Frozen Planet.S1.E6 ∙ The Last Frontier
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00:30The polar regions are more hostile to life than any other part of the Earth.
00:47Human beings have little natural protection against the cold.
00:53So why, for thousands of years, have we endured the hardships that come from living here?
01:01And what keeps us coming back today to the farthest extremes of our planet?
01:24Winter in the most northerly town on Earth, Longyearbyen.
01:30Here, for three months of the year, the sun never rises.
01:36Only the full moon, which never sets as far north as this, sheds any light into the darkness.
01:43This town was built here in Svalbard, only 700 miles from the North Pole, to support a mine.
02:05The Arctic is rich in coal, oil and minerals.
02:14In Siberia, the Russian Arctic, the mineral wealth has given rise to large cities.
02:26This is Norilsk, the coldest city on Earth.
02:33Temperatures regularly drop to below minus 50 degrees centigrade.
02:39Fuel freezes in the tanks of the trucks and has to be melted in a rather alarming way.
02:51Ships are frozen into the rivers for nine months of the year.
02:56The ice must be cut away from their hulls because steel becomes brittle and vulnerable to the thickening ice.
03:04Like all Arctic cities, Norilsk depends on a power plant, which heats everybody's home.
03:12Waste heat from the plant even keeps a lake ice-free all winter.
03:17Even at air temperatures of minus 50, the Norilsk Walrus Club come here every day.
03:34There is evidence that a dip in cold water is good for the immune system,
03:40but when the water is a degree above freezing, it's hard to imagine that the benefits could outweigh the pain.
03:48Today's Arctic city-dwellers can lead an almost normal existence, thanks to technology.
03:56But towns and cities are very recent arrivals.
04:01The Arctic is the world's largest city.
04:05The Arctic is the world's largest city.
04:09The Arctic is the world's largest city.
04:13But towns and cities are very recent arrivals in the polar landscape.
04:20The polar regions are the least populated part of our planet.
04:25Most of the Arctic remains empty of human beings.
04:33In the north, the pole itself is covered by a freezing ocean.
04:37Around it lie vast lands, of which Siberia is the largest and coldest.
04:58Human beings first ventured onto the great plains of Siberia, the tundra, thousands of years ago.
05:04Human beings first ventured onto the great plains of Siberia, the tundra, thousands of years ago.
05:07And some live here still.
05:18The Dolgan are one of the few tribes who still live in much the same way as those first Arctic pioneers.
05:34They are reindeer people.
05:37Reindeer are one of the few animals that can endure these bitterly cold conditions,
05:42scraping a living by nibbling tiny plants that survive beneath the snow.
05:51Nobody has ever totally tamed reindeer,
05:54but today's animals are docile enough to allow the Dolgan to drive them across the tundra
05:59in an everlasting search for their food.
06:04This is a typical Dolgan village, home to just two extended families.
06:35Here, in the coldest part of the Arctic,
06:38the only way to get water for nine months of the year
06:42is to melt ice from the frozen rivers.
06:50At least there's no problem preventing food from decay.
06:54Outside is one big, deep freeze.
06:59Survival is only possible because of reindeer fur.
07:03It makes wonderfully warm clothing,
07:06though small children still have to be sewn into their clothes to prevent instant frostbite.
07:13The Dolgan even use reindeer fur to insulate their huts.
07:20This is living at its most communal.
07:23Good relations with the in-laws are essential.
07:28Reindeer are so valuable that the people only eat them if they have no other choice.
07:33Their favorite food is raw fish from the frozen rivers.
07:40Every week or so, these families have to travel to find new feeding grounds for their herds.
07:47First, they round up their strongest animals with lassoos,
07:51a skill that their ancestors brought with them when they came north from Central Asia.
08:03And then, literally, they move house.
08:17Go, go!
08:28A whole Dolgan village can move on in just a few hours.
08:32Over the year, they travel hundreds of miles like this across the vast tundra.
08:47Go, go!
08:59It was the herds of reindeer wandering over the lands of the Arctic
09:03that brought the first Dolgan here.
09:06Other people, however, took on an even greater challenge.
09:10They left the land and looked for their food out on the frozen sea.
09:17Go, go!
09:21Here, in the shifting world of the sea ice, they found sea mammals.
09:47Pasha
10:01Pasha leads a group of Inuit men in Chukotka, the northeastern corner of Russia.
10:09The men have traveled many hours from home in the bitter cold,
10:13fighting their way through a dangerous maze.
10:20These hundred-ton ice floes could crush their small boats like eggshells.
10:26Pasha
10:41The men have big families, and this is the only way they have of feeding them.
10:49Pasha is looking for the puffs of steamy air produced by their quarry.
10:55An animal that is bigger than many Arctic whales.
11:04A two-ton seal with formidable tusks.
11:14A walrus.
