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I do this, because I like to challenge myself to see what´s

possible and I want to know the limits and how far we can go.

I have actually never been as sceptic regarding a mission in the past,

as this time.

We had no idea where it is and what it is.

The challenger mountains are part of the most northernly

mountain range of the world.

Being less than 800 km away from the north pole,

they cover the north of Ellesmere Island.

It is home to numerous animals.

Musk - ox

arctic foxes

wolves

and polar bears live here.

Almost as large as Germany

the island has only one weather station,

a military basis

and a village in the south with 140 inhabitants.

After exploring almost the entire world on our skis,

but never really came in direction of the North Pole,

we accepted the challenge and started doing research

on whether it is possible to ski there.

Matthias and Hauni are professional freeriders.

Over the last few years they have visited the most remote

places of our planet.

Whether they visit unpopulated islands of the pacific,

the far east of Siberia,

or the Antarctic,

They explore untouched mountains all over the world.

Hauni and Matthias set themselves the goal to ski

the Challenger Mountains.

They want to ski spectacular descents

as far up north as possible.

The two receive initial information from

the biologist Günther Köck in Innsbruck.

The extreme weather conditions for sure are the biggest risk.

Support is far away, several 1000s of km.

It would be fatal, if something would happen there.

Of course there are polar bears.

Humans definitely fit into the diet of those animals

and one has to be prepared.

So if you camp in the wilderness,

one is always on watch,

o one team member is always awake.

You carry a gun at all times.

You could also bring electric fences or dogs,

so that you are warned about these animals on time.

I once had an incident with

a wolf who came into my tent at night.

He was very aggressive, almost attacked me.

Luckily I could get rid of him.

Hauni and Matthias need more details

to turn their idea of skiing the most northern slopes

of our planet into action.

Almost no information on topography

and snow conditions of the site exists.

Only few people have seen the most northernly mountain range

of the world with their own eyes.

Sarah McNair Landry and Erik Boomer are among them.

They live on Baffin Island.

Hauni and Matthias decide to visit them

in their hometown Iqaluit

which lies on their way from

Europe to Ellesmere Island.

Iqaluit, a town on Baffin Island with 7000 inhabitants,

located near the polar circle.

Accessible only by plane.

Inuits settled in this region 1000s

of years ago.

Iqaluit means “place of fish”.

Despite of being located somewhat south

of the arctic circle,

polar climate predominates

the region due to the cold ocean stream.

The two camera men Jonas and Johannes are going to join them.

Only the best of the best.

With a difference of 11 meters,

the region has one of the highest tides in the world.

Meanwhile we are in Iqaluit to meet Sarah and Erik.

They will equip us with pulka sleds and other stuff before

heading to Resolute.

Bearfire?

Yes there is two packs, each a bit different.

My passion is pretty much anything in the Arctic,

so expeditions, kite skiing, dog sledding ,

skiing and kayaking.

When I was 18 I got the

opportunity to join an expedition

unsupported to the South Pole

so we skied to the South Pole

and kite skied back to the coast.

And then a year after I

got the opportunity to

do an expedition,

a dog sled expedition

to the North Pole and

became the youngest person

to travel to both Poles.

Now it´s loaded.

So you have the animal factor

so, there is polar bears.

I do always carry a gun if I am in a polar bear area.

But in April I would expect you still get a lot of days

of -30°C as an average.

You could think about bringing one or two dogs,

but the tricky thing is because you gonna be skiing

what are you gonna do with the dog when you are skiing

and you can not really leave it in Base camp.

I have recently been drawn to

the North and just bigger

expeditions combining polar

trips with white water kayaking

and all kinds of adventures.

When you are on Ellesmere

Island, you know there is not

much that grows you can´t go to

the store, you can´t calling

for much help so everything

that you bring, it needs to

work and you need to know how to fix it.

I think that you probably run into some good snow in there

I would hate to like, put a 100.000 dollars on it,

but that´s kind of what are you guys gonna do, haha!

We arrived with many uncertainties.

The biggest for sure was, that we beforehand agreed on

not going

on expedition without a dog,

because everyone warned us

that if we meet a polar bear,

that we could get into some serious trouble without a dog.

That is why we made it our highest priority

to somehow manage to find a dog who would like to join us.

Therefore Sarah and Erik invite them

to join them for a dog sled race

in order to learn about the dog’s behavior.

