All language subtitles for Life.Below.Zero.S04E09.Trapped.And.Hunted.720p.NF.WEB-DL.x264-KangMus_track3_eng

(EXHALES) What, uh, what's
happening is I got up,

went out, tossed my old coffee
water out this morning,

and there's caribou right
across the runway.

Really unusual
for this time of year.

Problem is, on this landscape,

there's almost no way
to sneak up on them.

They look close, but they are
actually 300 yards out.

Ah! There they go.

(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)

(RELOADS GUN)

That's every bit
of 500 yards there.

They're just too far out.

What's that? Hello.

I don't see anything that
tells me I've injured one.

So now I'll go and see
if I can lay up a better shot.

Winter hunting is...

A son of a bitch.

I'm not wearing
inconspicuous colours.

This makes noise.

All of these things are...
Are not in your favour

when you're trying
to get an animal.

They shouldn't be here now.

It's still a month,
two months early,

for them to even be here.

Just like I use
the foxes to tell me

where the animals are at,

the caribou are using
the animals, too.

When ptarmigan go,
"Oh, my God!"

And they flock up,

they know to head
in the opposite direction

because there's something
spooking 'em.

You know, if they're in here,

it's way easier to lay
in a plan of attack.

If they're out in the open,

it's just damn
near impossible.

The best course
of action for me

to have success hunting today,

I'm gonna bag on the caribou

and I'm gonna get the .22

and I think I'm gonna go
for Ptarmageddon.

I saw so many
ptarmigans out there,

that what I need to do is
put food in the freezer.

How I do it,

is in the manner I'm gonna
be the most successful.

A bird in a hand's worth
two caribou in the bush.

CHIP HAILSTONE:
There's no social
security benefits to this.

There's no retirement to this.
There's just death.

That's what I look forward to.

You ladies got your hats
and you're ready to go?

-BOTH: Yeah.
-You need a mini goggles, too.

'Cause it's gonna be
kicking up snow.

But I... We tried to make you
a nice little protection thing

so it doesn't just fly
straight into your face.

It's prime fishing season now,

and, uh, we just wanna go look

and see if we could
find a school of fish

under the ice, so me,
Chip, Ting, and Carol

are going out into
the new camp at Emonakrov.

This camp down there,

it's a place
where we had received

new titles from my grandma,

so, um, we have
a tent frame down there

that Chip made this fall,
and now that

the ice is thick enough
and we can travel,

we're gonna go spend
a first night down there.

And hopefully
we'll be fishing out

some pretty nice-sized fish.

That's everything, eh?

Uh, I got a couple traps
I wanna set down there,

so I was gonna put these
on top of my stuff.

You know, since we're gonna
be down there permanently,

I figure why not
just have some traps

to start to set that way.

And then in, uh,
dark winter when I'm here,

I could use that for
a roundabout. It just depends.

First what I wanna do is

get to learn
that area down there,

see what it has to offer,
and then figure out

what time of year
I'd wanna be there and, uh,

what it'll, what it'll turn
out to be for us.

There might be
stagnant times of year

when you don't
wanna be down there.

Never know. We don't know.
It's like a new adventure.

So, our plan is to
just outfit the place

with the proper tools
and start testing the waters

and see what's there.

AGNES: This is something
I'm looking forward to.

It's, um, a new place
for the girls,

but yet a place where
I've been all through
my growing years,

and, um, I hope these girls
will find it their home, too.

AGNES: Wow!

CHIP: Slick, huh?
AGNES: Yeah,

-it's on the platform, too?
-CHIP: Yup.

How's this sound?
About three bends up,

there was a dead moose
beside the...

Beside the side
of the bank there.

It's kind of frozen
into the ground there.

Did you see
its ribs sticking out?

-TING: Yeah.
-I'm gonna go back there

and go put a couple
of my traps there.

Or at least one
and maybe one closer.

-Is that okay?
-We'll just unpack, huh?

CHIP: Yeah,
just unpack, please.

I'll be back in a little bit.

