ANCHORAGE, Alaska — As someone who's had a life-long abhorrence of cold, I was surprised by the emotional impact of this remote and uncompromising land when I first visited in 2011. It's almost a relief, despite its mostly harsh and unsympathetic climate, to realize there are still places on this earth that man hasn't harnessed, spoiled and beaten into submission.
We're welcomed by temperatures of -37 Celsius on arrival. We'll be completing the second leg of a journey that began in Edmonton, travelling in a convoy of nine Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans. Our final destination is Coldfoot: the very last stop on the Alaska highway, and one of the best places on earth to see the fabled Northern Lights.
The Sprinter, we're to find, is well-suited to this environment. They're developed to withstand extreme cold through rigorous testing at a dedicated facility in Northern Sweden. They feature a 34,000 BTU diesel heater that can be set to pre-warm before start-up. An anti-gelling agent has been added to the fuel.
We're scheduled to leave at 8:00 a.m. the following morning -- most of us eager, some with just a bit of trepidation.
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| Photo: Lesley Wimbush |
We're welcomed by temperatures of -37 Celsius on arrival. We'll be completing the second leg of a journey that began in Edmonton, travelling in a convoy of nine Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans. Our final destination is Coldfoot: the very last stop on the Alaska highway, and one of the best places on earth to see the fabled Northern Lights.
The Sprinter, we're to find, is well-suited to this environment. They're developed to withstand extreme cold through rigorous testing at a dedicated facility in Northern Sweden. They feature a 34,000 BTU diesel heater that can be set to pre-warm before start-up. An anti-gelling agent has been added to the fuel.
We're scheduled to leave at 8:00 a.m. the following morning -- most of us eager, some with just a bit of trepidation.