[music playing]
MAN: We are here to document the lives
of people living in Alaska.
The harsh reality is the environment we're up against.
It makes it tough to do our job.
NATHANIEL "NATCHO" STEPHENS: Get out of there.
MAN: Working on "Life Below Zero" can be very dangerous.
MAN: Gun's here.
Camera's here. MAN: Never know what to expect.
MAN: Whoa!
Did you [bleep] see that [bleep]??
MAN: Gonna be tough, but we're going to get the shot.
MAN: Every scenario, we gotta prepare for this.
NATHANIEL "NATCHO" STEPHENS: But we're still smiling.
We're having fun.
Still making "Life Below Zero."
Yes.
Bring it on.
So of all the things that we do
working on "Life Below Zero," I would say this
is one of the most challenging.
It's our travel day to the Hailstones Kiwalik Camp.
The biggest challenge is getting out there.
We can only get to about 100 miles
away from where we're going by plane.
And then the rest of the way, we need to go on snow machines,
hauling sleds with some of our gear.
We are right at the edge of the peninsula.
So we'll be traveling over sea ice for the next 40 miles.
The ice is very dynamic out here on the ocean.
It's breaking and coming together.
It's being moved by the tides and by the winds.
And it's a little bit dangerous.
But we mitigate those dangers by making a good plan
and taking our time and being thoughtful about how we travel.
All right, boys.
You ready for this?
Let's do it!
NATHANIEL "NATCHO" STEPHENS: Yes.
So we're right on target.
We've got a couple hours of daylight left.
And it looks like we should be fine to get into camp
and make some shelter before it's totally dark.
It's incredible that we get to do this,
that this is our job, riding across the Arctic Ocean.
And we're really feeling lucky right now.
MAN: We arrived here just before dark last night,
after our 100 mile trip.
NATHANIEL "NATCHO" STEPHENS: So when we got in last night,
it was all we could do to just get shelter up, basically,
and get the things that we needed
to get a decent night's sleep.
We've got a home that's relatively
comfortable, relatively warm.
Now, it's time to organize and settle in so that we
can be ready for filming.
ROB POLLARD: Anyone that works on this show,
you can't be complacent.
You need to prepare properly every time you go
in something bad could happen.
You don't want to be out there in a sticky situation.
Here we are, in Dead Horse, inside the hangar.
We're going into Kavik.
Sue hasn't been at Kavik for quite a bit of time.
So we're going to go in planning for the worse,
hoping for the best when we get there.
We have quite a bit of camera equipment here.
A show like "Life Below Zero" requires us
to travel with a lot of gear.
This isn't your standard show where you can drive in a car,
get to set, and start shooting.
We're going in not knowing what we're going to get into.
So we go as prepared as possible.
We don't know what to expect at camp.
So we've got full GoPros rigged.
My focus is always on trying to capture what we expect to see.
And that is going to be-- we're going to be flying
over the camp to check it out.
So we've got a camera looking down,
camera on the wing looking at her as she's driving.
And then obviously her as she's looking out the window.
We can't get in there.
So it's just going to be GoPros.
We just enjoy the ride.
MAN: Our number one concern is safety--
everything is safe and everyone is safe-- so that we
can continue doing our work.
BRAD CARPER: Personal gear is over here, guys.
So we're going out to Andy [inaudible] place.
I'm really excited to go out there.
But there's a lot of logistics involved
with getting to Andy's.
We start in Fairbanks.
We fly to Eagle on a small plane.
And then they basically-- we put all of our stuff here.
And then we get on an even smaller plane.
And then we just do multiple trips
for about five or six hours until everything's out there.
Then we get on snow machines, sleds.
And we basically haul everything to our cabins and get set up.
But the main thing here is that when you're filming people
living off the grid, we have to live off the grid too.
in order to really capture that story,
we have to live that life.
So right here, we basically have all
of our food items, our camera gear, fuel here for cooking.
We're in a very remote place, so we kind of have to be self
sustainable from the beginning.
Oh, man, this is a tight space.
Woo!
It's tiny.
Smaller than the outhouse I'm gonna be using.
This is where we're going.
We're gonna land on this lake down here.
It's a very windy area.
There's a lot of mountain terrain.
There's low trees.
And then he basically has to make
a perfect landing on this lake.
And it's just complete glare ice.
So it was a really bumpy landing.
But we're here.
Then the real work begins.
The way we get the true story.
We're not living in a hotel.
I mean, we are literally in a remote place.
And in order to capture that true story,
we have to live that lifestyle too.
It's time to go live off the grid for a little bit.