GLENN VILLENEUVE:
I don't think
this is for everybody.

Unfortunately, there are
a lot of people

that aren't doing
what they love to do.

I've had this little caribou
hanging in the closet

for the last four days
thawing out.

It was frozen solid.

Now it should be thawed out
enough that I can skin it

and cut it up
into smaller pieces.

NARRATOR:
For Glenn Villeneuve,
hunting is an essential tool

for surviving
in the Brooks Range.

And utilising
every piece of his kill

is key to maintaining
his subsistence lifestyle.

GLENN: This little caribou
will have enough meat on it

to feed me
for a couple of weeks.

And the hide.

I'll make into a blanket.

It's got a really warm fur,
on a caribou.

Every animal is different
when you go to skin it.

Some animals require
a lot more work with a knife.

Others, like a caribou,

you can tear a lot of the skin

right off with
just your hands.

It's actually faster
and more efficient.

These are the warble flies.

Those are the maggots,
live underneath the skin.

(GRUNTS)

There!

There. That'll make a nice
warm blanket for my bed.

Cutting it up
into smaller pieces,

the legs, the ribs, the back.

Each time I wanna eat
something I take it out
and let it thaw overnight.

Now, a big caribou
will last me a month,

but this little guy here will
barely last me two weeks.

One of these shoulders, gosh,
I can eat that in a day.

(BONES CRACKING)

I got this little caribou all
cut up into small pieces now.

And every bit of it's
gonna be useful to me.

I got meat here,

I got marrow in the bones,
even in the hooves,

and I got a hide there
to make a blanket out of.

I'm just gonna throw
some snow over it

to keep the birds off
while I go inside

and start working
on that hide.

ANDY BASSICH:
I'm not real paranoid
about predators.

They gotta be
paranoid about me.

I'm on the top
of the food chain.

You guys wanna go for a run?

Who wants to go
set some traps?

Oh, Topaz does. (LAUGHS)

You ready to go?

We're gonna go
downriver today.

Now I'm gonna
hook up the dogs,

and head downriver,

set some traps for the day,

try and get that done before
it gets too dark here

and hopefully we'll catch some
little fur, some big fur, and

I can put together a hat and
make something up later on.

We'll see how it goes.

(DOGS BARKING)

Hup! Hup!

Straight ahead!

Okay, easy. Haw! Haw! Haw!

Attaboys, easy.

Easy. Easy.

Whoa, easy.

The thing about trapping,
you just gotta go out,

set the traps. It's a...
It's a big crap shoot
most of the time.

So you set where it's likely
and then, uh,

it's a waiting game.

Trapping is one
of these things that I...

I have a lot of
mixed emotions about.

I really don't like
killing stuff,

but part of living out here
is you gotta...
You gotta kill to eat.

And you gotta kill to clothe.

You know, that's, that's
a part of living out here

and I've learnt
to deal with it.

Okay, everybody, whoa.

Ho!

Ho! Ho!

Good, everybody stay.

So this is probably gonna be
kind of deep snow
out on the lake here,

but I think it's gonna
be worthwhile to go
over to that area and try

and get rid of
some of these traps.

And that way if multiple
animals come through,

you have different types of
equipment out there to...
To harvest those animals.

I got some
old tracks right here.

Those are lynx tracks.

Kind of a roundy,
you can kind of see...

Right here there's these nice,
rounded little pads.

So that's good.
I think I'm gonna just walk up
into this draw a little bit.

I'll try and set the trap
right in here.

When you're working
with traps, you always
have to be paying

really close attention
to where you're
putting your hands.

This is the part
I always don't like...

Getting my hands in there.

It's a hair trigger.

That's why you don't
put your hands in there.

(LAUGHS)

Let's try round two,
let's put the paper under,
in there first.

What this wax paper
does is it keeps
the snow off the trigger.

If you don't put something
like this over the trigger,
it'll just freeze shut.

Yeah, I feel pretty good
that at some point in time
within the next couple weeks,

something's gonna
walk through here.

