All language subtitles for Life.Below.Zero.S05E09.No.Easy.Out.720p.WEB-HD.x264-KangMus_track3_eng

NARRATOR: On this episode
of Life Below Zero...

When Alaskans bet against
Mother Nature,

the house always wins.

ANDY: Whatever Mother
Nature throws at you,
you just got to deal with it.

SUE: In all the best-laid
plans, nature has
another idea.

NARRATOR: The brutal freeze
threatens Andy's way of life.

Almost 50 below.

ANDY: I don't think
they're gonna start.

NARRATOR: The Hailstones
break trail through
the bitter tundra.

There is no easy,
it's all rough country.

Sue Aikens braves jagged
terrain to protect her camp.

If I can't get myself up,
I'm somebody's dinner.

NARRATOR: And the Salitans
struggle to outsmart
their prey.

We caught something
and it got away.

(DOGS BARKING)

CHIP: It's light winter,
the sun is up now until
9:30 at night,

and it's time for us
to have our hunt on.

We have long, clear days.
It's gonna be cold,

but where we're going
is where all the caribou are,

and wherever the caribou are,
there's fur.

NARRATOR: For the Hailstones,
the transition from dark

to light winter brings
more daylight and is the time

to journey to Kiwalik,
where they will hunt and trap

red meat and fur
for the next few months.

AGNES: It's gonna be
a two weeks of pretty much

everything we come across.

Caribou hunting, wolf hunting,
seal hunting, fishing.

You know, there's
a lot of things

we expect to see out there

but we're just gonna do
what comes to us.

The first step we do
when we plan a trip like this

is we take care
of our machines.

I don't want to go out
there and think that
"Oh, I have to run

"my snow machine real easy."

You know, try to take it easy
on my ride and all that.

Once we get out there into
the country, there is no easy.

It's all just rough,
hard, cold country.

CHIP: We paint the snow
machines just for simple

camouflage effect.

We wanna get
closer to the animals,

we want the animals
to get close to us.

We wear white.

We're not 100 per cent
camouflaged, but we're enough

to break up our outline
and deceive the animals.

Get more advantage
just being concealed.

The kind of white I wanted,
white as snow.

Well, I think this is looking
pretty good.

Looking pretty good. Wow.

It's time to go.

AGNES: We should be able
to make it all the way down

to Kiwalik today.

Its 110 miles.

We leave when we do,
simply because of

the way the sun is.

We're travelling south,
and for quite a few hours

of the day, the sun is
directly in our eyes.

So basically what we do is
we either leave early

in the morning, or we leave
late in the afternoon.

AGNES: Be here every day
when the kids

come home from school.

Mm-hmm.

If anything,
we're just two hours away.

CHIP: We've got our kids
in the age old enough,
they can take care

of themselves.
They can watch each other.

They can run a house
efficiently without

burning it down
or blowing it up.

And we can be gone
for a couple, three,

four weeks at a time
if we need to.

SUE: If you only go through
the routine, and the accepted,

you get the
basic script of life down,

but you're short
changing yourself on

all the little nuances.

The closer I get to
spring, you know,
it's tough walking on

some of these, uh,
snow drifts, because
you're solid, solid,

and then you fall through.

I used to have a couple pairs
of real nice,

professional snowshoes,
but things break.

So what I wanna do is, uh,
mack down some of these
willow branches

and start fashioning a
couple of snowshoes.

There are predators out there.

And I'm 180
to 200 pounds of fun.

I'm punching through the snow
and if I can't get myself up

I'm somebody's dinner.

Outside, out here in the
cold, things break, they're
brittle, they're frozen.

So what I wanna do is get them
back inside my cubby,

let them warm up
so they're pliable.

If it's 20 below outside,
everything's brittle.

Uh-oh, Ermie,
what does mama got?

So I'm gonna
light my little stove here.

I got the little heater going,
so that will add to the warmth

of the room,
help speed up the process.

They don't need
my help to thaw.

So these will just do
their thing, I'll go do mine.

While I've got the willow
branches thawing out

in the Twinkie, I wanna
get up here and
check my surroundings.

Is there a major predator
sitting out there?

You know, I heard something
howling out that way.