Everyone that has ever been on this island before

encouraged us;

you must take a dog with you.

The polar bears are aggressive and even surprise you

in the middle of the night.

Full throttle, cool!

The only problem is that generally nobody wants

to lend you their dog.

By coincidence they meet Meeka Mike,

a highly respected Inuit woman.

This one in this case, semi frozen

This is what we need for..

For being out in -40?

exactly!

Ya

It´s not getting that much warmer but it´s taking longer

for the ice to form and the spring comes sooner.

So that stretch where it´s harder to travel is longer now.

When we were kids we could sleep outside where our parents

and we were camping in our hunting area and not have to

worry about polar bears.

We can´t have children and ladies without a gun anymore

because of all the polar bears.

This is from the polar bear?!

Polar bear pants.

I made these one, my great cousin caught

the small bear and these are also 20 years old.

Also 20 years old!?

Ya.

We are responsible hunters up here.

We will not overhunt or kill, only what we need,

is a big teaching for us.

The dogs are a breed

that I have to keep alive,

as long as I can to keep a pure bred.

That´s from my ancestors. That´s my duty.

Meeka grows fond of them

and shows them her strongest dog.

He is the alpha male but also 3 years old,

that´s when they are very strong

but also independent and

showing their dominance a little bit more than usual.

He is a Boss dog, when you put him

in the new place in your tent

area he will mark all the territory.

He would definitely protect you.

She said, she never gave away any of her dogs before.

We are the first ones she gives

so much trust to, to give away her dog.

I said, this will be your

people for the time you are away.

10 generations ago, wolves were

parents. So he has a bit of

wolf blood, other sled

dogs don´t have that.

Thank you very much.

It’s time to go on further north.

Meeka says goodbye to her precious dog.

The biggest problem is, we

didn´t get the dog food as well,

and he really needs something now.

The majority of the equipment will apparently

be flown in the following day.

I am sitting on the Truck with Qujju,

just landed in Resolute

He was 5 hours on the plane.

He is nervous, it was his first flight.

Of course he did not want to go back into the box,

but now I think he feels quite good.

Quite cold, -28 Celsius, but Qujju is fine.

Resolute is one of the most northernly located settlements

in the world.

200 people live here, of which 80 % are Inuit.

10 months of the year, the temperature lies below freezing.

The settlement is situated at the Northwest Passage

and was of military and strategic importance

for a long time.

Apart from that it serves as

testing ground for future mars missions.

Upon arriving in Resolute,

the crew first has to get hold of some meat for

their new team member.

The dog food was left behind

in Iqaluit with some of

the other equipment.

Resolute is also home to Devon Manik.

Like his ancestors he makes a living from hunting.

Hauni and Matthias meet him by chance.

Apart from having meat for

their dog he is extremely helpful.

We got already this.

Now we are with a local, Devon.

He gives us some polar bear meat of bear

he hunted in March and we will feed

Qujju with it so he stays strong.

Meanwhile it´s quite chilly,

-28 Celsius and we gonna fly another 1000 km further north.

I expect a serious mission.

Mosk-Ox.

He was the boss of the herd.

It´s frozen, ten, ten to eleven months

in a year and there is not plants growing that ten months.

We just have these animals.

They know how to get the plants,

but you know, yeah it´s our food.

Resolute also has a climate research station.

The data collected by scientists,

shows an incredible rise of temperature recently.

The station is staffed with a single scientist.

Matthias and Hauni want to ask him about global warming.

But the Canadian Government prohibits public interviews…

So, for example in Resolute Bay, the temperature since the 80´s

raised 2 degrees on average.

But if you look just at the 10 past years,

summer temperature went up 4 degrees..

The only statement he gave Hauni and Matthias

was that the Canadian government was supported

by the oil lobby for many years.

That evening in Resolute, the sun sets for the last time

for many months.

The next morning the journey continues.

We now start into the unknown, we still have so many

questionmarks.

Neither we know where to land,

we will decide when in the air.

Nor we know what the mountains look like up there.

We don´t know if there is Snow, if there is enough Snow.

So we know very little, although we are preparing

for a long time now.

The only thing we really know is,

that Qujju will protect us from polar bears

Everything else will come up when we are there.

Gonna be a tough mission.

Ok gents, we gonna have to get going.

Now we have to board.

The pilot has to refuel in Eureka,

the most northern civil weather station.

