All language subtitles for Life Below Zero S11E01 Changing of the Guard_track3_[und]

(music)

NARRATOR: Across Alaska, light
is fading, temperatures are
dropping, the land is freezin,

and winter is looming.

But in the Arctic,
winter is no wonderland.

SUE: This is your last
straw before winter is
gonna hit and not let go.

CHIP: And the coldest time
of year isn't even here yet.

You have to be ready before
and you have to be prepared.

ANDY: Just when you think you
know how things are gonna go,
Mother Nature throws a loop.

GLENN: The most dangerous
things, you won't see coming.

SUE: I'm in trouble.

JESSIE: When it's cold
out, there's certain
things you just don't do.

(music)

SUE: Winter is one
cold hard bitch.

(music)

CHIP:You got everything secured?
AGNES: Yup, everything is
secured.

CHIP: Make sure your guns are
all down. Anchor's at the
bottom?

Let's get going while
the get going's good.

(music)

AGNES: So today, me and
Chip are heading down river.

One of these, um, hunts,
just the two of us.

Pretty much brought a variety of
rifles with me to catch anything
we see, whether it'd be seals,
moose.

It's just a real nice day,
so, uh, look like we're
having boat motor problems.

AGNES: What the heck?

CHIP: Don't look good.

AGNES: I don't know
what's that sound.

I wonder what's going on.
What the heck?

CHIP: It's either overheating
or we have water in the gas.

AGNES: Looks good.
CHIP: Yeah, it does.

So, we filter our gas and it
might be that I have to filter
it again, so we'll see.

Hopefully we can take off
and everything will be okay.

(music)

Well, out here you got
to be your own mechanic.

I'm hoping this engine keeps up
with what it's doing and maybe
it was just a sip of water it
got.

But we'll see, and
only time will tell.

We're just getting our hunt on.

(laughs)

I'm Edward Hailstone,
my friends call me Chip.

I'm married to Agnes Hailstone.

AGNES: I was born and raised
here in Noorvik, Alaska, and
I'm, uh, Inupiat Eskimo.

CHIP: My wife is the first
one in her family that was
actually born in a house.

The rest of her sisters and
brothers were born in tents.

AGNES: We pretty much live
a semi-nomadic lifestyle.

We just go from area to
area depending on season.

CHIP: We're hunters,
gatherers, fisher people.

AGNES: I'm hunting in the same
areas that my parents have
hunted for hundreds of years.

(music)

CHIP: We got seven
kids together.

Three of them
still live with us.

The four oldest have
grown up and moved off.

AGNES: We pretty much try and
teach our children everything
I was taught by my parents

and my mother and father
learned from their parents.

CHIP: We've taken the time to
show them the resources of the
area and they can make a living

from the lands around them.

AGNES: I was born and raised
into this, and hopefully my
children will feel the same way

I do today about my
land and where I am.

CHIP: Well, keep your eyes
peeled for moose 'cause
we're already hunting.
AGNES: Okay.

CHIP: Me and Agnes have been
driving around for a couple
days here on the Delta

and we're gonna look
for a bull moose.

We could be using, uh, moose
and a lot of moose meat,
fresh meat, nice fat meat,

between now and the time the
caribou come in a couple weeks.

Every time we get in the
boat and ride somewhere,

we're always looking at
where the mud's falling.

We're looking at the
plants that are growing.

We're looking at the
animals that are going by.

AGNES: Look, a moose!

CHIP: Now, there's
a moose for ya!

We're not looking for
like a cow without a calf.

I have a tag for
bulls, and that's okay.

There's plenty of them around.

Where there's cows, you're gonna
find bulls. It's mating season.

Can't have one
without the other.

AGNES: This is definitely
moose country.

CHIP: It's kind of
getting late, though.

We should probably head
over to Kookoochiaq, maybe.

We'll just go over
there and fire up, huh?
AGNES: Yea.

CHIP: Looks like Kobuk River's
alive and well to me. I like it.

(music)

Oh, Kookoochiaq's looking nice.
AGNES: Yeah.

CHIP: If we stay the night
here and start out in the
morning, we'll be fine.

AGNES: Looks so
promising to be out.

We saw a moose already,
and all kinds of stuff.
CHIP: A couple of them.

It's always good to see
animals that you want.

We'll have ourselves a
day tomorrow, won't we?
AGNES: Yup.

JESSIE: I'm the team pack
leader. I set the tone.

(music)

Come on. I've uh, traveled
south of Nenana to come get
some better training out here

in the hills and on the
mountains.

Looking to come out here and put
on some long runs for my dogs,
racing the Iditarod this year.

Iditarod is a thousand-mile
race across Alaska.

Has the best competitive field
in the world of dog mushing.

It's been a dream of mine for
a long time and I'm signed up.

My name's on the list
and that's a big step.

When I put my name on a
list, I plan on showing
up at the starting line.

I can't show up to the
finish line without showing
up to the starting line.

So, this winter is the most
important winter of my life.

This is the biggest goal
of my life and it's not
gonna be easy to achieve.

But it starts right here setting
your dog team up out here in the
mountain by myself with my dogs.

I'm Jessie Holmes. I live in
Nenana, Alaska with my 50 dogs.

I'm just kind of
different, period.

I always have been.

I'm always trying to grow.

My goal in life is to be a
champion dog musher and be
self-sufficient

and live off the land in Alaska.

I wanna cover the whole State
of Alaska by the time I die
and see all the mountains,

and all the valleys, and break
all the trails with my dogs,
and race all the big races.

I never knew I was gonna be so
blessed to find something so
spiritually meaningful to me

like these dogs and
this country out here.

That's what means
the most to me.

You're not gonna do good
in a race unless you're out
practicing it all winter.

So, this is the first real long
runs I'll put on this winter.

So, it's a real shakedown
of what I'm gonna have for a
dog team come Iditarod time.

I'm basically gonna go out
there and lay the hammer down.

We're gonna cover some miles.

This is a big year for
me getting out there,
seeing the trail,

try to be as
competitive as possible.

I don't envision doing
the Iditarod one time.

I envision the Iditarod
being my lifestyle.

Just fits right in. There's
wilderness. There's dogs, and
just age-old country.

That's the life for me.

We're all anchored down.

We're ready to get
this show on the road.

All right.

Easy.

Easy.

Easy.

Easy, boys.

Dogs are really, uh,
going at a slower pace,
which is a good thing.

Iditarod's a very long race and
if you take off too fast, you'll
blow your chances for a push in
the end.

Good dogs.

Right now, I'm gonna go
60 miles and I'm gonna
take all my supplies.