So looking helps me see,
what's the area

I wanna go to look like?

Most animals are gonna be
coming down or up the river.

So what I wanna do
is cross-section it.

I just wanna see
what's in my neighbourhood.

Is there something out there
snarling, and falling down,

and sick that I have to
deal with?

So you gotta get down,
dirty and personal with it.

ANDY: Big part of living
out here is gaining
a system that works

for you, 'cause
it's different for everyone.

And then rocking and rolling
when it's time to do it.

'Cause days are short,
you just gotta
get out there and do it.

Got up this morning and it was

50 below at sunrise.

It's, uh, warmed up to
about 40 below now.

Everything has to average out.

And if you don't get your cold
early in the year,

you're gonna get it towards
the middle or the end

of the year and that's where
we're at right now.

Unfortunately, just because
it's a cold day out

doesn't mean that
all the chores get

put on hold around here.

Every day there are chores.

Dealing with dogs,
dealing with wood,

dealing with water.

So whatever Mother Nature
throws at you,

you just gotta deal with it.

I've got to get wood today.
I'm pumping a lot of wood

into my stoves right now.
I'm starting to get

low on wood for
my generator shack.

I have to keep my batteries
warm, otherwise,

it will get ruined.

As much as I'd like to
hunker down at 50 below zero,

that's not gonna be
the case today.

I can go see if
I can't cut some wood.

I'll go harness up some dogs,
head over across the river,

try and get
a couple loads of wood in.

I'm gonna take both chainsaws
out and hope that I can get

one out of two to work today.

(ANDY SPEAKING)

Yeah, come on, boys! Let's go!

They love nothing better than
to get out and get their

-blood moving
when it's cold like this.
-(DOGS WHIMPERING)

So, we're gonna use the dogs
to go haul wood.

I have about four loads
with the dogs to equal one

load with the snow machine.

And so I gotta work
a lot more, it takes

a lot more time to go out
and use the dogs,

but, uh, I know it's a given.

I know I'm not gonna
have to fight equipment.

I know I'm not gonna
have to fight breakdowns.

The only thing I gotta
worry about with the dogs

is making sure that they're
taken care of well,

they're well fed, they're
well hydrated,

and they're in good shape.

Hup! Let's go!

(DOGS BARKING)

Ideally I try and do this
during a little bit

warmer temperatures,
even 20 below

it's a big difference, but it
just didn't work out that way.

So just gotta knuckle up
and go do it.

ERIK: You gotta be motivated
and excited to be doing

this stuff, otherwise
you quit real quick.

I'm very fortunate to be able
to live where I live.

And to get to see
some of the incredible things

that the natural world
can show.

Trapping season's been open
up here in the Brooks Range

for over a month already.

Martha and I haven't done
any trapping yet because
of the snow conditions.

There's not enough snow
to ride the snow machines.

So, we're gonna go out
and we're gonna walk

some country and lay
some steel, see if

we can't put up a couple pelts
for the winter.

The sort of cash crop
of all Alaska trappers

is to trap lynx
and to trap marten.

Those two animals are
consistent producers.

They're the bread and butter
of trappers.

All right, babe, let's see
if this is good ice.

Let me go first.

The one dangerous thing about
rivers, especially ones

that are really swift,
is that if you fall through,

your chance of
survival is slim.

So that's why
it's always good to go ahead

and have somebody go across
by themselves and check

the river and make sure
that the ice is safe.

We're good to go.

ERIK: When you're going out
in a weird year like this,

not a lot of snow, not a lot
of cold weather,

you gotta be careful
crossing rivers

and things like that.

Water is the way that you can
really get hurt in Alaska,

water is the way that
you really die in Alaska.

So this is where I had
a cubby set in past years.

(SNIFFS) You can see
the cubby's still there
with the broken sticks.

I've been trapping up here
for a number of years.

I got a lot of steel
that's already in the woods.

And we'll go
re-tent the cubbies.

We'll, of course, re-bait
the traps and set them

so that we can
catch some animals.

So the idea of this cubby set
is that you're funnelling

the animal into...

To enter like this,
and the trap is,

of course, in the way,
for the animal to get

at the bait that we'll place
in a minute here.

MARTHA: What do you
wanna use on this one?

