I'll be a dissenting opinion here. I'd go with the 35 Whelen. You stated you can get a deal on ammo so stock up until you can get started reloading. The 35 Whelen is an awesome round for Alaska.

I got mine back from Labounty shortly after moving to Alaska and all my reloading gear was in storage as we were living in an apartment until we found a house and sold our home in Washington. I bought set of dies and a Lee hand press and started loading. It worked well and turned out excellent ammo.

You'll not regret the choice. I load one load, a 250 grain partition over 56 grains of 4320. You'll find H4895 and RL15 work well also.

Chronographs, bore scopes and pattern boards have broke a lot of hearts.