11:16It's heading for open water. They must reach it before it dives.
11:26An angry walrus could easily overturn the boat.
11:37The harpoon sticks firmly in the walrus's thick layer of blubber
11:41and floats attached to it to prevent the animal from diving.
11:56Pasha
12:01Pasha wants to kill quickly with a single clean shot.
12:18The hunters are exhausted after a long day, but they still have a lot more work to do.
12:26This enormous prize will feed everyone's family for weeks.
12:37It will take many hours to butcher. Nothing will go to waste.
12:50The meat is parceled up in bags made of the animal's skin.
12:56Pasha
13:00It's midnight, but the sun is still up.
13:04Summer is almost here.
13:12This far north, the seasons change fast.
13:16The sun is rising higher and growing warmer with each passing day.
13:26Winter
13:39The transformation from winter to summer is so dramatic
13:43that it dominates the lives of all who live here.
13:49The ice around the coast has almost disappeared
13:52and gone are the seals and walrus that Pasha and his men relied on.
13:59They set off on another search for food.
14:07Their destination is an island in the bay.
14:12Pasha
14:18Their walrus skin boat is an ancient design,
14:21light enough to carry high up the beach so it doesn't drift away.
14:36Once again, the men will have to work as a team.
14:40But one of them will be taking very serious risks.
14:49The lightest man in the group, Kolya, is also the oldest.
14:53He will trust his life to a length of old nylon rope
14:57and the strength of his friends.
15:11Kolya
15:16These hundred-meter-high cliffs are home to thousands of guillemots.
15:21And Kolya is after their eggs.
15:28He relies on the men above to lower him to the right place.
15:35Kolya is tough, but his stress is obvious.
15:41Hey, stop!
15:46The men lower Kolya down to the bottom of the cliff
15:49and from there he works his way back up the crumbling rock face.
15:53Kolya
16:09Stop!
16:23This mission will produce no more than about 50 eggs,
16:27but at least there's no need to carry a packed lunch.
16:45Over the years, many men have fallen to their deaths collecting seabird eggs.
16:51This is truly dangerous work.
17:05These Arctic peoples can't grow crops.
17:08The frozen ground never thaws to allow them to do so.
17:12They rely on animals for their food,
17:15so the chance to collect a few dozen eggs has to be taken,
17:19even if it means risking your life.
17:38The change of season has transformed the Arctic's coastline
17:42and inland the difference is just as extreme.
17:50July temperatures on the tundra can be surprisingly high,
17:53over 30 degrees centigrade.
17:59Reindeer now move not just to find fresh pasture,
18:03but also to avoid the summer swarms of blood-sucking flies.
18:09To keep their animals healthy, the local herders are driving them to the sea.
18:15The cooler conditions on the coast bring relief to the herds
18:20and the chance every year for different tribes to meet.
18:26Pasha and his hunters live close by.
18:29They've had word of the herders' arrival.
18:38The hunters' cargo is highly prized for the winter ahead.
18:42Fat-rich walrus meat that's been fermenting in the skin bags for two months.
18:49Today, we'll see an exchange that has taken place every summer for centuries.
18:55The herders barter reindeer skins for walrus meat.
19:00Pooling their resources has helped these communities to survive for so long.
19:06A fry-up of guillemot eggs is all the better when shared with old friends.
19:15Summer brings a brief chance for isolated peoples to meet.
19:19This is an opportunity to exchange news, arrange weddings and tell the latest jokes.
19:27By August, the summer is over.
19:30Winter arrives only too swiftly, but the peoples of the Arctic,
19:34who came here originally to hunt,
19:36have devised ways to deal with the hostile and changing conditions
19:40that have stood the test of time.
19:45The Arctic is a place of peace and tranquility.
19:48It's a place of peace and tranquility,
19:51and it's the hostile and changing conditions that have stood the test of time.
19:57Today, there's a new draw to the Arctic.
20:07This is Greenland, a territory of Denmark now known to be rich in oil and precious metals.
20:22This sled team is part of the Danish Special Forces.
20:27They're on one of the world's toughest journeys,
20:30a 2,000-mile patrol to maintain Denmark's claim to this valuable wilderness.
20:40But the patrol's mission is only possible with the help of man's oldest Arctic companion.
20:52Poppy?
20:56Rasmus and Roland have spent the summer months training
20:59and getting to know their team of Greenland huskies.
21:02They need to have a very close bond with every single dog.
21:07This is Roger and Armstrong,
21:10actually the oldest dog in the whole patrol,
21:14but he's still going strong.
21:17Tick, tick, tick.
21:19The men are totally dependent on the stamina of their dogs,
21:22which will keep on running all through the bitter cold of the winter.
21:32This is the last time the team will see the sun for two months.
21:41The most intelligent dogs always lead,
21:44choosing the safest route, feeling for hidden crevasses and thin ice.