It might be a fox.
It might be a lynx.

Potentially a wolf.

I mean, even a wolverine
bounding through here
could do something.

So, yeah.

I think I'm gonna set a few
snares around here
since I'm in this nice tangle.

I'm liking that pretty good.

That makes a nice,
tight little hole right there.

Now we just have to do
the old adage, time will tell.

So that looks pretty good.

I'll get on out of here
and I'll come back,

see if we got something.

CHIP: We're hunters,
not farmers.

We chase it down to kill it

and we get
instant satisfaction or
we get nothing at all.

This here's a dead moose,
all right,

that's pretty well-embedded
into the river.

It's gonna make a good bait.

Animals will
keep coming to this.

This thing's frozen solid,

it's a real
big attractor to animals,

and the fact
is that dead animals

don't get eaten up
in just one day,

and, uh,
it's a great bait, so...

It's natural, it's in sight,
and I'm gonna use it.

Get the
springs set on these guys.

Well, this trigger doesn't
wanna fucking move over.

They're not
a complicated trap,

but, um,

you've always got everything
sliding and bending and

shit moving and it
fucking tries to kill.

Well...

It's just a little too tough
and my hands are frozen.

Well, these are
very thin gloves.

And this metal
here is very cold

and it's, like,
3 below right now.

When you're trying to do this,
and your hands are cold
and you get clumsy,

you're just flirting
with disaster.

So I'm just gonna
take a few minutes

and get some feeling
back in my hands and

carry on slowly.

I've been down
this road many times.

I just know it takes patience.
I just gotta be patient.

As long as I'm patient,
it'll happen.

I'll try it one
more time here.

It's getting to be
a pain in the butt.

That's okay, too.

Ah, there it goes.

Okay, I got the springs done.

Now let's go over here where
we're gonna set this baby.

I think I'm actually
just gonna set it in here.

Probably right
on top of the hole.

As long as an animal
doesn't smell me out,

this sucker's ready to go.

Have some bone shards around.

You know,
a little bit of anything,

a little bit of everything
a fox or another animal
really might like

and that would...

That would be marrow for sure.

And it's already
in a well-established hole.

I got one more trap,
and I'm thinking,

you know, I'll get
one more out there.

I got a double set right here.

When I got a trap going,
the trap is hunting
all night for us.

When we go fishing,
we're actively fishing,

so we can be down there
jigging away fishing

and the traps
will be right here

waiting for something to come
along and try to take a bite.

So I could get
a nice predator fur

and a fish meal
all at the same time.

It's pretty cool.

I'm gonna leave this one
out here in the obvious.

Maybe they'll move over
to that one.

That's kind of
what I'm thinking.

We'll come back in the morning
and check it out.

You know,
it's just the first set,
first time, first night,

and, uh,

we'll just see how it goes.

GLENN: It feels different

when you're wearing
animal skins

and you're sleeping
on animal skins.

It connects you to the whole
environment out here.

That's what it's all about.

The animals provide
a lot more
than just food for me.

Hides are very useful.
I use animal hides
for my clothing.

I use animal hides
for my bedding.

There are even certain bones
that I use for tools out
of a caribou.

This caribou hide's gonna
make a nice blanket.

You don't just rip
a caribou hide off

of the caribou
and start sleeping on it,
it's gotta be cleaned up.

There's still fat on here,
there are these warble fly
maggots that I'm cleaning off.

Warble flies lay eggs
on caribou...

In their fur.

In the summertime,
when the eggs hatch,

little maggots bore
under the skin,

down on the legs usually,
and then they migrate up
to the back.

They're kind of a pain
because they

degrade the hide.

Some people find it
kind of tedious,
but I just have to work,

taking all that stuff off.

You want the hide to last,
you don't want any fat

or junk that's gonna
be rancid on it

without cutting holes
through the hide,
that's the big thing.

It's a very
delicate operation.

The goal is to get the hide
flexible, soft after it dries.

Mostly it's by scraping,
sometimes chewing on it.