Set my dogs up to camp. Good
dogs. Straight ahead, Emmett.

A lot of people go into the
Iditarod with the hopes of just
finishing it their first year.

That's not me. I'm going
there to race.

And I put a lot of money, I
put a lot of heart, blood,
sweat, and tears into this.

Frostbit fingers.
Frostbit everything.

I mean like, I've sacrificed
my whole life for this dream.

The adventure's on!

GLENN: Life is a process. It's
about moving forward, learning
new things.

(music)

How's it going today, Andy?
ANDY G: Pretty good.

GLENN: Plan today, I'm gonna go
up and try to land at my lake,

but nobody's up there right now
to measure the ice, and that
can be a problem.

There might be enough
ice to land on the lake
or there might not be.

My lake's very deep and deep
lakes take longer to freeze.
If it doesn't look safe,

we might have to land somewhere
else and I might have to walk
to my camp.

My name's Glenn Villeneuve.

In Alaska, I can live
in a way that I couldn't
live anywhere else.

I've got one foot
in civilization and one
foot in the wilderness.

I've got one home in
Fairbanks and I've got one
home in the Brooks Range,

and I travel back and
forth between them
several times a year.

I'd get bored to death if I
did the same thing every year.

And my life's changing,
my family's growing.

I had a new baby
born last summer.

I got four kids
now in Fairbanks.

And Trisha, my partner moved
up here to Alaska three
years ago to live with me.

Having a family,
providing for them.

That is really a big
purpose for me in life.

If I didn't have my family to
take care of, I wouldn't be
motivated to live the way I do.

I'm very excited to get
back up to the Brooks Range.

If everything works out
I'll get Trisha, Agatha, and
Amelia back up there too.

I just got to go check it
out and make sure it's safe,
'cause this time of year,

it can be dangerous.

The ice can be too thin.

How much can you tell just
looking from the air?

In terms of the ice
thickness, can you get
any idea just looking?

ANDY G: Hmm. Well, just with
animal tracks, if there's been
a moose walked across it.

GLENN: Right.
ANDY G: Then it'll support us.

I am a little leery of your
lake, cause that's a deep lake.

GLENN: I'm all set
to walk if I have to.
ANDY G: Yeah.

GLENN: I'd rather
walk than swim.
ANDY G: Me too. (laughs)

GLENN: Last time I was at my
camp, the lake was wide open.

No ice at all yet, so there's
no telling exactly what
the conditions are gonna be.

This is the Yukon River
right here and there's
still a lot of open water.

Hopefully, as we get further
north, there's more ice.

Clouds are really
coming down here.

Mountains are disappearing
right up into the clouds,

so we have to get down low
and get between the mountains.

If we're gonna make
it up here to my lake.

Look at all that open water.

That's not good.

We'll find some place
to land hopefully.

ANDY: I think quality of
life is a factor of how
much free time you have,

and if you have free time...

...you're a wealthy man.

Winter showed up just overnight.
(laughs)

Woke up to some snow
this morning. So,

sitting in bed with a cup of
coffee was all about, uh-oh,

better get all the groundwork
done today, 'cause

if it's not done today it
might not get done at all.

My name's Andy Bassich.

I live here at Calico
Bluff on the Yukon River.

I've been living here
for about 30 years.

I moved to Alaska when I was
22 years old with the goal of

moving out and living a life
out in the wilderness.

Spent a few years doing
carpentry work, but eventually
floated down the Yukon River
in a canoe.

Landed in Eagle and never left.

I've created the environment I
want to live in around here.

I do a lot of building.
I have a lot of structures.

But what I have learned is
when you get out in nature,

you have to learn to
work with Mother Nature.

You can't fight Mother Nature.
You'll never win.

(music)

Gaining experience in what
Mother Nature's gonna do, and
how to adapt to what those

conditions are to
accomplish the goals that
you have is a real skill,

and it requires a
lot of flexibility,
a lot of experience,

and a lot of fortitude.

There's no one thing that
you do to make your living.

I guess I'd sum up my life
as a jack of all trades
and a master of none.

So, the two most important
things right now, I got to get
this greenhouse tilled up before

the ground freezes, and I got
to clean up my dog lot, so I
could run my tiller through it.

NARRATOR: Staying ahead of
weather conditions along
the Yukon River

is key to Andy's survival.

With temperatures already
falling, it's critical that
Andy completes his final

winter preparations
before severe weather
renders them impossible.

ANDY: All right,
I'm ready to till.

Buying this tractor and,
and getting this tiller
was a huge investment.

But it has paid for itself 10
times over in the amount of work
it saved me and the quality

of the soil that it creates.

For me, gardening is one of
my favorite past times here.

Every bit of energy I put into
this garden, I get really good
quality energy back out of it.

Pretty much put the
greenhouse and the garden
to bed for the winter.

(dogs barking)

So, the dogs like to dig.

You can see there's a lot of
energy going on cause they know
it's their time of the year

coming, and they wanna
get a harness on, and
they wanna run, run, run.

Don't you, Nat? Don't you, Nat?

She says, "I wanna run,
run, run." So, I'm gonna
turn all the dogs loose,

run the bulldozer through here,
clean everything up, and then
hopefully it'll get nice

and frozen tonight, and
then they won't be able
to dig as much.

So this job is
actually about safety.

I could easily bust a leg
falling into one of these holes.

Any time you live alone, you
have to really be a lot more
careful about how you do things.

Uh, there's no safety net to
help you if you screw up.

My dog team is probably the most
important thing in my life.

My life every day revolves
around them, and their life
every day revolves around me,

so it's a very symbiotic
relationship that we have.

Yay! Look at that
nice clean dog lot.

Okay, go for it.

Good girl. Go on.

Dog lot's done. Garden's done.

I'm ready for the snow.

I'm ready for the cold and it's
time to start getting these
dogs in shape

and start thinking about
stocking up on firewood.

SUE: No matter who you are,
no matter where you live,
no matter what the climate,

aging is not for sissies.

(music)

Take a look around.

The clients are all gone.
Winter's coming in.

It's time to see who's playing
around in my neighborhood.

I'm not hunting with a gun right
now, I'm hunting with my eyes.

Are there predators nearby?

The bears are gonna go
to sleep soon and not be
very much of a problem,

but they're not there yet. I'm
looking for the paw prints.

Are there predators
coming in close?

Are there animals up
that should be in bed?

I need to know what
exactly is going on.

Paint myself a picture of
what my territory is doing.

My name is Susan Aikens. I am
the sole resident and caretaker

of Kavik River Camp up
on the North Slope of Alaska.

