So You Think You Can Hack It? The Cold, Hard Fucking Truth About Alaska

[Warpy]

32. I have cousins who love it

They're bush pilots, sometime fishing guides, small town cafe owners, and mechanics. All of them live in places where they need to fly into Anchorage for major supplies.

Dunno if I'd been able to manage with my lousy health. Barring that, the limiting factors for me wouldn't have been the winters, although that outhouse at -40 would be grim (pro tip: keep the seat next to the woodstove, take it with you when you need to go), it would have been the summers with that fog of ravenous mosquitoes. Anemia would have killed me quickly.

My cousins are all getting up there but none has talked about retiring elsewhere. They love it that much.

That's the key, I think, you have to love it.