Paul Claus

Name: Paul Claus
Age: 60
Residence: Wrangell-St Elias National Park

Years lived in Alaska: 60

What first brought you to live in Alaska: I was born here

Current Location:  Ultima Thule Lodge at the headwaters of the Chitina River.
Date of Photo: July 30, 2020
Temperature: 69 F 
Current Weather: Mostly clear

What first brought you to Alaska:

Well, I first came to Alaska, I didn’t have any choice. I was born here, but it was a really good thing. My parents first came to Alaska in the mid fifties.

How has Alaska captured your heart?

Well, first of all, it’s never turned me off, really. I’ve had hard times. It’s captured my heart because I love adventure and I love wild places and Alaska’s got it. I’ve also been very blessed to travel lots of parts of the world looking for other potential wild places and I haven’t found anything that compares. So it’s a very special place and I feel blessed and extremely privileged to get to live here.

Describe just one of your favorite “Best Days” or  “Most memorable experiences”  in Alaska. 

Well, I like to think that almost every day is the most memorable experience. Each day is new. I’ve had so many experiences. Been a lot of close calls maybe some would say. Three, nine lives, three. Many, many, many experiences. Sometimes the worst ones you remember. I remember having an engine failure in a Cessna 185 up at 10,000 feet and glided down to 8,000 feet on a glacier and landed there and was stuck in the plane for four days with only in my underwear. That was a memorable experience. I think of it often. Also remember getting stuck in a storm on a mountain for 17 days past our pickup day. That also was memorable experience. But I have lots and lots of good ones too.

What in Life do you know for sure?

What I know for sure in this life. That’s a good question. And I absolutely know something for sure. What I know for sure in this life is that the creator of all of this and the sustainer of everything that I do and see and experience is real and is alive and it’s possible for me to have a relationship with him in that his word, his spoken word, is true and is the way to live life. That is what I know for sure.