I step from the truck among 20 other cars, and an arctic wind knifes me within seconds. Weather always funnels like tides through this bottleneck, one of few gaps in the Alaska Range. My brow hurts with an ice-cream headache, and my hands are numb. I forgot my down jacket and borrow a flowery fleece from a friend who …

Draped from the ceiling, a Dall sheep cape is in the process of being cleaned. In the log home’s dim living room, it gathers the fall day’s anemic light. The rich, nutty meat sits in a wardrobe-size freezer nearby. As the year wanes, putting up stores for winter becomes an urge only those who inhabit lean land far from grocery …