I wanna use the caribou leg
and I wanna use

a part of a grouse.

I saved all my grouse
from the fall time.

They're a little bit
stank, not rot, but
just perfect for bait.

They have a good aroma to them
and it's a great way

to recycle the waste product.

So what we're doing here
with this wing is we place

this up here,
and what this does is

it serves as a
visual attraction.

We use a trapping axe and we
just lay a thin layer of snow.

You never do the snow
in your hands.

If it compacts,
the trap will freeze down

and it won't be able
to operate properly.

You know, the big hope
on this set would be to catch

either a, uh, lynx
or a, uh, wolverine.

But much more likely a lynx.

I got that one
all, uh, squared away.

-Let's go work on this
marten pole.
-Okay.

ERIK: Marten the animal
that is intended to be

caught in this trap.
It's in the weasel family.

A good marten trapper
can catch over
200 marten in a year.

The last few years,
they've been paying

record high prices
for the marten.

I think we're all good here.
Is that pretty tight?

-Yeah.
-(SNIFFS) Let's rock
and roll the next one.

On to the next!

It's a lot more challenging
to trap on foot

than on a snow machine.
It's pretty limited

where we can go on foot.

MARTHA: This sounds hollow.
ERIK: About a three-foot drop
of shelf ice there.

MARTHA: I don't
wanna be on this.

ERIK: Wanna avoid spots like
that. That's dangerous ice.

As you live in Alaska,
you learn the dangers
around you.

So one of them is definitely
the rivers and the water.

How the ice sounds,
what it looks like,
the colours of the ice.

ERIK: You wanna look out
for that dark ice.

Dark ice is not your friend.

You just gotta be careful
and know what you're doing.

MARTHA: Ooh.

Those are fairly fresh,
aren't they?

(ERIK SPEAKING)

We got a fairly fresh
lynx tracks coming

right along the edge
of this beaver slough.

That looks
pretty prime right there,
that tree right there.

-Huh?
-Okay.

MARTHA: So we're just gonna
go out on a hunch,

because we saw a lot of
tracks in this area and we
haven't been seeing any.

So we're just gonna
go on, uh, intuition.

(ERIK GRUNTING)

ERIK: You know, you wanna find
a good place to catch a cat,

you look where
there's some cat tracks.

This is the first new set
Martha and I have made
for the season.

I feel good about this spot.

It's fresh, it's new,
we're just getting started

for the year.
We got some done so far today.

We got a lot more to go.

It gets a lot easier
to do this, you know,

year after year you do
the same thing.

All you gotta really do
is come and freshen up

the cubby, re-bait the trap,
set the trap,

you're already good to go.

Let's roll.

SUE: Own your own mistakes.

Own your liabilities.

You wouldn't last long
out here if you had to
have perfection.

Nature by default
isn't perfect.

Morning, Ermie.

I know, I'm trashing
your world out, huh.

My little branches have been
in here all night.

They are as limber
as they are going to get.

So I wanna start fashioning
a couple of snowshoes.

NARRATOR: To scout her camp
for predators, Sue is making

a pair of snowshoes
that will help her trudge

through the deep snow
that surrounds her.

So I apply gentle pressure
and give that branch

a chance to stretch
its cells out a little.

Bend it back
instead of forward.

I'm asking it to do something
it doesn't really want to do.

Wasn't... Didn't grow out
there saying, "Hey, I think
I'm gonna touch my bottom."

(SNIFFS)

I'm not always known
for being a gentle soul.

-(TWIG SNAPPING)
-(GASPS)

Trashed it.

I didn't give them
time to stretch.

That was a good one too.

(GRUNTING) So again,
I'm just gonna try to work it.

Suggest to it that
it needs to live in
a different direction

than it normally does.

When you're working it,
you'll feel where

the tension is saying,
"Bitch, I'm gonna break."

Now this guy's gonna be
a hard sell right there.

You mother-fucker.
God damn it.

Goddamn son of
a fucking whore.

That was a beautiful one too.

(GROANS)

Trying to work this bottom
to give me a little

more pliability. I want this
to bend, not this.

Don't break now.

(WHISPERING) Come on, come on,
come on, come on.