I'm about 500 miles from the
closest big city, about 15
miles from the Arctic Ocean.

(music)

Kavik is a safety zone.
A place to get food.

A place to get heat.
A place to communicate.

That's the main goal of Kavik.
When I first got here, I cried.
That was my first reaction.

There was so much to do, but
I've worked at it and I've
morphed it, and I've become it.

(music)

It's one of the last bits
of real estate that you
can go to that's not tamed.

It's not been groomed
to fit a post card.

It's wild.

The absence of society
gave me the nurturing
that society never did.

This is the alone
time that I crave.

This is the time where I
can say hey, how about a
little adventure for me.

Oh wow, I see a bunch of
ptarmigans just got spooked up.

Ptarmigans are little bitty
birds and I always joke around
about them being not

the smartest in the avian
family, but they always
manage to outsmart me.

(bleep) bloody hell. I have
an affection for them,

but I'm an opportunist.
I have to feed myself.

If I can put the sneak on the
ptarmy's, I might get some food
for tonight

and get some for my freezer.

(music)

So, what I see there is
quite a few ptarmigans.

The trick is gonna be for me
to get out quietly and try
to get a couple of shots,

'cause the minute I take a
shot, they're all gonna lift.

But maybe I can get
one or two for dinner.

I'll try to get close and
get a shot or two off.

(music)

(music)

SUE: Well, I got
him in the head.

Little buddy.

All right.

I mean, I may say they're
not the smartest birds
in the avian family,

but they outsmart
me right and left.

My eyes are not what they
used to be, but they're
good enough for one meal.

Where you see the
birds, you generally see
a predator of some kind.

I need to know now
what's out there.

The next step for me is just
get my feet on the ground
and see what I can see.

(music)

Winter is barking at my heels.

It's not a time to
let my guard down.

It's time to say, what
is traveling around me.

Just like a bear is gonna
wind down his area till
he gets into his den,

I'm doing the same thing.

You got a hide here, but this
hide is full of little holes.

Some are animals, some
are just from the larva.

This is a hole
that something dug.

It probably buried some
part of something and
then dug it back up.

What does that tell me? That
something is really making this
their home turf.

You've got a pretty big bone.
That's a pretty big vertebrae.

So, this is mostly
likely a bear.

But it's telling me that it's
making this its home turf.

I've got my eyes peeled but, uh,
I wanna look around in the mud.

I wanna see if I can
see any fresh prints.

There, then you got
some bear track here.

That's pretty fresh.
Pretty good size too.

This is wolverine.

You've got his heel and
his flat little foot.

Everything you look
at tells a story.

I've come here.

I discover bones, hides,
things are being drug back.

I've got bear, wolverine, wolf,
fox, and bird prints here.

All signs that
say something is staking a
claim here and it's not me.

That's enough for me. I don't
need to disturb it.

I don't need to
push the envelope.

It has claws and teeth, and
I don't want a part of that.

(music)

ANDY: Come here, G.

Come here, G! Come here.

Winter's coming pretty
quick right now.

You can see the snow's falling,
and pretty soon the river's
gonna be full of ice and

I'm gonna be locked in
down at my place.

Which is great. I love being
locked in down at my place,

but if anything bad happens I
need to have an escape plan.

I feel like I got
to get a safety runway
put in around my place.

I like to come down to
this one big slough here.

It's a nice, flat, smooth area
that a guy with a Super Cub
can land his airplane there.

It's just kind of a safety
thing I like to do every year.

It'd be stupid for
me not to have some way
of getting out of here.

That's pretty good.

Well, anytime I go out and
do little things like this,
I always have dogs with me.

So, I'm trying to spend a little
bit of time with uh, Shilling,
and Kruggerand, and G,

because I lost my main lead
dog Iceberg a few weeks ago.

Iceberg was pretty special.

He was a dog that, oh
man, he ran as a lead dog
pretty much his whole life.

It's sad to see him go.

You get really attached to
'em and when they leave it's
kind of a hard thing to,

to live through.

But uh, I always try and
keep the positive thoughts
in my head about 'em.

Actually, I happen to have
a really great picture of
him when he was a puppy.

Here's Iceberg when
he was one day old.

He was just a little white
handful of mashed potatoes.

I still remember
that day, holding him
basically in one hand.

He grew from that into a
really, really good lead dog.

(howling)

Last year, I retired him
halfway through the year,
but even with one eye

he was still a pretty
darn good lead dog.

You know, he had a
great life with me.

We traveled a lot
of miles together.

Had a lot of great
adventures and he was a,
he was a pretty cool dog.

I'm gonna miss him.

I'm sorry to see him gone, but
it's time to start training new.

The new, the next Iceberg.

These three are getting
along really good,
which is great cause,

when I'm running 'em in the
team this year, Kruggerand's
probably gonna be up front,

but I'll be switching out
G and Shilling with him to
kind of gain that experience.

C'mon. (grrr) (laughs)
C'mon. (grrr) C'mon.

This year is a
changing of the guard.

So, I got my boys, I
got my future lead dogs.

It's time to get out, get
these dogs on, in harness.

Get some snow on the ground and
start doing what we're supposed
to do all winter, right Krug?

Come on, let's go.
Come on, let's go.

(music)

CHIP: Well, we're down
here where the river meets
the sea on the delta.

We're looking for moose.

AGNES: We're just gonna keep
riding into all the little lakes
and sloughs that are close by

where the might, moose might be.

NARRATOR: The Hailstones are
scouring the Kobuk River for
moose to help them feed

their family through
the coming weeks.

But their permit only allows
them to hunt bull moose, and
with dark winter arriving soo,

their window for the
hunt is closing rapidly.

CHIP: There's a lot of game
in this country right now.

I'm really enjoying
it, you know, but it's
gonna be gone soon.

The birds will migrate out,
it won't be moose season,
the caribou will pass.

I'll be another year older
and I'll be doing this again.

Right here, huh, let's
go back over here.
AGNES: Yeah.

CHIP: We'll stop
and glass around.

Go to the high spots and
look down and see what
land we can look at.

I got my shotgun. You
wanna grab your Mosin?

Often you see moose along
the sides of the river.

We, we know all these good spots
to go check it out and we're
just gonna be methodic about it.

It's kind of marshy,
but it's okay.

AGNES: This is what
moose do all day.

Thank goodness I'm not a moose.

CHIP: Half the fun of it
is like being able to be
in the river one moment,

and up on the hill the next.

AGNES: Could see all
over from up here.
CHIP: Oh yeah.