It is still uncertain were the team will eventually land.

It´s better for us to land on top of water,

frozen water to be honest.

You know where we know it´s a river,

like an inlet, much safer.

Cause you can have rocks buried, you don´t see them

f you slam any you rip the whole gear off.

You have to be careful.

Let´s take a look at the map here.

If it´s not good in this area,

what if we land you around here?

You see, I don´t have an exact

point of where you wanna be where the mountain is.

Ya

OK, So you wanna be dropped off here?

Ya

Or here?

Any, any place that is safe for you nearby.

Yeah

and you make the decision.

Well, Ok, here is what we gonna do,

we gonna take off here and we

gonna direct to the mountains.

Okay

We look at the area.

Ok, if we assess it´s good

we give you the thumb, thumbs up

Yeah.

We can land there.

We are dropping you off there, confirm?

Yeah.

Ok and then we gonna take off

and we are coming back here.

Ok.

Ok.

Well, that´s why we do a visual inspection when we get there.

Ok.

Ok, so we have to find the most desirable location to land, ok?

The safest one to land!

The common hazards are thin ice,

and very rough surfaces and rocks

And sometimes you don´t see the rocks.

So you have to make sure you

are landing over a frozen

portion of water

Or else if you are familiar

with the area and if you have

people that have done an

assessment there, if you

landing on land you that is safe.

But this is what we call obstruct find, ok?!

It´s very common here in the Arctic.

So it demands like what you

think maybe is good, for me is not good.

Ok

Ok. so this is what it´s all about, safety first.

One is for sure.

If we ever want to get out of

here, we have quite a distance

to cover with our skis and equipment.

Haven´t had such a bumping heart in a while.

How was that guys?

ride on man!

The adventure begins!

After one year of planning Hauni and Matthias finally

arrive at the most northernly mountain range of the world.

They feel more uncertain than ever.

From now on

they are completely on their own.

The team was dropped off in the

middle of a majestic fjord on

the frozen polar sea.

At this moment skiing is irrelevant.

The focus now lies on being prepared for all eventualities.

From now on the gun is loaded,

bullets,four of them are in the gun,

to defend if there is no other choice when a bear attacks.

If the dog can´t bark the bear

away, we shoot a blank fire,

if nothing helps, we take the bullet.

Well, this thing is loaded now guys!

Hauni and Matthias decide to

continue further in direction of the north pole.

The snow is much deeper than expected.

And the wind much stronger.

Then the wind calms down.

Therefore the team decides to set up their tents.

The storm returns out of nowhere.

Our tent just got ripped off.

Jonas and Hauni are chasing after it,

if they can´t get it,

Johannes and I will have to

launch the kite to try to catch it.

But now it looks like the tent keeps lying on the ground again.

If we loose the tent, we are all gone.

We will try to bring it back to you,

otherwise I will let you know

if it´s better you guys come down to us.

Yes, if, we come to you, no problem,

the dog is with us as well.

Fix the tent, we gonna come. Ok? Let´s do it this way.

Right now you don´t believe it,

that we had such a hard time yesterday,

building camp and even resist the conditions

and now we sit and relax in the sun

and think nothing could happen but yesterday it

was really though

Qujju just laid down and let himself cover with the blowing

snow, but unfortunately we don´t have those skills.

And today our next task will be to find out if skiing is possible

in this snow which seems similarly to the snow

we had in Siberia.

This is an interesting question.

We gonna have some interesting days ahead.

When flying in, we spotted some avalanches,

small slabs.

Around here there is no slabs,

but we had wind yesterday,

so we have to expect unstable snow pack.

So silent ha?!

Just wanted to say the same, so calm, awesome!

It´s so unreal, sitting on the sea ice. The frozen icebergs.

The main goal, we have seen that yesterday, is to get back

home in one piece.

Even the slightest mistake

would have enormous consequences.

We have to be aware of that.

We have to do things step by step.

And, even in good weather conditions,

it probably will take two days until a plane could reach us.

Yes.

That´s really the end of the World ha.

Let´s figure out if snow is skiable ok?

If we touch ground or not.

We are now on the way to our first ride,

need to walk some k´s until we reach the mountains.

We are crossing McClintock Fjord,

over there it starts ascending.

Then we will check the conditions, if it´s skiable.

Smaller than Qujju´s ha?

Yes

we are here for 24 hours and

this are the first animal tracks we find.

