I propose a scholarship be set up in his name, called Austin Pfeiffer Incorporated.
Based out of Milwaukee, and the Board of Directors shall be Laverne, Shirley, Schlemiel and Schlemazel.
OK, OK, you get it.
From the article:
…Pfeiffer was hunting with a friend…
__
“I don’t have to outrun the Bear; I just have to outrun YOU!”
Evolution in action.
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How did this 22 year old get into Alaska for a hunting holiday with the Canadian and US borders closed due to COVID-19?
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By airplane?
(You are allowed to have guns in checked baggage, if you are wondering about flying to a hunting trip…)
The Alaska Ferry is also currently running, so he could have driven to Washington then taken it. I think they have cracked down a lot, but US citizens had been permitted to do a straight drive through to Alaska for most of the Pandemic.
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The article didn’t mention a guide…A possible scenario is the dead man’s friend is a local, no need for a guide then; his friend had a tag or perhaps was Native ( or however they do it in the U.S. ) and the dead man was accompanying his friend on the hunt, not an active hunter. It seems the dead man didn’t have a rifle . As someone else noted, you still can drive through Canada to get to Alaska, so maybe not a moneyed person. The fact that they were recovering the meat indicates this was probably to be used locally as well…
Americans are allowed to pass through by plane or car to get the Alaska. It’s a rule intended to allow families to reunite, but of course Americans are abusing it every day for stupid things like hunting trips.
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Yes, and if they are in a remote area, they probably got dropped off by a bush pilot in a Piper Cub who will come back in 5 days. Those pilots can land in places where it looks like they had to be beamed in like Star Trek.
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Even going on the “cheap” would run someone $15k or more. And the overland route to Alaska is no easy trip. It takes planning and execution that is VERY difficult to pull off solo.
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$15K if he was the hunter, for out of state fees, etc I imagine ? …but I dunno, I was just speculating. I thought the dead man was maybe getting a rough ride here (not from you, though, and I think you’re probably right, this was a married man with enough disposable income to take a vacation), but I thought a different perspective might be useful. Is it that hard to drive to Alaska? I know you have experience in that region, but when I was this guy’s age I went all over B.C. often with no planning other than “how much cash do I have”. Never to Alaska though, but along the highway 
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Yeah, between bush flights and expensive supplies for that trip, it adds up really quickly. Even groceries in the Alaskan bush are crazy expensive.
My understanding of the route through Canada to Alaska is that it’s not a drive so much as an expedition. There are great highways through BC, but the further north and west they Peter down to virtually unmaintained forest roads. You need to be prepared to clear fallen trees and cross creeks, which is why it usually isn’t done solo. One big fir or spruce across the road can be a half day project for one person to clear.
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When I was a kid my sister lived in Arrowhead, B.C. ( now sadly underwater due to Hugh Keenleyside dam) and the “tree in the road” was a pretty frequent occurrence if you were going for a visit Plus, in the unlikely event you met another car, someone was backing up for a few miles …And if it was a logging truck, then definitely it was you doing the reverse and better be quick about it! I’ve a relative in Bella Coola who loves to hike…she’ ll helicopter in to very remote places and hike back, that adds up I expect…but to undigress, some of the roads in the area are blocked by Native bands who don’t want travelers coming in or through (due COVID), probably the same farther north further complicating trips to Alaska I imagine
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Toledo OH to Anchorage AK is 63 hours one way and shows two road closures. Yeah, I think this guy flew.
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I just checked airfare between Cleveland and Anchorage; buying a couple of weeks out it started at $450 round trip.
A Non-resident hunting license costs $160, and the moose is an $800 stamp for a non-resident.
I have no idea how much a brush flight into the area would cost. I’m guessing hundreds; less than 2K.
With that being said, different mountains, different forest, different bears than I’m used to: but being alone with the kill and being unarmed in those woods are both flatlander mistakes and he paid for it… 
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Was that airfare from before or after an Ohio tourist was killed by a bear? 
ETA: Price list for one-way bush flights into the Wrangell-St-St. Elias National Park backcountry:
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After; you aren’t getting me on a flying plague tube for anything; and dang if I would go north instead of south anyway this time of year!
(It was so sad as Frontier kept sending me adverts this spring for tax-only and add ons flights that I normally would have jumped at but not now… like,really, $10 flights and I’m saying no? And yet…)
(Well, Ok; I might risk it for residency in a first world European country… )
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The AlCan Highway isn’t bad most of the way as long as you stick to the main roads. The only dicey section we encountered was in the sort of no-man’s land between border gates entering Alaska. Our car was paced by a grizzly running beside the road with bald eagles flying overhead and a rainbow in the distance, but I was too busy avoiding the car-sized potholes to really enjoy it.
It was paved the entire way, though some sections under construction were reduced to gravel. We did get stopped for about 30 minutes by a large herd of wood bison warming up on the asphalt.
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