'Cause what you'll see is
you'll actually see it turn
into leather.

Like right here, if you just
chew it a little bit.

You know, in old days,
people used to chew
hide all the time.

Saliva actually helps it.

A lot of people don't
get to do stuff
like this any more.

Everybody used to do this.

Everybody used
to work on hides.

That was just

a normal way of life.

It's a special feeling
when you've got

your food and your bedding

on a mountain that you can see
right out the window
while you're in your cabin.

That's what
subsistence living is.

It's just nice, it's like
doing the dishes,
it's like chopping firewood.

Working on a hide.

You see the results,

right in front of your eyes.

Look at that.

Isn't that beautiful?

That's gonna
make a beautiful blanket.

I like it.

SUE: It's all good fuel
for my personal fire.

Susie gets to keep on
burning her way through life.

What I'm gonna do,

is, uh,

I'm gonna go down
this way into the riverbed,

and just hopefully fill up
my bucket with ptarmigans.

But I know the animals here,

there is a pattern,
the sun is out,

they're doing good,
we're supposed
to get a blizzard,

they're gonna
be here and gone.

I'm gonna back up,
get in there,

and hopefully have a case
of Ptarmageddon today.

Foxy! Coming with?

(MAKES KISSING NOISES)

Dum-Dum!

My biggest worry right now
is zeroing in on
a flock of ptarmigan.

It's one of the only
food sources out here
for a lot of the year.

You don't exactly see
a whole lot of food

running around out here
on the tundra.

I got one up over there,
I think.

Got a lot more up there.

That whole bush is
covered in 'em.

What I see up here

is more ptarmigans,
the little white cotton balls.

(COCKS GUN)

(BREATHS HEAVILY)

Hunting's pretty good.

In the end,

you know...

Yeah, I could spend the day
going after a caribou.

But right here,

I'm expending energy
but I've got instant benefit.

All I'm gonna do is
angle back that way,

and if I see something,
take some more shots.

It is good to know,
where does
your food come from?

It is good to know
how to be responsible

for your own carbon footprint
on this planet.

I know where
this ptarmigan's been.

I know what it's been eating.

It doesn't have anything to do
with injections, antibiotics
and growth hormones.

That's something that
I want my grandkids
and my kids to be able to do

and then pass on
to their families.

So what I'm gonna do,

is try to get...

Try to get the breast
and I take...

Put my thumb
underneath this portion,

lift it up...

Find that nice little pumper,

toss 'em in, that's a keeper.

And I'll finish
cleaning it off inside.

I've got lots of nice
little breast meat here,

I'm gonna make myself
some soup stock,

I'll get the meat,

I love the little hearts.

I mean, I may take a fair
amount of bullets doing it,
but I had a lot of fun today.

CHIP: I think I see it as
all being really good.

Because even
the worst day of fishing
is better than being at work.

Whoo, that wind, huh?

Whoo! It's cold out here
this morning.

It ain't so cold as
it is the wind, girls.

If I were you, I would just
stay inside and work in there,

'cause your hands are
gonna get chilly out here.

AGNES: Is there a wind?

CHIP: There's a wind for sure.

It's, uh, it's cold.

This morning's just starting.

Had some coffee,

and right now I'm gonna
gas up and make sure
that the ladies can

do a little bit
of fishing out here.

They're getting some
fish jiggers put together.

We came down here to see
what the fishing's like.

We don't know how good it'll
be or how good it won't be.

But, um, you don't know
till you try.

(MACHINE BUZZING)

I know the channel's fairly
deep right here,

and, uh, since we got
a new camp going on here,

the best thing we can do
right now is find out
what resources there are.

The only thing up against us
today is this wind.

If the wind gets stronger,
we might not fish long.

You just simply get
chilled sitting still jigging,
you know, in the wind.

But, we'll see.

This is basically
what we call a jigger.

I'm gonna sit there
and put this through the hole

and I'm gonna jig it up
and down in the hole.

The folks up here have
been using these things
for thousands of years.