I don't see any.

AGNES: Yeah, I was hoping a
moose would cross down here.

CHIP: Yeah, me too. I was hoping
one would jump in the boat.

So, we just get back in the boat
and do this a hundred more times
and by then we'll have one.

Not too many moose let
you just drive up to them.

(music)

I'm not big into moose
hunting, but for us right
now, it's kind of a necessity.

I wanna get through with
good fresh meat until,
uh, caribou arrive.

AGNES: It's running.

CHIP: I see it, but it
doesn't have antlers.
AGNES: No antlers.

CHIP: No antlers. Finding
a bull isn't so easy.

Unfortunately, it's just not
what I can legally get, so

we just keep looking.

I've seen a ton of cows.
That's all good news,

but you know, I can't
really hunt them, so.

So, we're gonna go up here
and see what's over this way.

We get up above and
we have a great view.

Spectacular view.

AGNES: Look. Bear track.
CHIP: Thank you.

I'm going up!

Need to find a nice-sized bull.

But, there's no such thing here.
Takes a lot of effort.

Takes a lot of persistence,
and, uh, sometimes
it takes a lot of luck.

AGNES: Boy, if we had a
different kind of tags, I
would've had one half an hour

after we left home, huh?
CHIP: Yeah.

Our best bet here is to keep
on going home, 'cause our,
our village is up here a ways.

We've got enough gas
to easily get home.

AGNES: Yee! Wait for me.

CHIP: You know, it didn't work
out. We gave it a couple days.

It's, uh, it's hunting. There's
nothing free. There's no gimme
moose. There's no free moose.

Every moose is worked for.

All we saw were cows,
so we never know.

Maybe I'll go wood cutting
tomorrow or next week
and bump into a moose.

(laughs)

Never know.

Homeward bound.
Keep your eyes open.

(music)

GLENN: If you could measure
the ice, how thick would you
want it to be to land on it?

ANDY G: I'd like at least
five-and-a-half inches.

It depends how much
snow's on it too.

You know, they say four
inches will hold a plane.

But in the middle of a
lake where you touch down,

it'd be pretty saggy and
that could create a problem.

GLENN: At this time of
year, it's always tricky
heading out to my camp,

because the ice might
not be thick enough.

If the ice doesn't look thick
enough, and I have to get
dropped off further away,

I can walk to my cabin.

My camp's just around the corner
here, but if we can't land over
there and we have to land

back here behind.
ANDY G: Caribou.

GLENN: Caribou here, that's
great, and that's the lake that
possibly I could walk from.

That's a good sign. If there
are animal tracks on the ice

that shows the ice was thick
enough to support the animal.

If you see moose tracks right
across the middle of a lake,

that's got pretty
good ice on it.

Okay, here's the lake.

My camp's right down
here in the trees.

I don't see any animals out
on this lake though, and this
is bigger than that last one.

This is a bigger lake.
It's deeper.

ANDY G: Open water
at the outlet.

GLENN: And the creek out of
the lake is still flowing.
Look at that.

Right over there the
ice is real thin.

I don't wanna take any chances.

Figuring out from the air if
it is safe, it's difficult.

But Andy's a really experienced
pilot. He's got ideas.

He can drag the skis in
the snow, see if the ice
is holding the plane up.

The danger is when you come to
a stop, because that's when the
most weight's gonna be

on one spot.

(music)

(music)

GLENN: Just dragging
the skis there.

So, what are you
gonna do now, Andy?

ANDY G: I'm gonna come back
around and look at that.

GLENN: See if there's any
water in those tracks maybe?
ANDY G: Yeah.

GLENN: Sometimes, just
looking in the tracks,
you can see water.

ANDY G: There's nothing there.

Clean, but I would feel a lot
more comfortable I think going
to that other lake, Glenn.

GLENN: Yeah. That ice could
just be a few inches thick.

Yeah, it's not worth taking a
chance. Let's go down here.

I can walk it.

I'm glad I didn't bring Trish
and the girls up here, because
if we got dropped off down here,

that would've been
a long way to walk with a
baby, and you never know.

It's a good thing I came up here
alone today to check this out.

It's great to see all the
caribou here, but it's quite
an obstacle course to land in.

(music)

There are caribou everywhere.

(music)

Wow, the caribou
are right there.

They're so close, I
can hear 'em running.

There's a law. You can't hunt
the same day you fly, but it
sure is nice to watch 'em.

Tomorrow I can start
hunting legally.

I probably have to walk about
two-and-a-half miles from here,
but it's not too bad

walking through the
snow dragging a sled.

It'll be slow, but I'll be back
at camp in a couple of hours.

(music)

It's better being
safe than sorry.

I'd much rather walk
for a couple hours than
go through the ice,

and who knows over on
my lake how thick it is.

We just couldn't tell. Here with
all the caribou running around,

you can be pretty
sure that this ice

is thick enough to
hold the plane up.

Couple miles to go,
I'll be at my camp.

Light is fading fast. Days this
time of year are very short.

The cabin. What a beautiful
sight.

I gotta get in here
and get a fire going.

It is cold.

SUE: Look at that. We got some
snow. Winter has arrived.

Time for me to go down
the eastern quadrant
for my perimeter check.

It's the one predator
that I cannot, cannot
do a predator check for

and that is what you see
starting to come down
right now, winter.

This is the changing
of the seasons.

It's buttoning it up, tightening
it up, getting ready for winter.

I don't know how much
accumulation I'm gonna get, but
it even drives it more home.

I've gotta get this
perimeter check done.

I need to know who's sleeping
in my big backyard, so I know
how best to keep myself safe.

It's not that they don't belong.

This is their world, but it
facilitates my being able
to protect myself

when I know who's out there.

You know, it's never the
most comfortable time to
go out when the fog is in.

So, I'm very, very hyperaware
that the fog is a blessing for
the predators and not so much
for me.

All right, I see something.

Purple splats in the road.

Purple splats are not normal.

Something has to splat it there.

So, I'll get out and
take a little looksee.

This is definitely bear scat.

It's definitely
eating blueberries.

I've got a long line of scat.

Some of it's very old and
like this, this right here,
that's pretty, pretty fresh.

What does it tell me? It
tells me I have active predators
a mile from camp this way.

So, do I need to
continue on further?

No, not really, because
what was I hunting for?

I'm hunting for sign.

I've got what I came after.

Sayonara.

It's time for me
to get back home.

(music)

JESSIE: And we got dark on us.

We only have four hours
of daylight in the
middle of winter here,

hence most mushing's gonna
be taking place in the dark.

