Alaska

Nick Knowles's Alaskan journey begins at dawn in snowy Anchorage and takes him due north to the USA's coldest city, Fairbanks, taking in the mighty Matanuska Glacier on the way. Arriving with the first snowfall of winter, Nick sets off on his 12-hour trip as dawn is breaking, giving sun-tinged views of the snow-capped mountain lining the track. His first stop is in Wasilla where he travels by snowmobile to the Matanuska Glacier. There he tramps through the snow to find a tunnel inside the glacier. In Wasilla, he visits a train shed to help with the restoration of Engine 557, a WWII veteran steam locomotive. Back on his own train, the track ploughs through a wilderness area with no scheduled stops, only flag stops. This region is popular with ‘off-gridders' who live in the woods, relying on themselves for food and fuel. Nick meets Taylor and Anna, who moved here with their two children last year to find out what life is like in the snowy desert. The train moves on past the highest mountain in North America, Denali, once named Mount McKinley after the 25th US president, but after a 40-year campaign, finally restored to its indigenous Athabaskan name of Denali. To challenge himself, Nick joins the Denali Destroyer Dolls, a roller derby team, for training – and falls over. Many times. He joins an Athabascan mask-making class and hears how Alaska has the highest proportion of indigenous people of any state in the USA: one in five of the population are at least part Alaska Native. Arriving in snow-covered Fairbanks at twilight, Nick's train journey is over. On his last day he visits the largest year-round ice museum in the world at Chena Hot Springs. There he finds world champion ice carver Steve Brice, winner of 31 world titles, who shows him round. The museum consists of more than 1,000 tons of ice carved into fantastic structures: a wedding chapel, an igloo and a bar complete with bar stools and glasses, all made of ice. Nick joins Chena hotel owner Bernie at the ice bar for an appletini – on ice, of course. Bernie tells him, ‘The only thing cold in Alaska is the weather'. Nick can only agree.