Before you break,
get your butt in there.

Okay.

You have a basic
hoop shape here.

I just wanna lash it.

Come on, my little friend.

Okay.

(SIGHS)

Tie your little webbing,
your netting, and then you put

a couple of cross members
on there and it gives you

this much more flat surface.

It's like giving yourself
Sue-Squatch feet.

The whole purpose behind
making these little hummers

is, obviously, I know
I've got foxes around.

Obviously, I know I've
got some birds around.

I wanna know about
those predators.

I'd like to know
what's out there.

And this, this hopefully
will help me get into areas

I normally don't.
There you go.

Your basic little snowshoe.

Those are the
the two main guys,

but if one breaks, doop,
you've got your other one.

So I'm all set
for a morning excursion.

ANDY: Cold is just a part
of the environment we live in.

It's dangerous, but it's like
anything in life,

if you know
what you're up against

and you can prepare for it,
even though it's dangerous,

it's doable.

All right, let's go. Hup, hup.

Yeah, buddies.

NARRATOR: In order
to battle the frigid
40 below temperatures,

-Andy must maintain
his wood supply.
-Hey.

All right. Good job.

Good boy, Coug. Good girl,
Tope.

(ANDY SPEAKING)

And I gotta strip down

'cause I know I'm gonna
get too hot if I leave
all this on, plus it's just

so bulky it's hard to work in.

(GRUNTS)

I'm gonna try and make this
go as quick as I can.

Oh, man.

(GRUNTING) I had that thing
warmed up inside the house.

They don't really like
these temperatures very much.

Machinery saves you
a lot of work.

You can get a lot more done,
but it has its drawbacks.

It's not meant to work
in this kind of cold.

Shit. I got another saw.

I'm gonna try that one.

It's a little older saw.
Maybe the compression

is not quite as tight on it.

(GRUNTING) So, this saw
turns over a little easier.

It's a little older saw with
a little less compression.

It still doesn't wanna
really turn over.

I had these things heated up
inside my house all night.

Just in the amount of time
it took to get here,

they stiffened up.

I don't think
they're gonna start.

Shit, man.

I brought two hoping
I could get one going.

And it looks like it's time
to build a quick fire

and try and get a little bit
of warmth to them.

NARRATOR: Andy is
attempting to harvest
wood to heat his camp.

But brutal temperatures
have frozen his machinery,

and the only solution
is the most primal

and basic of skills.

Probably the single
best skill to learn up here

is building a fire quick.

Always make sure
I have birch bark with me

whenever I go outside
for times like this,

I find paper matches
work better than

the wood matches up here.

Birch bark
catches really good.

Best fire starter in nature.

And it burns even if it's wet.

People been living up
in this country with far less

than we have now
for thousands of years.

Sometimes when I'm feeling
sorry for myself I think about

what it must have been like
to live here two,

three hundred years ago
when you didn't have

the benefits of
some of this machinery.

You didn't have some of these
lightweight, warm clothes.

But, uh, we're pretty spoiled
nowadays living out here,

compared to what people
used to have to put up with.

Feels pretty good already.

The main thing I think
I need to get is these recoils

need to warm up.

Let's see if I can
warm these up
without burning them up.

Fire, man's best friend
up here in the north.

All right, I'm getting
a little bit of heat on these.

I'm gonna try, I think
I'll try this big one first.

It felt like it was pulling
a little bit better.

-(ENGINE WHIRRING)
-Yeah, baby.

All right!

You can't have
high expectations

when it's cold like this.
You just get out, try and get

what you can done,
and be happy with that.

I think that's it.
I can tell it's getting dull.

That's a couple loads of wood
with the dogs.

So that's a good start.

One thing about wood,
it warms you about four times.

Once to cut it,
once to load it,

once to chop it up,
and another time to bring it

in the house
and throw it in the stove.

Still a lot
of work ahead of me.

Once that sun hits that top
of that mountain, temperature

is gonna start dropping quick
and I'm gonna

lose that sunlight.
So, can't slow down,

just gotta keep on humping.

ERIK: We just make it work.
That's the whole thing

about doing anything
out here in the bush.

If you're trapping,
if you're hunting,

just make it work.

This isn't Harvard.
You just have to wanna do it.

