Elite Traveler March-April 2015

INSPIRE ADVENTURE

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ALASKA FISH WITH GRIZZLIES AND SOAR LIKE A BIRD AROUND THE GLACIERS

he has to tether the plane like a goat, then when it's time to leave using the slope to take off, he cuts the rope with a knife at the last minute. Or he can drop you down on an abandoned gold mine, swoop like a buzzard above Mount St Elias, the highest vertical rock face in the world. Back in your cabin, kick back with a glacial-mud face mask or peruse a collection of Alaskan artefacts. And over a few local craft beers, ask Claus to tell you the story about the 1,000lb marlin that got away. It's a corker. Price: Eight days from $9,500 per person. Contact: Samantha Mullen, +44 203 073 6842 quintessentiallytravel.com

With the nearest road 100 miles away, the only way to get to Ultima Thule is by private plane. Your pilot may well be Paul Claus, whose family were the first settlers in the Chitina River valley. It’s part of the US’s biggest, but least explored, national park, Wrangell St Elias, the size of Switzerland. Claus's five-cabin lodge is where serious outdoorsmen and women – and publicity shy celebrities such as Jim Carrey – come to test their mettle. Claus is one of the original Alaskan bush pilots and an old-school aviator who can land his shiny red de Havilland Otter on a dime. He’ll take you ultimate skiing, landing on a mountainside so steep