Looks more like hooves?

Don´t know what this could be, a bit snow covered.

Snow rabbit?

No, more like, don´t know, arctic fox, or something.

I would say, as long as the tracks don´t get bigger,

I am fine.

Matthias and Hauni want to do an initial test ride

on a small hill.

Neither avalanche danger nor snow consistency

are currently knowable.

Of course Qujju joins the team.

We took the dog, Qujju up to the summit,

now we let him off the leash for the first time,

because

I hope that he will run down on his own

and I hope he trusts us so much that he wants

to be close to us, because otherwise it

might gonna be difficult to find him again.

But I don´t think that he wants to be alone,

neither we don´t want to

And now we gonna find out how snow conditions are.

Let´s see if it´s skiable.

3,2,1 drop in

Hauni is the first to start.

He repeatedly touches solid ground.

Matthias experiences the same.

ahh, up there I touched lot´s of stones.

Yess, welcome to the Arctic buddy, kinda tough to ski ha?!

Pretty shitty!

Qujju prefers staying at the top of the mountain.

While Matthias goes back up,

Jonas and Johannes take Qujju and carry him…

haha, Johannes is carrying down our alarm dog, Qujju,

because he doesn´t want to walk any single meter!

Qujju you lazy dog!

Are you tired? Ha?

We have to go back to camp ok?

A few hundred meters you have to walk back down with us

then you can run straight again.

Yes, was quite disillusioning,

snow conditions have been suboptimal

total diverse, we broke through constantly.

What are you doing?

I am burying meat for the dog.

So that the other animals

running around can not sense it so easily.

He is definitely no avalanche dog,

he is a true sled dog,

as soon as he feels tension at the leash,

he loves it, but at the mountain,

especially downhill, he doesn´t like it at all, right?!

There you prefer to chill and enjoy the view.

what´s happening down there?

This way I get warm, oh yeah what´s happening..

If you want to find out, if it´s really cold,

you do it like this, boiling water…

It’s time to go to sleep.

Everyone is happy to be united again.

The worst is when they come and

surprise you at night in your tent

and you are not prepared for them.

For that reason I think that is one reason that

the dog would be really really nice to have.

If nothing else, the dog will alarm you and tell you

when the bear is gonna come

We have found out, that those mountains

without glacier coverage, are not really skiable.

“Close by“, we have scoped such a glaciered mountain

looks massively glaciered with a massive glacier tongue

We expect better snow there

We gonna start exploring this summit now.

But it´s quite a mission. We have 1400 meters

altitude to cover.

Direct line it´s 10 km. So it will be a bit more than that.

oday we will take advantage of the good weather

The next days gonna be uncertain

concerning the weather.

We do have weather forecasts which we receive via sat phone,

but they are very diverse,

until now they matched only a few times.

For today forecast is wind, but it´s completely calm.

Clouds are moving around. It´s hard to tell

but I hope not,

that clouds break in when we are on top.

It´s normal in these regions,

weather forecasts are very relative

and because of that we have to go

for it and we will see if we are lucky or not.

It´s now 3pm, sun will be here 24/7.

Up there we will probably have at noon,

close to midnight, the best light.

Then we hope for a great mission.

Qujju is with them again

because bears can appear at any time.

But they are not going to take him to the summit.

Since wolf packs are around,

it is no option to tie him up at the foot of the mountain.

The wolves would kill him.

They trust Qujju and

leave him unleashed.

The ascent turns out to be difficult.

Up to 60 cm powdery snow make it hard to proceed.

We are now approximately 5 hours on the way,

covered almost 60% of the

altitude up to the summit.

We are now almost there,

meanwhile it´s really cold, lot´s of wind.

Here are some crevasses.

Clouds are coming closer

We hope to make it in time.

We are now at the cornice.

At the summit, strong wind.

Very cold!

Hang on!

Meanwhile the bad weather front come closer.

All of a sudden the wind has died down

and it is completely calm again.

They take advantage of the moment

and ski down.

Wow, come to me buddy!

Damn, how awesome!

Woah, I can´t get it, I can´t get it.

We are now out for about 11 hours,

it was unbelievable.

At first 1400 meters of altitude,

making tracks in deep powder.

Bad weather rising in, then we had to hurry.

At the ridge, the wind was howling over the cornice,

we almost got slammed down.

But then we had such a great descent.