They don't have any fancy
spinning device to break.

Don't have any eyelets
to go through.

The method is to
just jigger up and down.

Any luck yet?

CHIP: (LAUGHS)
Just got it wet.

Hey, babe. You look ready.

It's nice to come
down here and, uh,

check out the new
properties we acquired.

The time to go fishing
is now, so, uh,
except for the wind,

it just started to get
a little breezy here,

and these rivers
has never failed
my mother and her mother,

so I don't see why they should
fail me and my girls.

CHIP: And just keep it moving.
Just gently.

And when you feel a weight,
then you really have to lift.

Just keep it moving.

AGNES: And not make movement
by your hole too much.

No.

I'm just pretty much
just taking
some of the, um,

snow away from her ice
so the snow don't just keep
filling her ice hole,

so we just try to pile it up
and make a little wind block.

Keeps us a lot warmer that way
while we're standing here.

CHIP: You feel something?

Don't be too discouraged
if we don't come up
with nothing here.

That's why it's called
fishing, Bun, not catching.

AGNES: Fishing takes
a lot of time once
you get under the ice,

and then you sit here
for hours and hours,

and sometimes days and days
just, um, jigging.

We're just gonna give it a try
and see how our luck is.

CHIP: This wind
is picking up, ladies.

AGNES: Yes, it is.

Come on, fish!

GLENN: I was looking
all over the world

for a place to kind of live
close to nature like this
and I ended up, up here.

I have to keep hunting.
And the caribou are around us.

I've seen signs of them,
I've seen a few caribou

just a couple days
ago across the lake,

so I'm gonna
keep hunting today.

Go out there and see if I can
connect with another caribou.

Whenever
I'm hunting for caribou,
I start right at home.

I'm always watching,
right here from
the front yard.

Right from the lake
just in front of my camp,
I get a good view.

I can look all around
and see if there are any
caribou to go after.

If I can't find
any caribou from here,

then I have to walk
further and look.

But I always start looking
right here in my yard.

I like to keep my hood down
as much as I can

just so I can see better
and hear better,

but right now,
it's about 50 below.

And that's extremely cold.

It's cold weather to hunt in
but I can hunt in these
temperatures when I have to.

There I see
some caribou tracks.

They're real hard to make out
because of this
flat grey light.

The sun isn't up
above the horizon yet.

If I keep looking I might find
the caribou themselves.

Two important things
to know about caribou.

They're gregarious,

if you find one,
you'll often find others.

And they're
long-distance migrators,

they travel hundreds
and hundreds of miles
over the course of the year.

So just because
you see caribou,

doesn't mean they're gonna
be here tomorrow.

You gotta take advantage of
opportunities when they come.

You can never have
too much meat out here.

You got a couple months of
meat stored up on the cache,

but two months later,
there might not be
a caribou in sight.

Or anything else to eat.

I don't see any caribou
on these mountains
that I can see from this spot.

There are a lot of places
I can't see from here.

If there are caribou
in the forests

or if there are caribou
on other lakes
down the valley,

I won't know unless
I walk down there and look.

I think I see some.

Hey, caribou! Caribou!

(GLENN SPEAKING)

It's not.
But there are caribou around.

I've seen
caribou tracks already,

but I'm gonna go
a little further along on
the edge of the lake.

Look at this.

These are caribou tracks
and they're fairly fresh.

By looking at the tracks,

the feeling of 'em...

I can get an idea

about which way
these caribou are moving.

When I see some tracks
like this, it's exciting,

'cause I know the caribou are
moving through this area.

There's still caribou around.

But, I also know
that caribou move
a long ways in a short time.

And the chance of me
catching up with these caribou
right here is minimal,

so I'm not gonna follow them.

I'm gonna continue
along the lake.

They're
long-distance migrators,
and there are times

when there are caribou passing
through the valley

and then times
where months will go by

and there are no caribou
at all in the valley,

so this is encouraging to see
that there are caribou around.

So, I'm gonna keep going,
see what I find up ahead.

