INTERVIEW: Sue Aikens on her lighthouse at the top of the world

Photo: Sue Aikens pours fresh water for her cabin from the frozen river outside her cabin on Life Below Zero. Photo courtesy of BBC Worldwide / Provided by Nat Geo Pressroom with permission.

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Sue Aikens, the star of the hit reality series Life Below Zero on Nat Geo, always wanted to be a lighthouse keeper. And in some ways she has achieved her goal.

Aikens operates Kavik River Camp, located at 69.4N x 146.54W in the upper reaches of Alaska. For those unable to figure out coordinates on a map, go about as high as you can travel on a map of the United States. Then go a little higher. That’s where Aikens has lived for decades, and her adventures in the snow, conserving fuel and keeping the resident grizzly population at bay, have entranced viewers and proved wildly popular.

Today, Aikens is a force to be reckoned with on social media, and many of her catch phrases have entered into the vernacular of her dedicated TV fans. “I’m right here bumping the edge of winter now,” Aikens said in a recent phone interview with Hollywood Soapbox. “I’m in the 30s, off and on snow and freezing. I’ve got grizzly bears just within a couple miles, a couple of them within a few hundred yards, so it’s definitely life below zero right now.”

The grizzly bears are always a source of entertainment and caution for Aikens. She has named a group of them as the Rat Pack, and local wildlife officials tell her there are 83 bruins tagged, monitored and denning within 10 miles of her camp.

“And some of those fall off the radar, and there’s probably two, three times that amount that are not tagged and monitored,” she said. “But the grizzlies here are living to a fairly ripe old age. Marty, before she was poached a few years back, she was 42 years old and had a set of cubs, so they’re monitoring them to see what in the world helps a bear in these kind of conditions live so stinking long and be so healthy. It is a part of everyday life, but you know I’ve got a little sow with a new cub. And there’s a boar, a male grizzly, and he’s pretty sizable. But baby cub is boar’s favorite food. They don’t like competition, so they eat them early. So it’s a full-circle thing going on out here right now.”

Although Aikens has a second property other than Kavik, she gave this interview while sitting in her beloved camp, a place she has lived in her 30s, 40s and now 50s. She welcomes clients throughout the year — mostly hunters and scientists who are studying these northern regions. Other times, she’s blessedly alone, except of course when the Nat Geo team comes knocking.

“It’s not a spur of the moment thing,” Aikens said of the filming for the series. “We talk about it a little bit ahead of time, and we kind of gauge each other’s interest. They’re really respectful, and I enjoy the process really of how it all goes down. They don’t tell me what to do. They ask me, ‘Hey, we want to come out during this timeframe. Are you doing anything of interest?’ And I’ll go, ‘Yeah, you know, I’m doing this and this and this.’ ‘Oh, wow, would you mind if you we film that?’ And sometimes it’s, ‘Heck no, get out here.’ Other times it’s like, ‘Well, I actually have to get it done super-quick, so yeah that one’s out.’ It’s the old joke of how many cameramen does it take to screw in a lightbulb?”

Although the cameras have been rolling the past few years, Aikens has lived at Kavik for much longer than that. A common misconception that fans of Life Below Zero have is that she came up to the top of Alaska to be a reality star. Not so.

“I’ve been here longer than some people realize,” she said. “We’ve been doing the show for x amount of years, but I’ve been stationary in Kavik in my 30s, 40s and 50s. And I’m 57 now, so I’ve been here over 20 years. Who I was in my 30s is not who I am as I’m kicking 60 in the head, so my own interpretation of what it takes to live here has grown exponentially.”

Aikens likes to talk about her adventures on the show, which details not only her story but also the lives of other Alaskans in remote locations, but she’s also one to keep spoilers unspoiled. Still, she was able to divulge a few details about the new season of the series, which premieres Monday, Sept. 7 at 8 p.m.

“There’s something that I’m doing this season,” Aikens said, “and there is a specific way that I have made this item last over 20 years, which is kind of unheard of. But there’s a unique way of doing it, and the only way to do that is learning, being here and seeing 100-miles-an-hour winds, 100 below zero, and things with teeth and fur attack it to learn how do I manage and take care of this item so that it lasts. And it can be difficult, and I’ve learned a lot of wisdom about how to do this, how to live this lifestyle differently than I had anticipated.”

Aikens said she’s no longer that 30-something who strolled up to Kavik with a six gun on her hip, daring anybody to tow the line. She’s different than those early days. After all, in the intervening years, she has broken her legs, broken her hips and been attacked by a bear.

“This spring I had from my thoracic all the way down to my booty spinal surgery, so I approach it a little bit differently,” Aikens said about her earned wisdom. “But I’m nonetheless the force to be reckoned with out here.”

On occasion, TV viewers are able to catch Aikens’ children and grandchildren on the show when they’re making a rare trip up north. Children, in particular, are a special part of her life. Of all the passions she has (and there are many), helping children is at the top of the list.

“I have a passion for helping children,” she said. “I think it started maybe a season a go where I’m actually getting more emotional. I’m not sure why. I went through menopause eons ago. I was fixed over 30 years ago, so instant menopause. It’s not like you get a second dose of it, but … I have a passion for helping children. I lost one of my own grandchildren … and I donate and do a lot for children with cancer. I close the camp down for autistic children and their parents to come out, and they learn to hunt, they learn animal husbandry, they learn all about nature.”

She added: “I don’t try to be a role model, but I try to be the best me that I can be every day. And I know I’m six eggs shy of a dozen. I’m firmly convinced I can whip a hell of an omelet with the six eggs I’ve got left. … If anybody can get something valuable from anything I do that’s what we’re supposed to do as human beings, lift each other up, and I may do it with swear words and a sledgehammer, but if I’m doing it, then that really makes me happy.”

Aikens had to take a pause from the interview when talking about a difficult reality involving Kavik, and that’s the fact that she may lose the property in the near future. A public auction is scheduled for the site, which she’s never owned, and this may mean her time at the beloved camp is coming to an end.

“It’s actually really difficult for me to speak about it without getting emotional,” she said, fighting back tears. “Your vision of your social place gets a little skewed, and we all go bushy out here in the remote world. … I call the foxes out here my foxes, my river, my camp, my land, my runway when in actuality these things are borrowed, and I live with them. They’re not mine, but I take it to heart. I always wanted to be a lighthouse keeper, and in effect what does a lighthouse keeper do, they keep the lights on, they’re a safe haven, they mark safety for people. So in my own way I guess Kavik is a lighthouse of a kind, and, yeah, it is difficult for me to think about the day when I won’t be at Kavik. And I have to accept that it may be coming soon.”

She added: “We all have an ending date. I’ve looked all over my body. I have no idea where the big cheese wrote it on my body. I can’t find it, but one day there’s not one of us that gets out of this gig alive. The only thing I can do is surrender the fact that hopefully whoever takes over what I’ve done here continues the vein of keeping it a safe port for the pilots and the people that want to learn.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Life Below Zero premieres Monday, Sept. 7 at 8 p.m. on Nat Geo. Click here for more information.