[dramatic music]
Cameras aren't working.
That's getting super frustrating.
MAN 1: This is what it's like on "Life Below Zero."
NATHANIEL STEPHENS: Camera's already down.
Tough conditions all around to film in.
CROFTON DIACK: No heat, no power, no anything.
[groans]
Won't even turn on.
CROFTON DIACK: I've fallen too many times.
We have bad winds and it's just a typical day in the Arctic.
NATHANIEL STEPHENS: Making the best of what we got.
[serene music]
This is an exciting time getting ready for our big trip
in the most remote location you can think of.
CROFTON DIACK: Wow.
The cache is still standing.
MAN 1: This is just one of our cycles in the year.
The time to come down here is now.
We're getting ready to follow the Hailstones out
to their hunting grounds in Kiwalik.
We're here in Noorvik right now, so that's about 90 miles away
by snowmachine, so there's a lot of prep that goes into getting
ready for the journey.
A lot of things up here when we're filming in the winter
start with digging.
This CONEX trailer where we store our gear here
Noorvik has pretty well drifted in with snow.
Hoping to get it dug out and get one of our sleds out so
I can load it up and start the packing process
for our big trip to Kiwalik.
So I've get the door cleared out.
And hopefully, it should be enough clearance to open it up
and get the sled out of here.
Seems like we have a frozen lock.
That happens from time to time.
I think some water got into the mechanism of the lock
and froze.
Just putting a little bit of lighter heat on it in the past
has worked pretty well for us.
See if that'll do the trick.
[triumphant music] Yes.
Got it.
All right.
Here's the sled I was looking for.
So this is our crew flat sled.
It's very similar to a sled that the Hailstones use to move
their gear around as well.
Pretty common in this area for moving stuff in the wintertime.
In addition to keeping the crew safe and well-fed,
my role on the crew is taking care of logistics.
So when we go out and do a remote shoot,
it's my job to make sure we have everything we need to set up
a little city that we can live and work
out of when we're out there.
I can't run down to the corner store if I forget something,
so I need to make sure I've got everything that we need to set
up a comfortable little tent city where we can live,
and eat, and sleep, and work, and enjoy ourselves as well
out there.
So this is something that we use whenever
we're working remotely.
It's a big heavy-duty double wall canvas tent.
It weighs a ton, but it's really ready
for an arctic environment.
It can handle big wind.
It's a good spot to set up all of our camera equipment inside,
also to set up a kitchen.
That's where the crew hangs out and sleeps,
so it's really important that we have something good for tents.
Hailstones like to move around depending on where the game is
or what the story is we're working on.
I need to also be ready to set up a mobile camping situation.
Heat is going to be really important out there.
I've got a couple different systems for that.
A very crucial part of our gear here is this gas generator.
Electricity is very important when you're making television.
Obviously, we have to charge all of the camera batteries
and keep all of the other equipment functioning.
This is our toilet.
And we practice leave no trace camping out there, which means
we want to leave the Arctic environment just like we
found it or even better.
So we pack it in and we pack it all out,
including our human waste.
And I put a little foam seat on there to keep everyone's butt
warm in 30 below.
I packed a lot of food ahead of time.
When we're out spending a long day filming and then coming
back to camp, it's not always practical to make a big dinner,
so I've prepared a lot of meals ahead of time and frozen them.
And they'll travel out with us and make
the cooking job a little bit easier once we get out there.
So I've gone through the list.
I've got all my essentials.
I'm going to pack all this stuff along with our personal gear
and all of our camera gear on our four sleds,
and we're going to head out for our big journey to the Kiwalik
following the Hailstones.
CROFTON DIACK: We're Eagle Crew out.
I think this is our last year load.
[tense music]
MAN 2: It's fascinating to watch the workings of mother nature
on this massive river throughout the year.
MAN 3: When you live out here, we don't have roads.
In Alaska, most of the rivers are the-- are the highways,
and we live along an interstate.
[relaxing music]
Our last ride is with the helicopter,
so we're going to sling all of our stuff
over to the bluff 16 miles downstream on the Yukon River,
which is frozen right now, and then head it to camp and film
the ice breakup.
This is all of our supplies for the next two weeks.
[grunts]
That's already 200, 300 pounds.
CROFTON DIACK: Let's keep loading
and wait for this helicopter.
MAN 4: Thank you.
500 pounds of gear ready to go.
[helicopter whirring]
MAN 4: I think those are going to go inside.
There goes the load.
Aye, aye, aye.