21:59This is one of six teams that patrol the whole of northeast Greenland,
22:03the only people in an empty wilderness that is larger than France and Great Britain combined.
22:10Conditions here are too extreme for current mining technology,
22:14but someday ways will be found of digging out the huge mineral treasures
22:19that lie hidden within these mountains.
22:23The patrol secures Denmark's claim to do so simply by being here.
22:40But it's not the prospect of getting rich that makes men sign up for this patrol.
22:45It's a chance for the journey of a lifetime.
22:49The team travel over the ice for six months, covering up to 40 miles in a day.
22:57Friendship and teamwork are essential if they're to succeed.
23:01The dogs can sleep outside no matter how cold it gets.
23:05Rasmus and Roland have a nice, cozy tent.
23:13They have a few modern conveniences, including a radio with which they report their position
23:19back to headquarters in Denmark and catch up on the latest news.
23:24Right now it's the section of money.
23:26What's new in the economy in Denmark?
23:28The financial crisis and all the other things that we actually don't care about out here.
23:36If you can cope with the conditions, then winter in the Arctic can be magical,
23:41especially when the greatest light show on earth is about to begin.
23:46If you can cope with the conditions, then winter in the Arctic can be magical,
23:51especially when the greatest light show on earth is overhead.
24:04The first humans in the Arctic believed the northern lights,
24:08or aurora borealis, were dancing spirits.
24:12We know the lights are caused by electrically charged particles streaming from the sun,
24:17attracted by the magnetic pull of the earth's poles.
24:33A big aurora storm contains enough energy to knock out satellite communications
24:39and power supplies across the northern hemisphere,
24:42so understanding the aurora is vital.
24:51In Alaska, rockets are used to study the lights.
24:57A hundred miles up at the edge of outer space,
25:00the rockets release a cloud of glowing smoke that's visible from earth.
25:09The smoke is blown by fierce winds, which are generated by the aurora.
25:18Mapping the movement of the smoke helps scientists to understand
25:22how this unearthly spectacle affects our atmosphere.
25:40They constantly monitor the aurora to help protect us from its effects,
25:45so the rest of us can simply enjoy the magic,
25:48just as the Arctic's first people must have done thousands of years ago.
26:10For all the many peoples of the Arctic,
26:13the aurora is a reminder of the sun's presence throughout the dark days of winter.
26:23But when the sun is below the horizon in the north,
26:26it's above it at the southern end of our planet.
26:32Here, humanity's history has been very different.
26:37Antarctica is far colder than the Arctic,
26:41and 99% of its land is permanently blanketed by ice.
26:48Antarctica is so utterly remote and inhospitable
26:52that no people ever settled here.
26:58It was only 200 years ago
27:01that the first human beings even glimpsed the vast continent.
27:13The first people who crossed the southern ocean
27:16did so for the same reason that the first people went to the Arctic Ocean,
27:21to hunt sea mammals.
27:24The populations of whales and seals
27:27are only now beginning to recover from 150 years of intensive hunting.
27:39The Arctic Ocean is the home of many of the world's largest mammals,
27:44and the Arctic Ocean is the home of many of the world's largest sea mammals.
27:51But none of those hunters ever tried to venture
27:55into the frigid interior of the Antarctic continent.
28:01The first successful attempt to do that was made only 100 years ago.
28:09This hut was the base of the Arctic Ocean.
28:13To do that was made only 100 years ago.
28:18This hut was the base
28:20for one of the most famous expeditions in polar history.
28:30It was from here, in 1911,
28:33that Captain Scott and his team launched their attempt
28:36to be the first people to reach the South Pole.
28:43The cold, dry conditions have preserved the interior of the hut
28:47almost exactly as the expedition members left it.
28:56Expedition photographer Herbert Ponting
28:59captured the spirit of the age of exploration.
29:04These first explorers
29:06borrowed the techniques of the Arctic peoples.
29:10They wore fur gloves and boots
29:12and burned seal blubber to keep warm.
29:18They built sleds based on a traditional Inuit design.
29:28They even made their sleeping bags
29:30from reindeer hide.
29:38Scott and his men sought the glory of discovery
29:42in an untouched wilderness and died in the attempt.
29:47But he and those who followed him
29:49were the first to reveal the splendour of Antarctica
29:52to the rest of the world.
30:01The lure of adventure still draws intrepid travellers today.
30:06Like the first explorers,
30:08most modern visitors come during the brief summer
30:11when the cold relents enough for the toughest icebreakers
30:15to reach the edge of the continent.
30:17But most still need a helicopter to go further.
30:31The scenery in Antarctica is magnificent and dramatic,
30:35but what really attracts people here is the wildlife.
30:41An emperor penguin colony is a particular highlight.