And if you're gonna
put on enough miles to
be ready for Iditarod,

it ain't gonna be all in the
daylight, that's for sure.

NARRATOR: This year,
Jessie and his dog team
will race in the Iditarod,

Alaska's most grueling
sled dog race.

To prepare, Jessie and his tem
have traveled to the Alaska
Range where he must increase

his dogs' mileage in diverse
conditions and teach them to
sustain overnight in the wild.

JESSIE: I went 65 miles,
the dogs are still wound
up and ready to keep going.

I gotta get 'em bedded
down quick so they
can't pull my hooks.

Do everything just like
I'd do in a race, quick.

Probably one of the best 65-mile
training runs I ever had and
it's really early in the year

so it's pretty exciting.

This is a pretty
good start to a trip.

And just like that,
we call it a day.

Good job, guys.

See you in the morning.
Sleep good.

First thing I gotta do this
morning, get some, uh, warm, hot
broth in the dogs for breakfast,

hydrate 'em for the day's run.

(music)

I'm just, uh, grabbing some
water here for my dogs 'cause
it's a fresh spring coming out
of the hills here.

(music)

(music)

JESSIE: (bleep). Damn it.
(bleep).

Stepping on this and busted my
through, boot through got it a
little wet on the outside but

it doesn't feel like it
penetrated my inner boot.

You gotta have water to
keep the dogs hydrated and
to keep their food moist.

I don't wanna spend all day
trying to melt snow when I
could be out running dogs, so

that just made my
life a lot easier.

(music)

Today's a whole new day.

It's a whole different kind of
country that we're coming in to.

I'm going to take a
bale of straw with me
and do a short camp.

I don't want the dogs thinking
that every time we stop, we're
going to stop all night.

Sometimes I might just
stop an hour as a competitive
advantage to get in the race.

I signed up for this race
because it's now or never.

I mean I'm 35 years old.

I figure I'm at a good position
with a good dog kennel.

If I can put the next 10
years into racing this race,
I think that, you know,

I could put myself in
the winner's circle.

All right, straight.

Straight. Good.

(music)

Easy.

Going out of our second run,
the dogs are well-recovered.

They're really driving hard.

Straight ahead, gentlemen.

There you go. Haw.

Haw. There you go.

I'm trying to mature this team.

I hope to come away from
this with a team that's
well-seasoned and tired.

(music)

Next step is to find somewhere
where I can make a short camp.

Stay. Stay.

I'm going to lay down
some straw, so they'll
rest for a bit.

So far, this has been an awesome
run so I think this is a really
good spot to make halfway.

'Cause I truly love being
out here with my dogs,

I'm not worried about getting
back to a wood stove.

I'd rather sit back here on
my sled while my dogs rest.

Enjoy the scenery.
You couldn't beat this.

Not many people are all about
going all hours of the night
and all hours of the day

and sleeping on a bed of
straw with their dogs.

If they're going to beat me,
they better get about it.

(music)

CHIP: Well.
AGNES: Wow.

CHIP: This is what they
brought this morning.

At least when I was getting
up, I heard the barge leaving.

We bought wood and had it
barged up here from Kotzebue.

A friend of mine recycled
some houses and stuff
that he had torn apart.

And basically, I'm
going to build a shop.

These are just scraps and stuff
we can probably make use of.

I've needed a little
shop for quite a while.

I've been using
tents, but I could use
something more permanent.

Tents are temporary and
they're meant to go up and
they're meant to come down.

They're not meant to just
stay in one place constantly.

Besides, I'm getting older.
When I hit my 50s,

you know, maybe a tent in
the yard isn't such a
great idea anymore.

AGNES: We won't have
to be working in the
cold all winter, ah?

CHIP: I won't be working in the
cold if I'm working at home.
AGNES: Yup.

CHIP: That's what it'll be.

What we need to do is we need
to catch up with the yard.

We'll make a place to put the
foundation for the shop, we'll
put all the wood in place

and then when it freezes nice
and solid, then we'll start
working on the shop

and build a level shop
after freeze-up.

Right now, let's just go
home, and we'll, uh, we'll
start cleaning out the yard,

making a place for
this to happen.

AGNES: Looks like a lot
of work this week, yeah?

CHIP: Get the kids involved.

Well, the goal is to clear
the yard so that we can have
a place to build our shop.

And so we can bring in
all that wood and have
a place to put the wood.

I got a lot of things in my yard
that I don't use anymore and
they're kind of useless to me.

Some of them are old projects
like snow machines I've used for
parts and pieces or rebuilds.

Some of them are old sleds that
are still good to use, but I
don't need them anymore

because I've got
new stuff I build.

Some of that stuff over there, I
have no clue what the hell it is
so I plan on getting rid of it.

There's things I need to have
done before winter comes.

But if I don't do that now,
I'm gonna have to do a lot more
work in order to get it done
correctly.

So if I want to save myself a
bunch of sweat and frustration,

then I just got to hustle a
little bit.

(music)

Winter's coming. And when it
gets here and it freezes solid,

we're gonna wanna have
a place to work in.

I just got to get that
foundation and that ground
prepared right right now

while it's not frozen.

'Cause if we're not smart
and we don't go about this
and get it done in time,

we're just screwing ourselves.

Let's just scoot the snow
machine real quick, ladies.

Okay, guys, ready?
One, two, three, up.

AGNES: One, two, three, go.

CHIP: It's not so easy
in mud and sand, is it?

AGNES: One, two, three, go. One.

CHIP: A little bit more.
CAROL: Move, puppy.

CHIP: The puppy's okay. Right
there.

When the time comes, the tent
comes down in just a few minutes

and we'll start working on the
foundation. It looks good.
We're basically ready to go.

AGNES: So we could just start
hauling the wood up, then?

CHIP: Yup, we can start
hauling the wood up.

Looks good to me.

AGNES: Boy, we work real fast
when we work together, ah?

CHIP: Yes, indubitably.
AGNES: Awesome.

ANDY: Ground work is done with
the dogs and I'm seeing a lot of
energy with the dogs right now.

So I'm going to kind of kill
two birds with one stone.

I want to get my dogs
out on the river and let
them just start running.

Build some muscle tone
and loosen them up.

And at the same time, I think
I'm going to try and stockpile
some driftwood along the way.

So, the goal today is to get the
dogs out, head to some places
where the wood was stacked up

on the beach, cut it up and
have it ready for them to
haul when the snow comes.

All right, let's go.
Hey. Come on. Let's go.

Gives me a good opportunity
to see who's running fast,
who's running up front.

Come on, Naty.

