INTERVIEW: Sue Aikens on her ‘Life Below Zero’
Living in a remote terrain where the bears, wolves, caribou and foxes outnumber the humans, Sue Aikens is officially off the grid. The star of National Geographic Channel’s Life Below Zero has a personal relationship with the hallowed, frozen ground of the Arctic tundra. Living at the Kavik River Camp above the Arctic Circle in Alaska, Aikens has her fair share of wild challenges, everything from hunting for meat, growing vegetables in cold conditions, salvaging precious fuel and keeping abreast of the weather changes.
On the new season of Life Below Zero, which airs episodes 9 p.m. Thursdays, Aikens is met with a few surprises in the northern reaches of Alaska.
“While I can’t give away episodic content, there are a few things that happened this season that are definitely kind of on-the-edge-of-your-seat things and are game-changers,” Aikens said recently during a phone interview. “A lot of the state experienced a very mild winter. Mine was very intense, and a lot of things happened. There was a lot of problem-solving and then one thing that I’ll be problem-solving for a while.”
Aikens said if she couldn’t take the challenges, she would probably move. However, she admitted that sometimes “Murphy’s law” comes and rears its head. Recently her generator broke, and then the backup generator wouldn’t start. “And every generator I owned broke down, and then the battery bank failed,” she said. “So I ordered the part, and just because of the brutality of the winter, it took me three-four months just to get a very tiny small part in correctly. And that part can be, if you’re not careful, it can be very frustrating, and you’ll dwell on that. But it’s just part of the lifestyle, and you learn to work around it. So I didn’t have lights. It was just a much darker winter than usual.”
Still, despite the darkness, Aikens was able to have a “pretty awesome” time by candlelight. Another challenge she was able to divulge: The wolves were relentless this past year.
“There’s things you get to see, things you get to experience, and what a kick in the pants it is when the challenges come in, you overcome them, and you still can walk out the door any time of the day or night during the winter and see those magical northern lights,” she said. “It never, never gets old what the world has to offer.”
Kavik is extremely remote, approximately 80 miles from the nearest road. In the month of August, and sometimes the beginning of September, Aikens welcomes hunters for the short summer season. Other than those few short weeks, she’s alone at Kavik, and that’s the way she likes it.
“If I had it my way, I’d be there alone all year round, but I can’t,” Aikens said. “They won’t let me lease the land unless I have a profitable business, so I have to blend work with what I do for my life.”
After the hunters leave in September, the next person she sees, other than the camera team from National Geographic Channel, is in May or June. “I’m a curious monkey, and when I’m alone and not having to service or do a business, then I’m able to explore to my heart’s content,” she said.
Having a camera crew document her every move in the winter seems the opposite of what Aikens prefers. However, over the past few seasons, she’s grown to enjoy the company of the camera operators, learning about their interests and adventures.
“The men and the women that they get to do these things are such fascinating people in their own right,” she said. “Rather than being bothered or feeling intruded upon, you turn it around, and I’m fascinated to hear the stories what they’ve done, what they’ve seen. … I’m always happy to know when they’re leaving. You know, I don’t want anybody there full time, but they’re wonderful while they’re there.”
Being more remote and self-reliant has been the long-term goal for Aikens, but Kavik may not be a permanent destination. “I’m under no allusions that sooner or later there is going to be something shiny on the hill that I just will not be able to not go check out, so I don’t see Kavik as the end all, be all, I’m there until the day I die,” she said. “I’m there doing what I do, trying to improve it every day that I’m there, but I know sooner or later that little shiny object is going to catch my attention. And I’ll be sledding off to see what it is.”
Aikens, perhaps the most popular person profiled on Life Below Zero, has a sizable social media presence. Her fans, called “home fries,” apparently love hearing news out of Kavik. It turns out there are many “curious” people who might not make a similar residence choice as Aikens, but who wish to vicariously live through her experiences.
“I haven’t and I don’t give a lot of thought as to the general popularity of the show, but I understand people have to be as curious as I am, maybe not as remote as I am and how I choose to go after my dreams,” she said. “But we’re all curious by nature, so any show like this, there’s a lot of people that would love to experience from the comfort and safety of their own homes. And a show like this let’s them do that. But the people that are, if you want to call them fans, I call them home fries, I have a lot of interaction with the people on my Facebook and social media, and I really, truly enjoy. I’m social. I’m really good socially. I just don’t want to live with people.”
On the show, Aikens lives a rugged frontier life. She said she loves animals, but many weeks on the show, a mammal is taken down for extra meat. Aikens said she is a part of the ecosystem, a system that she doesn’t try to dominate.
“Anybody that says they love animals and yet go to the store to buy a steak, they’re still doing the same thing,” she said. “They just don’t have an active participation in creating that steak. … So it is how I survive, and I got no problem separating Bambi from BAM-bi.”
Aikens was tight-lipped about the TV season’s secrets, but it does appear something monumental occurs to the reality-TV star. Here’s what she would allow: “Without giving away episodic content, there is something quite serious that happens with me during the filming of this season, and I was brought out of Kavik when I wasn’t expecting to. That portion was not as enjoyable, and it won’t be enjoyable for a little while longer.”
When talking to Aikens, she often comes back to some reflective moments about her life and adventures. Besides admitting to being a curious monkey who refuses to graduate from kindergarten, Aikens recognized she is growing older.
“The body is 52, and there are things that happen — injuries, other things — that are game-changers,” she said. “I have learned to do things differently. When I stop being able to work well with my environment, protect myself in the camp, it may be time to look at doing something differently, or learning how to do something differently. But in the end it’s that shiny thing that I’ve never seen before that suddenly shows up on the horizon that I’ll probably go and check out. I will always probably be remote. I will always have a unique lifestyle. I don’t fit well into the box of society, so I don’t try.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
I would like to know’how to send a get welcard to her?I
I would like to know’how to send a get well card to her?
Good luck to you in your future endeavors !! Hope you are a fast healer, I miss the show !!
This show is the best!!!!!!
I would love to correspond.
i to love the show I like that sort of life good luck to all I’m up for pen pals