CHIP: It's really cool
getting things done

in the same way people
have been doing
for thousands of years,

simply because it's abundant,

it's there, it's healthy
and it's the right
thing to do.

AGNES:
Did you all's get nibbles?

No nibbles? Darn!

Here, Agnes.
Why don't you take this one?

I'm gonna jump
on the snow machine

and I'm gonna go
check that trap.

We got about half
an hour of sunlight.

And the wind
is really picking up.

That's quite possible.
We'll go see.

Anyway, I'll be back
in about a half-hour.

Before sundown.

I hope you guys
catch something.

NARRATOR: The Hailstones are
spending their first day
at the new camp in Emonakrov,

to harvest
the area's resources.

While Agnes and the girls look
for sheefish under the ice,

Chip must check his traps

before the sun sets
and conditions
become dangerous.

Well, the sun's gonna
be going down in about
half-hour, 45 minutes,

and I've got a couple
of traps set about

a couple miles away from here
on a dead moose carcass.

The wind is really picking up,

and these ladies
are continuing to fish

but, um, right now
it's probably zero,

but the wind
is picking up like
15 with gusting to 20, 25.

And it makes it
a little too cold
to wanna stick around, so...

So if that's the case,
you know, we wanna
keep it enjoyable.

We'll just go home.
It's an hour-and-a-half
from here.

Well, we got one trap
that's sprung

and another trap that
has the safeties on it.

I don't really understand
what happened here.

Now, this one was set off.

I don't know
what snapped it off.

I would assume either
a weasel or something
smaller than this trap

to set this trap off.

But this one
I don't understand at all.

Oh, well. It's not for me
to understand everything
in this world.

The fact is, I set these,
I probably almost
had something.

I couldn't tell you
what the tracks are

because the wind is blowing
in a ground storm right now,

and it's starting to fill in,

and even if I left
these traps here,

set, they would fill in.

And I would probably
not catch anything, so...

Well, basically,
the sun's going down,

so I'm gonna go home and see
what kind of decision

the ladies have made.
They might wanna, um,
stay another night here

if the fishing's
any good right now
or they might wanna go home.

Me myself, I'm, uh, I'm gonna
take these traps with me.

If the ladies wanna
stay the night out,

maybe I'll put 'em
in a different location

or maybe
I'll put 'em back here again.

But for myself,
I just gave it a try.

ANDY: I try and keep positive.

Positive thoughts
bring positive results.

-All right.
-(DOGS BARKING)

(LAUGHS)

Oh, boy. Let's go check traps.

I've had traps out
for a few days now and...

And hook up the dogs.
I've got a fairly good day,

it's kind of socked in
a little bit, but not too bad.

We'll go see
if we can find some fur!

Come on, Foge.

(DOGS BARKING AND WHINING)

Hup!

Attaboy, Carb.

I never get tired

just walking through
these open woods like this.

This is beautiful
back in here.

Even if you don't catch
any fur, you...

You kind of feel like...

You've had a really nice
experience in the woods.

All right. Let's go see
if we got anything.

That almost looks like
a place where the lynx were

chasing after rabbit.

You gotta have
the prey if you wanna
get the predators.

Well, it doesn't look like
anything in this Conibear.

That's kind of disappointing.

Everything I do
out here is just,

a little bit here,
a little bit there,

a little bit over here
to make this life.

You don't make
your living all on one thing

but if you lose
one of those components

it can really
impact your life a lot.

Looks like I'm skunked again.

No marten in this one.

No fresh tracks around,
no critters in the traps

and, uh,

it's a little demoralising,
a little frustrating, but

I just have to go
to the next place

and hopefully I'll get
a little bit of fur, but...

That's the game this is.

Let's go check the rest
of the trap line, guys.

Ho! Let's go!

Easy.

Easy.

Easy.

Easy. Ho, ho.

I'm coming up to an area that

I've got quite a few sets...

Couple of marten sets
and a wolverine set.

Ah, these guys are picking up.
They smell something.