I wanna start training Shilling
for a lead dog this year.

And I'm really curious
to see if G-Man is going
to show some potential.

(music)

Come.

Everybody, come.
Everybody, come.

Hey, Naty. Was that a good
little run?

Huh? Oh, this looks like some
pretty good wood here.

Come here, boys.

How's my boys doing?

Huh?

There's only one way
to stay warm here and
that's build a fire.

And in the winter time
when it's 50 below, you
build a lot of fire.

It's almost like
groundhog's day.

Every single week, you spend at
least a day, day and a half of
your time just cutting firewood,

stacking firewood,
hauling firewood.

Hey, everybody, come.

(music)

That's good wood.

Looks like there's a lot less
dogs. Where'd the rest of
them go?

One, two, three,
four, five, six.

There were 10.

Naty and Geo are gone.

Naty, Geo, come.

Naty, Geo, come.

ANDY: Naty and Geo are gone.

Naty, Geo, come.

Naty, Geo, come.

I don't like that at all. I want
everybody to stick together.

You know, every time you do
something new with the dogs,

there's a little bit of a
learning curve there.

You can see all the old timers
that have done this stuff
before, they're sticking around.

The young guys, Naty and G
decide they wanted to take off
and go back home 'cause, "Hey,

we're here, we run up, we
turn around and we go home."
And that's what they did.

So they haven't had the
experience of me actually
doing something like this.

So, it's okay.

There'll be lots more
wood-cutting like this
in the next couple weeks.

If I can find lots of wood
like this, this is gonna be
great training for the dogs.

I can load that sled up with
four, four or five hundred
pounds of wood

and that'll be good training for
them to build some muscle mass.

All right.

That's another
good stack of wood.

Hey, Geo showed up again.
Come here, boys. All right.

Good come. Where'd you go?
(laughs)

Where'd you guys go, did you
guys go home and then decide to
come back and hang out with us?

Yeah.

This isn't just getting
firewood to keep me warm.

This is getting ready to
train my dogs for the winter.

There's multipurpose in a lot of
things that get done out here.

Everybody, come.

Come, come.

I don't see any
running on the beach.

I love it.

The dogs decided they were
going to take off. I think
they went upriver.

Sometimes Topaz, she's the
instigator, she'll take them as
far as she can go towards Eagle.

Sometimes having a really smart
dog is a pain in the butt.

I'm gonna run upriver
real quick and see if
I can't head them off.

Kind of bums me out when they
pack up like that and take off.

Yeah, I think I
see 'em up ahead.

There's one thing about a sled
dog, if they're on a good trail,

they can make a lot of miles
in a short period of time.

In the course of just a
few minutes, they ran about
four miles.

(laughs)

Topaz, you're a bad dog.

You're a bad influence you are.

Bye. You have to run home. No
free rides for runaway dogs.

Let's go.

(music)

AGNES: Wow.

CHIP: Well, there's
a lot of our wood.
AGNES: Yup, here it is.

Me, Chip, and the girls
are gonna be hauling quite
a few loads from the beach

to the yard.

CHIP: Wow, we've got
everything that we need here.

All we need to do is get
this up there though.

And once we've got that taken
care of and it's all in place,
I can build a nice little shop.

AGNES: Now that we have that
yard all cleared up, we have
all this to put up there.

CHIP: The cleaning of the yard
was probably the easy part.

This is going to be the wet,
dull, get-it-done part.

It's going to be heavy. Why
don't you just lay them down

like this, let's stack
them on top of each other.

It ain't easy and it ain't
free but I got a really good
deal on the wood

and I got a really great deal
on getting it barged here. So,

when I can put those
two together, I wasn't
passing them up.

Now, I'm gonna go back up
to the yard with you guys
and unload these things,

and you ladies will
be loading these up.

If things are too heavy for you,
come and get me, all right?

(music)

The time to move
this wood is now.

The time to prep my yard is now.

AGNES: This is going to take
quite a few loads, but we've
already taken one load down

so we're moving along.

CHIP: We got some of the
floorboards, some of the studs,

I'll be back down there I'm
sure.

There's plenty of heavy things
down there but the ladies are
all strong and there's

a whole gang of them down there.

(music)

CAROL: I'll run this stuff
home and be right back, mom.
AGNES: All right.

I'm pretty excited about
this wood project here.

Never had a barge full of
wood stopping for me before
but, um, it's worth it.

We're gonna be able
to build a shop.

CHIP: Okay, you put your end
down first. And I'm good.

It's all been smoothly working
with all of us together.

It's my two daughters
working away.

My wife's down there stacking
it on with the girls and
I'm over here sorting it out,

stacking it back up,
counting what we got.

I'm almost in my 50s, so it's
pretty nice when a 17-year-old
and 15-year-old can really make
a difference and help.

I have two older daughters,
Idi Bitty and Tinmiaq and
they live off out in the word,

come back and forth.

And two sons,
there's Jon and Doug.

And they live off
out in the world.

Sometimes they come visit too.

But as the kids are getting
older and leaving the house,
things change a little bit.

It isn't all that bad.
My kids are growing up,

they're having kids of their
own and, uh, life is going on.

(music)

It's just been interesting
seeing my whole
life going by and, uh,

I got a lot more yet to live so.

(music)

I think if I died right
now, I would just miss
a lot of cool (bleep).

Don't wanna do that.

The last wood.
AGNES: The last piece.

CHIP: We got this done. So we
might as well kick it off and,
uh, call it good.

We got the yard cleared
out, we made room for this.

The shop tent's gonna come down
and we're gonna build a shop
there when it starts to freeze
up.

You can drive your
snow machine there.

You can service your Honda.
We can build sleds.

We can build all
kinds of artwork.

It'll be a lot of fun. We'll
just keep on working on this
together, huh?

CAROL: Uh-hmm.
CHIP: Yeah, thanks.

That's a lot of help you two.
AGNES: Yup, now we could move
on to other things.

That was a real
good job, ladies.
CHIP: Yup, real good job.

GLENN: Let's see how
thick this ice is.

I don't want to
take any chances.

NARRATOR: Yesterday,
Glenn returned to his
home in the Brooks Range.

But uncertain ice forced him
to land several miles from
his cabin and hike in subzero
temperatures,

a trek too dangerous for
his partner and young
children.

Before his family can join him,
Glenn must be certain the ice on
the lake is safe for landing.

GLENN: If the ice is
thick enough, my family
can join me here.

If it isn't, it won't be safe.

That's why I don't
take any chances.

Before I have my family
fly out here, I'm gonna to
make sure this ice is safe.