Martha and I
set some traps here

just five, six days ago.

We're gonna go down
and check those traps.

There's been some snowfall.

We're gonna tend those traps.

I'm bringing along
a couple more.

Set a few more, if necessary,
and we'll go from there.

We'll see what we got.

Come on, let's roll, honey.

MARTHA: Nature's throwing
a couple of curve balls at us.

We got no snow so we're
walking around on foot.

There's limited light.

So you gotta know
your resources,
and where you are and,

just, uh,
roll with the punches.

Freshen up the bait
here a little bit.

Nothing in that one,
let's check out the next.

Nothing in this one either.

Well, oh for two.

We'll go on, check some more.

Pretty slow day of trapping.

Middle of winter here,
it's, it's just slow.

So, uh, we'll keep trying
and in the end we'll win.

What's going on here?

Oh, it's a marten.

The sign looks super fresh.

Oh...

Yeah, it's got little
tunnels and stuff.

MARTHA: It's hopeful
that at least there's
a marten around.

So, we're just gonna
keep trekking.

-Oh, we got
something going on.
-What?

-What?
-We caught something.

Something's underneath
the snow there.

Something is either dead
under the snow there...

Got loose.

Oh...

We caught something
and it got away.

Something got caught
in the trap and pulled it out

this way and the trap was
under the snow over there.

Whatever I caught
it didn't hold it very well

and it got loose.

So we'll see what happens here

and I'll reset the trap.

All you can do is keep trying.

Last set of the night,
nothing in it.

Just rigging up
a new tassel here

and better luck next time.

MARTHA: Today we saw
a little bit of sign.

We're just gonna come back
in another couple of days

and hopefully
we'll have an animal.

It's almost like a chess game.

Pretty soon
it will be checkmate.

We'll have a marten,
and maybe a lynx.

CHIP: If you take the time
to do things right, you don't
have to do them twice.

We take our time on purpose.

When you add time
to the problem,
you get the solution.

We've just made it to camp
before it got dark.

So, um, good to see
the cache is still standing.

NARRATOR: Last summer,
the Hailstone family

constructed an elevated cache
to store and protect

their equipment
until they could return

for the winter harvest.

CHIP: It's the top.

AGNES: Oh, the top came off?

CHIP: It blew off.

AGNES: Hope it's not wet
and frozen together.

CHIP: Ah, we'll see.

-How about I untie this while
you go untie the sled.
-AGNES: Okay.

NARRATOR: The Hailstones have
travelled 110 miles to Kiwalik

River Camp for their
annual caribou hunt.

With the sun setting,
Chip and Agnes must quickly

set up their shelter
in order to survive overnight

in the negative temperatures.

CHIP: Agnes, come
here and help me.

Bring your snow machine.

AGNES: You found the tepee?

CHIP: Yeah, but we're
gonna see how it is.

It might have got
wet and froze!

I don't know!

AGNES: Oh, come on.

If it's frozen, we're fucked.

We're not camping
for a couple weeks

at 20 below without a tent.

(DEEP BREATHING)

(CHIP SPEAKING)

(AGNES SPEAKING)

(CHIP BREATHING DEEPLY)

-Seems dry to me.
-Yep.

That's, this canvas covers
real good.

Yep. Well, since this is good,
I'm gonna mutt up

a little bit too
and I'm gonna cool down.

If we start sweating,
we'll only chill if we...

-I know, I know.
-If the temperature

drops because the sun is down
now, yeah?

The sun is down.

(AGNES SIGHS)

I'm just gonna keep untying
before it get dark.

CHIP: It's getting late
in the day, so we
just gotta cut out

the shortcuts
and get with the work.

If we don't hustle,
we're gonna be out here

in the dark. So this
is the time to get her done.

Once you're in there,
just spread them out

as fast as possible because
as long as they are

stacked up,
it will slide right down it.

-You know what I mean?
-Yeah.

When you spread them as fast
as possible, it will stop it
from sliding.

(CHIP GRUNTING)

CHIP: And in order to get
things done, and done right,

and done quickly, we divide,
we conquer, and we get done

what's necessary.

And we've been doing this
along together so long,

that, uh, we know
what needs to be done.