You guys smell something, huh?

Ho, ho, ho!

Hey. Look at that.

Yee-haw.

Got a little bit of fur!

Everybody stay.

All right.

We've got some fur.

Nice little marten.

He's not a giant
but I'll take it.

Yeah.

Well, that made my day.

I was beginning
to get pretty...

Pretty bummed out here
not catching anything,

so... At least we got one.
Right, Shilling?

Hup!

Let's go, boys.

Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa.

We almost missed
that one, you guys.

All right.

Number two.

Bush economics trip was...
(CHUCKLES)

...looking pretty poor

but it's starting
to pick up a little bit.

Yeah, boys!

(CHUCKLES)

There we go.

I'm liking this day.

Feast to famine.

Oh, yeah.

Hey, that's
a nice-size marten, too.

That's two on
the bottom and...

That guy's
a nice-sized marten.

He barely fits in my tote.

Turn around
and head on home and

get these marten thawed out
and do some skinning.

Won't be able
to do that tonight,
they're all frozen.

All in all,
this was a good effort.

That's life in the wilderness.

(LAUGHS)

All right.

Let's go home, boys!

Ho!

SUE: You achieve success
by jumping back on that horse

not by selling it
and buying a kitten.

Hunting is a part of what I do

and it's a very important part
of my lifestyle.

However,
it does not define me.

I need the food

but I don't lose sight of
saying, "Thank you, birdies."

Without them...

I wouldn't be here.

Some spices.

I'm gonna let 'em
just kind of marinate.

I put the spices on 'em,
I put the oil on 'em,

and I am going to cover up
those ptarmigan breasts,

let all those spices
make out with the meat...

So that that flavour soaks in.

Today was just
a really good day.

I went after the caribou,

didn't get 'em,

but in the process
of trying to get the caribou,
I saw all the ptarmigan.

I changed gear,

went over and went
after the ptarmigan

and now I have
several week's worth of food.

The bird, the land,
the air, the snow,

everything that makes up
the beauty of the Arctic

all in a little bitty bite.

Ptarmigan soup, even better.

GLENN: In order to take
advantage of opportunities,

you have to learn the country
and you have to learn

where things are happening
and when they're happening at.

NARRATOR: Glenn is searching
for caribou,

a crucial food source
in dark winter.

But tracking the animals
requires him to cross
the frozen lake

and any mistake while walking
on the ice can be fatal.

I can see some spots
where there's water

coming up under the snow.

It's called overflow
and it's very dangerous.

Since the last time I went out
at camp, it's snowed a lot.

And this deep snow,

pushes the ice down
into the water.

Water works its way out
through the ice

in certain places,
it actually will melt holes

right through the ice,
even when it's 50 below zero.

Those holes
are called spider holes

and looking down here
with binoculars,

I can see some places
where there's spider holes
on the lake.

That's not good.

I gotta be careful
crossing the lake.

Make sure I do not
get into the overflow

and do not fall
into a spider hole.

If I get my feet wet,
I'm finished out here.

Whoa.

I can feel something...

That's dangerous.

I'm on snowshoes,
so it's holding me
up on top of the snow,

but under this snow
it's not solid ice.

There's overflow.

It's a layer of slush
and it can be pretty deep.

It's 40 below zero.

If I fall into that overflow,
I can freeze my feet.

It'll build up all over
the snowshoes,

you can get totally stuck
in it, it's very dangerous.

The water has spread out
all under the snow here
ahead of me.

I gotta move off
the lake here.
It's too dangerous.

I have to leave the lake
here and go through
the forest for a ways

because of the overflow.

Normally, it's easier
travelling on the lake.

Much easier because it's flat.

In the forest, the ground
is rough and uneven.

It's harder to travel.

But the lake's too dangerous
with that overflow.

From up here
I can see 'em a little bit.

When you're down on the lake,
they're very hidden.

If I fell on a spider hole,
I'd be dead.

If I step in the overflow
in these temperatures,

I'll freeze my feet.

