The frigid winters, dizzyingly high mountains and ice-blue glaciers of Alaska mean that it is not a place for the faint hearted. The wild and dangerous beauty of this, America's most remote and inhospitable state, has inspired many adventure writers and thrill seekers over the years, who come to the state to test themselves against the extremes of nature.

Alaska is the largest of the American states and is situated in the far North West of the North American continent; the climate is more akin to the Arctic than the rest of the continental United States and its rugged terrain serves as the home for a myriad array of wildlife.

Tales of survival amidst this savage landscape dominate Alaskan literature; outdoor enthusiasts such as the poet Robert Service have composed works that bring the Alaskan wilderness to life and reveal both the beauty and the danger of this remote land.

In 2005, Werner Herzog's film Grizzly Man perhaps best revealed this beauty and danger in a powerful documentary about an amateur wildlife preservationist who lived among Alaska's bear population for 13 summers before being killed by a Grizzly bear.

Sean Penn’s Oscar nominated film Into the Wild, based on Jon Krakauer’s book of the same name, depicts the personal suffering and hardship that an individual must undergo to survive alone amidst the harshness of the Alaskan wilderness.