(music)

Whoa, water.

The ice is pretty thick. But
pretty thick isn't good enough.

I got to measure it
and be able to tell the pilot
exactly how much ice is here.

It depends on the pilot,
it depends on the plane.

I've had some pilots tell
me they wouldn't land here
with less than 10 inches.

Let's see what we got.

I got 11 inches
of ice right here.

That's good. That's enough
ice to land a plane on.

But the pilot still needs to be
able to see where he's landing.

And in these light conditions
at this time of year,

it can be very difficult
to judge depth perception,

how high you are above
the surface.

So I'll use spruce boughs
to mark the runway.

(music)

If I'm gonna build a runway,
I'm gonna build it right.

It's gonna be 1,500 feet long by
55 feet wide and it's gonna have
a spruce bough every 100 feet
along both sides.

(music)

By putting down spruce boughs
along the sides of the runway,

it'll give the pilot
a visual reference when
he's coming into land.

And it will also let him
know that in this area right
here, I checked the ice,

it's thick enough.

I'm not taking any chances.

There's going to be precious
cargo on this flight.

There.

That's the last one.

All 30 markers in place.

I got my runway marked out.

I'll just check the
ice one more time here.

Eleven inches. That's safe.
That's very safe ice.

You can put a lot of
weight on 11 inches of ice.

I have no fears about my
family landing on this lake.

I'll be able to get Trisha
and the girls up here.

(music)

JESSIE: All right, guys.

Yeah, you're feeling good?

We're not going to go on
a super long run today.

We're just going to go out
and work on breaking trail.

Breaking trail's important for
me because I'm trying to prepare
for every strategic

advantage I can get
in the Iditarod.

I plan on making big moves at
some point in the race and I
don't wanna have a trail breaker
for me.

I'll make the trail myself
if I have to, you know?

Torrent. Come.

It's important to prepare
your dogs for anything that
they might see on the trail.

It could snow a foot and
what, are you gonna wait for
somebody else to break trail?
Hell no.

You ready, Titan, you ready
Zeus? Let's go, boys.

Good boys. Let's go find us
some snow.

(music)

All right, good dogs. Straight.
Straight. Good.

It's about nine miles where I
got to travel to hit this trail.

Let's go. Good dogs. Straight
ahead, boys. Let's go check out
some pretty country.

I'm gonna go up this trail
that goes into the mountains.

I'm bound to find some place
where I can get off and break
some trail through some deep
snow.

Easy.

Whoa.

Straight.

Straight. Haw. Haw. Straight.

Good, straight.

Whoa. All right, here's
what I was looking for.

We got some good snow out here
now, the trail's unbroken, we're
headed up into the mountains.

This is gonna be some excellent
training for the Iditarod.

Fight like you train, train like
you fight. All right, boys,
straight ahead.

Let's go break some trail.

Good dogs.

Straight, straight, good.

There you go. Straight.

Good boys.

I have a great team, but I can't
just stay at home and run our
20-mile trail or our 50-mile
trail.

That's not good enough.

They got to go do big things.
We have to go out into the
mountains.

We have to go out
into the wilderness.

We have to seek out the unknown.
We have to look for adversity.

Hike.

Hike. Hike. Straight.
Haw. Haw. Haw. Good. Haw.

All right.

Straight.

(music)

Oh, there's a bunch of
ice, the creek's frozen up.

Haw. Haw.

This is really good
training for the Iditarod.

Haw. Good. Haw, Coors.
Good, straight ahead.

Good. Ah, that's some really
slick ice. Easy, boys.

Be careful.

Just straight ahead. Good.

Straight. Haw. Good.

Good boys.

Like pros, like pros.
Good, straight ahead.

Straight ahead.

Now right there what could have
been a big deal for other teams,

it won't be a big deal for
ours and we'll save time.

I need dogs that can no go
matter what the conditions.

Dogs are gonna be good at what
you got to train on around you.

So that's one of the reasons I
come out here is 'cause this has
all the things that

we don't have in Nenana.

Oh, looks like there's a creek
up there flowing full of water.

We don't got no choice. We got
to go through it. All right,
boys. Let's do this.

This will be some good
training right here.

Hope they make it through good.
Straight, straight, straight.

Straight. Straight.
Hike. Hike. Hike.

right. All right. All right.

Straight. Straight. Hike. Hike.

All right, all right.
Hike. Hike.

All right, straight. Whoa, no.
Stay. Stay. Stay. Straight.

Stay. Good, all right. All
right. Whoa, whoa, stay.

Good dogs. It's okay. Stay.

Everybody, stay.

All right. Hike. Straight.
Straight. Straight, Coors,
straight.

Straight. Straight. Titan,
straight. Straight.

Whoa. No. Whoa. Straight.
Haw. Haw. Haw. No.

The dogs got scared up on
the ice and so I had to go
and help them get across.

It's okay. Come on.

That's what I should've did
in the first place maybe, is
just guide them across it

since we don't experience a
lot of this kind of stuff.

Luckily, it wasn't a
bigger mess than it was.

See, it's not a big deal.

Stay right there.

This is the mountains, this
is the home of adversity.

You don't know what
adverse thing you're going
to find in what order,

you just take it as
it comes and overcome each
obstacle and move forward.

All right, ready? Straight.
Straight. Good. Straight.

Easy. Easy. Straight.

I work a lot and focus a lot
on trust with the animals.

The trust that they have in me,
and the dogs just learn that,
hey, we come to obstacles,

it's not always easy
but we overcome it.

Ah, that's a good day of
training. We're going to
head back

and bed down for the night
for our big push out of
here tomorrow.

Good job, guys.

You ready to go back to camp?
Let's go, boys. Straight ahead,
Coors. All right, hike.

Good. Straight. Straight. Good.

(music)

SUE: I wanna make something
a little different. I'm a
little bit of a foodie.

And so, I'm gonna make
little ptarmigan gyozas.

Little Japanese dumplings.

So the first step, uh, is
to debone the ptarmigans.

I was out doing my
perimeter check.

Within a mile, half mile
to a mile I've got a large
assortment of top predators.

I've gotta out-wait them.

It's not a matter of being
bigger, badder, or better than
the animals that are out there.

It's not a contest.

I am going to spend
more time inside.

Why do I wanna be inside?

'Cause I'm giving the bears
and the animals their chance

to get their own food
supply for winter.

The little hearts up.
Thank you, little dude.

Just amazing little birds.

They are so good at surviving
and thriving in their
environment, which is here.

They're out there at 80 below
zero, 50 below zero, hunkered up
under the willow

and they make it.