We just get to it.

(CHIP GRUNTING)

AGNES: You got it?

Yep, perfect. (SIGHS)

We just about have our
tepee set up.

Now all we got to do
is, uh, warm ourselves up,

and get us something to eat,
and crash out for the night,

wake up tomorrow,
and start all over again.

ANDY: There's always
a few calculated chances.

Everything you do out here,
there's a danger.

You never know
what the situation's gonna be,

so it's better to be prepared.

Straight ahead! Chi, chi, chi!
Chi, chi, chi!

Atta boys! Ho, ho! Ho, ho! Ho!

I got wood now.
It's time to go get water.

Sun's setting. Temperature's
gonna start dropping
really quick.

I need to get this done
in the next hour.

NARRATOR: To get water from
the frozen Yukon river,

Andy will use an auger
to drill through
the thick river ice.

But in these
ruthless conditions,

the use of machinery
is not guaranteed.

(ENGINE RUNNING)

Woo!

That's why I never
take it down there

until it's warmed up
and running.

Little haw!

Let's go! Hup, hup!

There are definite things
that happen outside every day
that you gotta do.

And if you don't
get them done, there's a lot

of suffering that goes on
and it's just not the way

to live up here.

(ANDY SPEAKING)

Come on, baby! Punch through!

(ENGINE ROARING)

(ANDY SPEAKING)

(ENGINE ROARING)

Little bit of trials
and tribulations with

the finicky motor in the cold,
thick ice.

But we prevailed.

Now the big challenge is
to try and get this,

all these buckets filled up
before my hole starts

freezing up there.

As soon as it
becomes stagnant, it freezes.

And the only reason
it's not freezing underneath

is cause it's moving.

Hopefully I can go
another week or so

without having to get water.

Cause the next time's
gonna be really hard work.

And I'm hoping
it's not 40 below when I have

to do the next one.

Got a long day
fighting chainsaws,

fighting ice auger motors.

Just something about
being out in the cold,

it just kind of drains you,
just like the energy

out of a battery.

SUE: What's the reward
versus the risk?

There's a hell of
a lot of risks out there,

but I accept them.

Life's an adventure.

You know, open your eyes,
look around.
You'll find it.

Well, I'm getting ready
for my little day trip.

I wanna see
what tracks are around.

Uh, the state keeps telling me
about this severe outbreak

of rabies and distemper.

So I'm concerned and I wanna
see what prints are around.

(REVOLVER CLICKING)

Just verify that
I've got it loaded.

I'll have the pistol
on my hip,

the .44, um, in case I run
into something larger.

I've got the .22 and the .410

in case I run into
something smaller.

Good to go,
see what's out there.

I'm starting to sink
a little bit in the snow.

So get a couple
of little shoesies out.

Get out my little cross ties.
This is actually just

some t-shirt material,
that I tore up.

I've got to tie my feet,
to this.

You're looking to make
yourself one with the shoe.

Okay.

It's always interesting
to see if what you got going
on in your head works.

Yeah, it would be interesting
to see, see if they last.

(SUE LAUGHS)

I feel like I'm learning
how to walk all over again.

(SUE BREATHING HEAVILY)

My little snowshoes
are doing good.

They're cool. I'm going.

Walking like a little penguin,

but that's all right.

Once I get
the right waddle down,

you know, good exercise,
I can get out.

You know, it feels
nice being out.
It's a beautiful day.

(SNIFFS) You are right.
These are ptarmigan tracks.

Big, furry feet.
You got your three toes.

So naturally,
when you see ptarmigans,

you're gonna find the foxes,
maybe the wolves,

anything that eats a ptarmigan
will be around the same area.

What I'd like to do
is, uh, there's a nice
little hill over there.

Um, and it'll give me
a little bit of high ground.

Peek around,
see what I can see,

and then, uh, figure out
which way I wanna go.

I kind of live
in my imagination.

And it's a pretty
fun place in there.

But I can come up with
some pretty hair-brained ideas

that don't always
work out so good.

(SUE PANTING)

My question, how I wanna
get up,

without busting my ankle?

There we go. That was just
an "Oh, shit" moment.

