Arctic Entries

Helen grew up in Pennsylvania and moved to Alaska in 1959. She spent the 60’s having kids and homesteading in Eagle River Valley. In 1970 she became chair of the Alliance for Humane Abortions. That experience changed her view of herself and women and what she and women could do. She is best known as co-author of “55 Ways to the Wilderness in Southcentral Alaska.”

Teresa is a 25-year paramedic whose career includes metro, rural, flight and SWAT medicine. For the past 18 years, she has lived in Alaska where she owned and operated 3 paramedic schools, flew medevac and ran ambulance 911. Teresa is an educator, entrepreneur, wife, mother of four, and grandmother. She is currently the director of a non-governmental organization, Mobil Medics International, which provides medical teams to disaster and underprivileged areas all over the world.

Hailing from Anchorage since birth, J.C. has made it a mission to see as much of Alaska as he can. In constant awe of nature, he likes to spend time in the woods or by the water and won’t shut up about his deer hunting trip next week. He enjoys thinking about politics, traveling, and Alaska’s future.

Britteny hails from Detroit and has lived in Anchorage for four years. Despite her serious professional demeanor as an advocate for disenfranchised Alaskans, she would like you to know that she has super-sick dance moves. Her other talents include kissing puppies and eating a lot of pasta.

Ex-professional fingerboarder Mikey Huff lives his life in Alaska as a photographer, leather worker, and owner of The Mercantile, a menswear shop in Anchorage. If he’s not taking pictures or leather crafting, he’s probably hanging out with his four legged child, Boogie.

5 Truths and 2 lies about Tim: He was born in Texas, holds a college degree that he’s sworn never to use, once painted a prison, has swum in 4 of the 5 oceans, holds an obscure world record, has ridden his bicycle to Prudhoe Bay, and thinks you’re fabulous.

Carolynn came up to Alaska 20 years ago for a summer job and left only long enough to pack up her belongings in Utah and drive the Alcan. Since then she has been working on her Alaskan skills check list with the goal of earning Sourdough status. So far, of the 4 things on the list, she has checked off peeing on the Yukon River. Carolynn’s hometown roots are in New England, which can be readily determined by the emergence of a noticeable accent after a few drinks. Her favorite things to do are sitting around a campfire, with a frosty adult beverage in hand, telling stories with friends, going places with no cell phone service and adventuring with her husky dog, Sassy.

John loves life and all of its regular every day amazingness. He is a lucky husband and father of two wonderful boys, ages seven and fifteen. He cherishes his Alaskan life and the opportunities Alaska offers us to live and experience this amazing world. He wouldn’t want to be anywhere else on earth (except maybe Hawaii twice per year or an NFL game).

When Peter was three years old, he travelled with his family of six for a year in Europe. He was nicknamed “the family friend finder” because while his family would set up the tent, he would wander off around the campground wearing nothing but his diaper and would invariably return with a complete stranger, hand in hand, his new friend, no common language, no nothing; he’d just find them and bring them home. Sometimes, he would have his newfound friend in one hand and his diaper in the other, buck naked. His folks would then thank the kind stranger for bringing him home, and sometimes a real friendship would ensue. Peter really has not changed that much, except his wardrobe is a bit more secure.

Rebecca has spent her life in Alaska, making only brief escapes to convince friends who have moved away to come back. She lives mostly on soup and the occasional bag of sour cream and onion potato chips.

Darl, a highly respected business leader, successful entrepreneur and world traveler, is thankful every day that the world is giant freak show and he gets front row seats.

Nicole is a recovering Midwesterner who has been living in Alaska for 12 years now, recouping from years of flat land. She is passionate about her work in adolescent substance abuse and human trafficking in Alaska. As a single mom of a middle school boy, she is sure she will soon have many more stories of survival, ingenuity, and last ditch efforts. Luckily, she has a great credit score and lots of energy.

Amy is an Oregonian at heart who was imported to Alaska in 2005. She loves her family, the Packers, Jamestown Revival and local food & drink. Mostly in that order.

Rafi made his move to the 49th State after graduating college out East in May (as if that was original!), and hasn’t looked back since. He manages political campaigns around the state, and is based out of Sitka. So far, since moving to Alaska five months ago, he’s found himself all over Southeast, Anchorage, Bethel, Fairbanks and the Kenai Peninsula. He loves the outdoors with all his heart, and is passionate about fly fishing, running around the back country, and flying. Like other young east coasters who have fled west (and north), he’s experiencing a lot of familial pressure to get home, so we’ll see how long this Alaska journey goes for.

Kris Lira was born in California and raised all over the United States. For the past 33 years, she has happily called Alaska her home. She lived many years before she married Paul, but that’s really when her life began. Now that their three children are all amazing adults with amazing lives of their own, Kris is hoping to become the Colonel Sanders of her generation and really start something big as she looks beyond middle age! Any ideas?

Jen hails from Canada, where she first fell in love with the outdoors. She fell in love with Alaska in 2004 and spent 10 years visiting, on frequent trips kayaking and hiking in Southeast, before making the move official. The wild Alaska outdoors continues to inspire new endeavors and current interests include skiing, running and hiking with her young family, but anything goes!

Kent Haina has travelled extensively in the Air Force and airline industry. He was born and raised in Hawaii, and eventually landed in Alaska. He is a 747 Captain and instructor for a major airline.

Jonathan is a Chicagoan, a musician, a skier, and an epidemiologist. He learned to walk on ice skates, and learned to cook on a camp stove. He’s been a few places, too, like West Africa and Atlanta. Now he lives in Anchorage and thinks it’s pretty great. In his opinion, breakfast is the best meal of the day, but that’s more of a fact.

Christy is a most-of-her-life Alaskan who works in education and thinks high school students are the best. She works to make time for travel and writing and is a compulsive editor... in fact, she is probably re-writing this intro in her head even now.

Born in Washington State, Pat moved to Alaska in 1973 and has worked for the Alaska Zoo for the past 30 years. Hobbies include wrestling with bear cubs, moving elephants and donating golf balls to the wilderness.