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This episode originally aired in 2023.

A listener note. Against the Odds features dramatizations that are based on true events.

Some elements, including dialogue, may be invented, but everything is based on research.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game had no role in the production of this podcast. Bart Petuel takes a deep breath, letting the freezing air burn his lungs.

His legs ache from the effort of hiking uphill through deep snow.

As he exhales, his breath clouds in front of him, and he can't help but smile. It's early afternoon on February 6th,

2021, 10 miles outside of Haynes, Alaska. Haines is a small community located along Alaska's

inside passage, a marine waterway that connects the state's southeastern coast to British Columbia

and Washington State. It's geographically isolated, to say the least. The primary way to get to

Haynes is by boat. A ferry runs a couple times a week from

Juneau, the state capital, about 90 miles away. Otherwise, there's one road that winds over a rugged

mountain pass into a remote corner of Canada. Haines calls itself the adventure capital of Alaska.

It draws intrepid souls who are happy to trade the

perks of big city life for its remoteness and stunning beauty. For Bart, a tall 38-year-old from

Poland, it's heaven. His first glimpse of Haynes was from a snowboarding video he saw as a teenager.

Instantly, he fell in love, the icy blue waters, the soaring eagles, the snow-covered mountains.

All of it drew him.

When he announced that one day he would move there, his friends and family scoffed. But in 2013, at the age of 30,

that's exactly what he did. And it's been everything he dreamed it would be. He's happiest

where he is right now, in unspoiled backcountry, far from civilization, surrounded by towering hemlock and spruce trees,

...