Because my feet
are tied to it, I'm trying to

get up underneath me
to stand up, but it's putting

an awful lot of pressure
on the ankles that got

busted up, and I just elected
to back out of it.

I can always retie them
back on.

I don't need to break myself.

What I think I'd like to do...
(SNIFFS) Is just try
to get up closer

to that little rise there,
take a little peek around.

Um, I'm not gonna be, uh,
putting the snowshoes back on.

I'm just gonna go.
There's a little bit of

hard pack here, I think.
I'm gonna just try

to get over to that area.
If I need them,

I'll put them back on.

(PANTING)

(GROANS)

(SNIFFS)

Now that I've got
a little bit of high ground

in the sun, let's take
a little look-see,

see if I see anything.

What am I seeing?
I'm seeing fox tracks.

I'm seeing ptarmigan tracks.
Oh, it's all good news to me.

If there's foxes
running around, then you know

your top predators
are keeping their distance.

Cause the top predators
will eat them.

They're low predators.

The ptarmigans, obviously
that's a food source.

Hey, it's nice for me to see
that they feel so comfy.

But I'm not seeing huge,
nasty predator sign.

There's, there's not
a wolfie track

that I have to worry about.

I feel accomplished.
I feel like I, I did
what I set out to do.

It didn't work perfectly,
but, it got me

from point A to point B.

I went through the deep snow
without a problem.

It's getting cold.
It's time to just get my butt

in gear and get back inside.

MARTHA: You just gotta keep
playing in the woods.

That's just part
of living out here.

The cards aren't always
gonna play with you.

They're always
playing against you.

Hopefully that marten decided
to stop back by again.

Yeah, maybe a few more days
of letting those traps soak

and we'll have some fur.

Let's go check it out.

NARRATOR: Erik and
Martha have set traps
to harvest the fur

of Arctic predators,
a priceless source of income

during the winter months.

MARTHA: The traps have been
out for a couple of days.

So hopefully
that marten came back.

It's like a game.
You gotta go back and forth,

back and forth
until you get the animal.

So hopefully he's there.

The temperature
has dropped a lot.

It's well below zero now.

We're hoping this colder
weather gets the animals

moving a little bit.

We also got a new set
that we put out where we saw

a bunch of traffic,
and hopefully that little
spot produced too.

ERIK: What's going down here?
The bait's gone.

The trap has sprung.

ERIK: What is it?

MARTHA: What happened?

Oh, the... He pulled the bait
into the trap.

MARTHA: Oh...

MARTHA: What a
sneaky little...

This is... (CHUCKLES)
Now we got robbed
again by this guy.

ERIK: Oh man.
MARTHA: Let's go check
the other one over here.

ERIK: Let's go
check the next one.

MARTHA: (CHUCKLING) Oh...

MARTHA: Nothing here.

ERIK: Got the bait for sure.

ERIK: It's a weasel
that keeps...

MARTHA: Just sneaking
in the back, huh?

Feed it again there.

ERIK: Totally, uh,
bamboozled us.

Is there anything?

Oh, the weasel fooled
this one too.

(BOTH CHUCKLE)

MARTHA: We're gonna
keep feeding him grouse?

ERIK: We may as well.

Same thing on the menu?

ERIK: Grouse tartar.

ERIK: This is a rather
minor situation.

A weasel has stolen
some of our bait
on several different traps.

So if you reflect on it
like that, a little weasel

doing a little bait damage,
not a big deal.

Oh, well, we re-baited.
Keep on truckin'.
Onto the next.

Weasel's been everywhere.

(MARTHA SPEAKING)

Okay. We've got a lynx.

(GUN FIRE)

It's a really, really
nice animal.

It's as tall as you.

Oh, it's heavy.

-ERIK: That's a
good-looking cat, huh?
-MARTHA: Yeah.

We went to all of our traps

and there was nothing there.

You know, it was kind
of bringing our

energy a little bit down
and our attitude.

And we got to this
last spot here,

and I saw eyes,
and immediately the attitude

went right back up again.

MARTHA: Really cool
to be able to find a
new spot where you see

really good amounts of sign,
set a trap like this,

and in a couple days come back
and have an animal.

I mean,
it's, uh, what we hoped for.

AGNES: You need to be prepared
for everything.