I might be past the overflow.

Right here it feels all right.

It doesn't feel like there's
any overflow under my feet.

I'm gonna try
and hug the shoreline.

But it's a lot easier

out here on the lake
than it is in the forest

where the ground's
so irregular.

There.

We made it over
to the far side of the lake.

Broke out about
a mile-and-a-half trail today.

I didn't find
any caribou today.

But that's typical.

I'll go out hunting 10, 12
times before I find caribou.

It's not uncommon.
I just have to keep watching,

take advantage of
opportunities when
they come up,

and now I've got
a trail that I can utilise

to get more quickly
to the other side

of the lake when I see
caribou over this way.

ANDY: For me, it's all about
being utilitarian,

using the product for how it
was intended to be used.

I've got my, uh,
day's catch here.

I had a really good day.

I was getting skunked and then

the last four
or five sets on my, uh,

check on my line,
I nailed, uh,

four really nice marten
here, so, it's time
to skin 'em.

I brought 'em inside
and thawed 'em all out.

They're gonna make
some really nice fur
products for me.

I'll probably end up making
a nice marten hat out of this.

Fur is king

and there's nothing
better than fur
to keep you warm

up in these northern climates.

And fur is
a great skill to know

if you're gonna live up north,
because it's something

that nature
can provide for you.

So once
I get 'em to this point,

a lot of times
I like to hang 'em up,

so I can work
on 'em a little bit better.

Very little goes to waste.

You wanna kinda take
your time and get
it started pretty good.

Then you can pretty much just
pull straight down on 'em.

I'll just drop 'em
on the board.

The way they grade
these furs is

the length from the nose here
to the base of the tail.

That's what you get graded on.

So the longer it is,

within reason, the better.

First thing I like to do is

once they're on
the board like this,

I'm just taking

the lower legs,
stretching 'em out.

You're just trying
to expose the flesh

so it'll dry out.

I like to just tack 'em
on gently first.

The final thing you do
is take a

stretcher here,
you stick that up in there,

if you don't do that
the skin dries so tight

that you won't be able
to get it off the board.

This allows you to have
something you can remove,
leaves a little bit of

slackness in the fur.

Just needs to dry tonight,
I want this
to feel like paper.

Tomorrow morning,
I'll probably come in
with a cup of coffee,

turn all these marten around

and put 'em back on the board,

let 'em dry
for a couple more days

and then they're
ready for tanning

and making a hat out of.

If I can take fur
and make something out of it,

it has a much higher value,

not only monetarily
but personally for me.

The fur I trapped today

is gonna keep me warm
for many years to come.

AGNES: Every day's a learning
experience for these girls.

Even me, I try to tell them,

even though I'm old
I still learn something
new every day.

Getting pretty windy out here.

Even though we keep trying,
we ain't catching any fish.

We're lucky
we built these, uh,

little wind breaks for us,

'cause this wind
is really whipping it up.

CHIP: No fish?
AGNES: No fish!

CHIP: Ah, shucks.

-That's fishing!
-How about the trap?

Oh, I don't even think
I had a good time
with that one.

You guys wanna stay another
night and try to keep fishing?

Or do you wanna
call it a weekend

and just head back
and go eat dinner at home?

I think we're about done here.

This is get... The wind
is starting to get

strong enough
to blow in our face.

CHIP: Well, let's go home.

Well, you know,
we came down here,

we wanted to show
the girls this camp

that their grandmother
once owned this place.

And that her mother
and grandmother had
once fished here.

I mean, these
are Inupiats right here

and these folks have been
on this land for 10,000 years.

And to see my wife
and kids flow
in that direction,

I think that's pretty cool.

Well, let's go home.

What we're taking out
of here today

isn't gonna be fish,
it isn't any fur.

We're gonna take out of here
a little bit of story,

a lot of culture, and family
connection between my wife

and the daughters
and the actual ways

that they make
a living around here.

Someday, when me
and Agnes are dead
and rotting in the ground,

their grandkids
will be down here.

I hope so.