And I find it kind of
a pretty cool miracle.

We are almost ready
to stuff and cook.

I think it's one of the higher
forms of flattery when you're
hunting to make something

truly great out of the
food that you caught.

Look at all that yumminess.

What a great ending to the day.

Winter came in, my
perimeter check is done.

I've got ptarmigan.
I'm ahead of the game.

(music)

GLENN: Just starting
to get light.

I gotta check the weather.
I gotta check the runway.

Eight inches. That's good.
I got eight inches of powder
on top of 12 inches of ice.

No wind, clear sky, unlimited
visibility and the temperature
is just at the limit of what's
safe to fly in.

Thirty-eight below zero.

If conditions hold and it
doesn't get any colder,

they should be able to
make it up here today.

NARRATOR: Yesterday, Glenn
spent the day marking a runway
for his partner and children

to arrive in the Brooks Range.

After measuring the ice on
the lake in several locations,

Glenn has determined that it
is safe for the plane to land.

But unstable temperatures coud
put the flight in jeopardy.

GLENN: It got a little colder
since the last time I checked.

It's 42 below zero.

If it gets any colder, it's
actually too cold for a piston
engine airplane to operate
safely.

It's been more than two hours.

Usually it takes about an hour
forty-five to fly from town.

Between here and Fairbanks, it's
mostly all just wilderness.

Two hundred miles, forest,
rivers, lakes, what
they have to fly over.

If anything goes wrong
when you're flying up
here, a lot of times,

there's no airport anywhere
nearby to land so, you can
end up out in the woods.

So it's, it's always
something you think about.

They should really be here
by now. I don't hear anything.

Something's not right. It's been
two hours and forty minutes
already.

(music)

Something's not right.

They should have
been here by now.

(music)

GLENN: I don't hear anything.
Something's not right.

It's been two hours and
forty minutes already.

Something's not right. They
should've been here by now.

I hear them. I hear them.
They're coming.

I hear them. They made it.

Here they come.

That's a Helio
Courier, right there.

Trisha, Agatha, and
Amelia are in it.

(music)

Amelia, you made it!
AMELIA: Dad, you wanna say
hi to awake Agatha? She's awake.

GLENN: Oh, she's got
her little headset on.

How was the flight?
TRISHA: Our flaps, we got
off to a late start.

Our flaps were stuck.
GLENN: Oh, really?

TRISHA: And then
the battery died.
GLENN: Oh, really? Yeah.

I figured that
something delayed you.
AMELIA: Daddy.

GLENN: It's important
for my family to be
here because I'm here.

I got a lot of different
things going on in life.
Sometimes I'm out in the bush.

Sometimes I'm in
my Fairbanks cabin.

But in a lot of ways,
my life's the same.

The particulars change. The
fundamentals stay the same.

I'm so glad to have you
guys back up here again.
TRISHA: It's good to be back.

GLENN: It makes
all the difference.

(music)

JESSIE: All right.
Come on, guys.

Let's get ready to go now.

My plan for the day is I got 65
miles back to my truck and, uh,
the dogs showed me coming in

on the run last night that
they're feeling really good
and healthy.

All right, come here.

We had an awesome trip out
here. We came out here
looking for some long runs.

Saw some pretty amazing sights
and places and really got to
watch the dogs grow together

as a team and I think great
things are in store.

All right, puppies.

And I tell you what, we get
a good, fast trail, nobody's
gonna to beat this team.

Straight.

Straight.

We accomplished a lot of
things out there on this run.

Most importantly, we put a lot
of miles on and a lot of time
just spending with me and the
dogs.

The biggest takeaway from this
trip is that I think I can
be a contender in this race.

I feel like on this
trip, my bond with these
dogs have grown so much.

And it's our bond that's
gonna to get us through
at the end of the race.

(music)

We're about 54 miles
in on our 65-mile run.

Got about 11 miles
between us and the truck.

It's starting to get
dark, getting cold out.

It's been a great run but we're
looking forward to knocking this
last 11 miles out and getting

back to Nenana to sleep in a
warm cabin and bed tonight.

This last run was kind
of a hard push but, uh,
definitely rewarding.

I'm really proud of
my dogs and how they've
preformed on this trip.

It's a big learning experience
for them doing this many hard
runs this early in the year.

Had some good runs out here,
broke some trail, went through
some water, went over some ice,

taught the dogs a lot, so feels
good to be doing what I love.

We'll be doing this all winter.

All right.

We're ready to drive back to
Nenana, get these dogs home and
work on some recovery on them

for the next four days and get
ready for the next adventure.

(music)

AGNES: It's starting
to get covered in snow.

CHIP: Well, it's dry though.
That's the nice thing.

None of this is melting and
making it all soaking wet.

It's a good thing we got
it here when we did though
with that last barge.

I wish we could have got this
built before the snow came but
it's kind of a weird year,

I guess. This doesn't usually
happen until after Christmas.

So, maybe we have to do a lot
of shoveling, but since these
were all made level, all that,

and we beat the winter's
arrival and the freeze-up's
arrival with getting this done,

the rest can be done after.

If we didn't have this in
place right now, we'd have
to wait 'til next spring.
AGNES: Yup.

CHIP: We got a good foundation,
we'll make a nice, tight,
square shop and be happy.

AGNES: Yeah.

CHIP: We'll get there.
AGNES: Yeah.

Just got to do a lot
of shoveling, yeah? That's.
CHIP: A lot of shoveling.

AGNES: Better than hauling.
Hauling the wood.

CHIP: Yes, it is. We
got it done right, Ag.

AGNES: Well, winter's here.

(music)

ANDY: Winter's coming. It won't
be long before this river behind
me is solid white.

And, uh, we'll be out with
the sleds collecting wood

and setting traps and just
having fun, you know?

Just enjoy the wintertime.

Most people don't like
wintertime but most of us that
live up in the bush in Alaska

love wintertime.
Everything's frozen.

You got a nice slippery
surface to run a dog team.

This mushing season for the
first time in, uh, 16 years
is not gonna include Iceberg.

Like all my dogs,
he had a great life.

We had a really, uh, strong
connection with each other.

But it's time to, to
start the next generation.

It's gonna probably
take a year to really get
that up and running good.

But, um, you know that's a
part of being a dog musher.

You just have to adapt
to with what you got.

Honestly, I couldn't think of
any other place I'd wanna live
in the world right now and

I feel lucky that I've got the
world that I have to live in,
in a place like this

along a beautiful
river like this. So,

nothing better than
a boy and his dogs.

(music)