Together with Mayr Mat. Yes, it was unbelievable.

So rough. But we got what we deserved.

In between I froze my nose.

We have about 30mins to the camp, we are totally exhausted.

But we could enjoy the great snow conditions.

Our routine over the years, finally paid back.

Beautiful!

As they had hoped,

Qujju ran back to the camp and awaited them.

What´s the temperature?

Yes, according to the thermometer something below

-20 Celsius, because scale ends at -20.

The following night Qujju starts howling

A sign that he senses the presence of wolves in the area.

We have now put down our camp.

We will now go further north.

We will look, how far we can go,

and if we find something to ski

and then it´s over anyway,

because then it´s just ocean to

the North pole and nothing to ski.

They are two sizes too big and

still I can´t get in, that´s tough, ha?!

ahh and so enjoyable chilly.

We are now on our way further north

and we hope for more good skiing,

but unfortunately there is lot´s of deep snow

all along the Fjord.

Now we have to make a track and hauling two sleds each

we are not that fast moving forward,

but we hope to get the reward in form of

good skiing over there.

This piling iceberg at the horizon

is our destination for today.

Once again a pretty long day for the whole crew

and over there our target,

the flank on the righthand side.

Doesn´t look that far, but still,

it is damn exhausting and far to walk.

We are now 5 hours on the way, right?

5 hours approximately, yes.

And we probably have another 1,5 to go.

It´s evening already…

Our dog is having diarrhoe.

We will feed him some electrolytes and fish.

We now went 10 or 11 km, it took us 6 or 7 hours.

It´s half past eight in the night.

We are pretty tired and exhausted

But we have reached our destination, up here.

We have scoped it from the distance.

Which flank exactly? the left peak?

Yes

The rocky one?

That´s a quite interesting flank which might is consisting

of good snow.

At least we hope.

That´s our next mission

we would like to ski it tomorrow or the day after tomorrow

light, weather and everything else are on our side

Today I am freezing more than ever before.

I have some frost bites on my left big toe and on my right

nose wing.

Now I have to take care, to not freeze more

but I am already wearing everything I have with me.

Definitely colder then, or at least it feels colder

then anywhere else we have been so far.

Skiing the flank is supposed to be the highlight

of their expedition.

They have never been so far up north.

It is only another 811 km to the North Pole.

The next morning they receive bad news.

From thursday on, ongoing periode with dense clouds.

No sun until sunday. Sent, Monday 9pm

Today is tuesday, right?

I think so. Tuesday, yes.

Ok, that could get thrilling.

I told him to try to get us out.

We should call him at 3pm,

then he tries to find an open window to fly

us out before the storm system is approaching us

Hm, yes.

Now only little time remains.

They leave for the most northerly descent of their lives.

We have to cross this face

We had noise from the settling snow permanently.

We are very cautious and keep distance between each other.

A bit of bad weather is already coming in,

let´s hope for good light though.

Snow looks promising

Ahm, if I could make a wish, then I would like to have it

from the front at the upper part

down there after the narrow part, 45 degrees from aside and…

So, this is gonna be the highlight of our trip.

Windstill.

finally

We are ready, please count down.

Done

It was great

Bolognaise?

One Bolognaise please.

Just had it in my hands, ah here.

The next day the airplane arrives to fly them out

before the storm system arrives.

But Qujju does not seem to agree and runs off.

To leave him behind is not an option.

To catch him

impossible.

Johannes follows the dog with the drone for several km

I am trying to contain the dog.

With the drone?!

With the drone!

It works pretty good. I have forced him to turn around.

At the same time Matthias runs towards him.

No idea what he is doing.

He is just standing around and my battery is running low.

Hauni!

Yeah

Satisfied?

Yes, satisfied that we have the dog back.

He just ran 1,5km away.

It would have been a drama.

If we would have lost him,

would have been a tragedy.

What was going on?

I think Qujju changed his mind

in the last second and rather wants to stay here.

Ach, come Qujju, please.

He pulled me over.

and because of our hard track,

he could run full speed.

Hey! Enough for today!

Come on, we gonna fly home!

Good bye Ellesmere Island

What Matthias and Hauni have learned from this expedition,

is that freedom is the most valuable thing in life.

It was a pleasure, ciao.

Nevertheless one should probably

leash tents and dogs in certain situations

in order to preserve what makes freedom desirable

LIFE

Life itself