived quite far from his work. The minimum distance of his commute was ~670 miles, each way. He would stack shifts together and fly home in his private plane for his days/weeks off.

First week that I worked at my current location I was house-sitting for a friend and had a ~55 mile commute, each way. Some folks that work for the same organization that I do (in a different location and department) commute at least 90 miles each way on a daily basis. They had made the local news for an act of heroism. The story told the city that they lived in, I just punched that in and the job site into google and got the number (and a current time of ~2.5 hours or greater). They where part of a van-pool.

[Mark Rose]

I think any commute over 30 minutes is unreasonably long.

That being said, there are thousands of people who commute between eastern Canada and Fort McMurray (yes, where the fire just happened). The distance is about 3500 km (2100 miles). They usually work two weeks then get a week off.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by MooMoo2

What's the longest, toughest, or most unusual commute you've done on a regular basis?

I used to commute between Cambridge and Brno for one week every month.

You did say "regular", not "daily".

[Spherical Cow]

If a commute that you do daily but only for a few months or weeks at a time qualifies, then many of the field jobs I've been on could fit in the "unusual" commute category. Doing exploration geophysics, we're sometimes living in field camps, and going by helicopter to and from the survey grid every day. Often spectacular scenery, but there is also the lingering worry that weather will move in during the day, meaning the helicopter may not be able to retrieve you at the end of the day. I've never been stuck and unable to commute back to camp, but many of my co-workers have.

Norm