You have to know
what you're doing

when you go out there
and you wanna

just be comfortable
in extreme cold and whatever

Alaska brings you.

CHIP: I'm making
a wall for my tent.

The wind up here
is a big factor all the time.

Staying out of the wind
can help you stay alive.

Takes a day or two to set up.

We actually have to go
get more wood.

I have some firewood
over here.

I gotta get my
chainsaw warmed up.

My wife's gonna make a bed.

Before we can
take off anywhere, we want

to have some place
warm and cosy to return to.

My mundane chore
in this world sometimes seems

to be providing a lot of heat
for my camp,

for my house in Noorvik.

If you ain't warm... (SNIFFS)
You ain't gonna do well.

This right here is what
we cook with,

and this right here
is also what we heat with.

So it's in constant demand.
This log ain't gonna
just sit around,

it's gonna get chopped up,
and it's gonna disappear

up in smoke.

Like to somebody else,
this might be just

a little piece of wood,
but to us, it's a night's

worth of good, solid heat.

How was that ride?
Looks like a pretty good log.

Yeah, I saw it from camp.

Everybody else has
the convenience of hot water

or running water.
Here you don't.

Here, we have running water
under the ice.

(HEAVY BREATHING)

You know, it's... It all works
together in a big circle.

You go get wood to make heat,
to thaw the water,

to cook your dinner.

CHIP: Thirst is the
bane of the arctic.

You start to get cold easy,
and you don't think very well,

and your body
doesn't feel good.

When you're dehydrated,
that's the one thing

you gotta keep doing.
Put in the liquids.

AGNES: I like the clear ice.
I miss the taste of

-Kiwalik River water.
-CHIP: Yeah.

CHIP: You can't just come in,
put up a tent, and
then go off hunting.

Because when you come back,
you'll have to cut the wood,

you'll have to thaw the water,
you'll have to

put in the time,
and that's when

you really wanna sleep.

So I'd rather just
spend the day, go get wood,

go get water, get a good wall
built up around the tent.

The more we can have
prepared now, is less

we have to prepare
when we return from hunting

so we can concentrate
only on hunting.

AGNES: We're glad to be here.
We got our tent up.

Everything's running smooth.

CHIP: Tomorrow we'll figure
out what we're after.

We'll figure out
if there's any animals around.

We'll figure out
where we'll put out traps,

we'll figure out
where the caribou are,
and we'll go from there.

Everywhere around here
is rich in resources.

This entire
Kotzebue Sound area
is resource rich.

And this is just
gonna progress into spring,

and from spring into summer.

And every month
that we're here,
we know what the resources are

and we know
what is harvestable
and what foods

we may be after,
and we know when to be here.

So right now, this is the time
to be here for fur, the time
to be here for caribou.

AGNES: We got out camp
set up. We're ready
to go. It's game on.

ANDY: It's all a big cycle.

It's a real
symbiotic relationship

between me and my dogs.

I depend on them
and they depend on me.

It's the way things should be
in this world.

Everything should
be interconnected.

ANDY: Let's get a fish!

Who wants a fish?
Bergy wants a fish!

Donner, you want a fish?

There's been a long day
cutting wood, getting water,

a lot of struggles
with machinery.

Thank God the only
piece of machinery I got left

to work with, is this.

And this is
my kind of machinery
when it gets cold.

So we'll chop this fish up,
make the dogs happy.

I'll go get some water.
Water them up good.

They really need the,
uh, moisture to rehydrate.

The cold makes it harder
to do the work, but you gotta
do more work when it is cold.

So it's kind of a catch 22.

Here you go, buddy. Yeah!

There's your fish.
Donner always needs
a pat on the head.

Wow. That's
a nice fish, Donner.

Here you go, Carb. Yeah!

Yeah, you did
a good job today.

Eat your fish up. I'm gonna go
get some water for you.

Boy, you did a good job today.

Dogs did all the work today.

Their payback is
to have some nice,

warm water to drink at night.

Is that pretty good, huh?

That's gonna
keep you warm tonight.

Some warm dog food.

Then I get to go inside
to a nice, warm cabin

with all the wood we hauled
and sit down and relax,

get some calories back in me.

Good boys.