Logan Claus is 18 and has just got her pilots licence. When her sister, Ellie, was the same age, she drove the 1200 mile, 10-day Iditarop dog-sled race, from Anchorage to Nome alone the youngest person ever to complete it. But when you live in the middle of perhaps the biggest wilderness on earth, this is the kind of thing you do for fun.
Home for Ellie and Logan is Ultima Thule Lodge in Wrangell-St Elias National Park, Alaska, built by their grandfather in the Fifties. The name means land remote beyond reckoning, which just about sums it up.
Those who make it here (via Anchorage or Valdez and onwards in one of their private, two six- seater planes) are generally blown away. With 350 miles to the nearest food store, they grow/hunt most of their own food. There is no itinerary: you might decide to fly to a glacier, trek for grizzly bears, go ice fishing it is up to you, and with only five cabins, and practically the same number of tiny planes, if everyone wants to do something different- they can.
Rates are around £990 pp per day- but... that does include private flight transfers, plus zipping round in planes everywhere, and all your food, drink and activities. Pricey, yes, but worth it: we're talking about exploring land noone may have ever set foot on.
Ultimathulelodge.com
