‘When it’s cold at night, it’s no longer a game’: living off the grid in Colorado

A mountain in Colorado, where the extreme cold can be dangerous. Photograph: Steve Boice/Alamy

Most city-slickers would shudder at the idea of living in a remote area with few neighbors to help if something went wrong.

But self-reliance is alluring to thousands of people in the US who live “off the grid” in homes heated with wood stoves, powered by solar panels and, often, totally under the radar of tax collectors.