30:48Because human beings didn't arrive in the Antarctic
30:51until the past few centuries,
30:53the animals have never developed a fear of man.
31:01But very strict regulations govern
31:03how close people can approach any wildlife.
31:08And when visitors leave,
31:10they must take every trace of their visit away with them.
31:31Since 1959, the whole of Antarctica
31:34has been protected by international treaty.
31:38The nations of the world have agreed
31:40that no country can claim Antarctica
31:43or prospect for its oil or minerals.
31:48The only significant human activities
31:50allowed by international treaty
31:52are the mining of oil and minerals.
31:56The only significant human activities allowed here
32:00are those that extend our scientific knowledge.
32:06But unlocking Antarctica's secrets
32:09requires some unusual tools.
32:26This brand-new robot submarine
32:29has been designed to go far beyond the limits of any human.
32:44Today, this diver is putting the sub through its paces
32:48on one of its very first dives.
32:51It's designed to be small and nimble enough
32:54to explore the Antarctic seabed without damaging it.
33:13The submarine's mission, as it journeys through the ocean,
33:18The submarine's mission, as it journeys into the unknown,
33:22is to map the sea floor and look for species new to science.
33:41The seawater here is a degree below zero,
33:44so even the toughest human diver can't stay down for long.
33:51The submarine will explore deeper under the ice
33:54than anyone has gone before.
34:02From the depths of the ocean to the highest peaks of the land,
34:05new discoveries are being made,
34:07even in places which were first visited over a century ago.
34:15Mount Erebus
34:24Mount Erebus was an irresistible draw
34:27to the legendary explorer Ernest Shackleton.
34:30In 1908, his men became the first to climb this active volcano.
34:35They soon discovered
34:37that this is the coldest place on the Antarctic coast.
34:41Today's explorers still have to guard against frostbite
34:44in the height of summer,
34:45when temperatures rarely creep above minus 30 degrees centigrade.
34:55Shackleton's men had no idea
34:58of the extraordinary spectacle that lay beneath their feet.
35:02Under the ice and snow is a network of caves,
35:06which only a handful of expert cavers have ever dared to enter.
35:17This is the first scientific expedition to explore them in detail.
35:23Here, there are ice formations that occur nowhere else on Earth.
35:31Each cave contains its own unique collection of structures.
35:42The cave is the largest in the world,
35:45and the largest in the world.
35:47This is Erebus.
35:49Erebus
35:52Erebus
36:15The team is mapping the caves
36:17to see how their shape changes over the years.
36:21OK, flax sites are here.
36:32That's 126.8 degrees on the angle.
36:36126.8, correct.
36:38Steam leaking from vents in the side of the volcano
36:42is constantly sculpting this labyrinth that extends deep under the ice.
36:48When the hot breath of the volcano hits the icy walls,
36:53the moisture in the air freezes into beautiful shapes.
37:10Some of the crystals are so unusual
37:12that the cavers are investigating a remote but tantalizing possibility
37:17about their formation.
37:21Could it be that some of these extraordinary crystal shapes
37:24are formed by highly specialized bacteria living in the ice?
37:43Nobody yet knows the answer.
37:46This is just one of the many strange mysteries
37:49that draw people to work in a place that is so hostile to human life.
38:01While some scientists come to Erebus to explore its bizarre ice caves,
38:06others visit the volcano to study the innermost workings of our planet.
38:13Erebus
38:17Erebus is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth,
38:21but even so, volcanologists work on the very rim of its crater.
38:27They stand in the bitter cold,
38:29while 100 metres below them is a lava lake
38:33where temperatures are over 1,000 degrees centigrade.
38:38This is a rare glimpse of the molten rock
38:42that lies beneath the Earth's crust.
38:59But research here is looking up as well as down,
39:04measuring how the gases that bubble out of the volcano
39:07influence the makeup of the air we breathe.
39:14Antarctica is the best place to measure any changes in our atmosphere
39:18because it has the least polluted air on Earth.
39:23It's also the perfect place to launch more outward-looking missions.
39:34This balloon, made of material no thicker than cling film,
39:39will eventually grow to be 300 metres tall.
39:45It will carry a device for detecting cosmic rays,
39:49tiny particles from the beginning of time that are only now reaching Earth.
40:04The balloon will travel to the very edge of outer space
40:08to gather clues about the formation of the universe.
40:21Even today, very few ever make the journey inland from the coast.
40:27We still know remarkably little about the interior of the continent.
40:32The people on this plane are trying to answer one of the fundamental questions.
40:37How much ice is there in Antarctica?
40:47They measure the depth of the ice sheet,
40:49which is over 4,000 metres in places, using radar.
40:55Their work will enable us to see how the volume of Antarctica
40:59changes in the future.
41:02It also makes it possible to map a hidden landscape.
41:19This plane is following the same route through the trans-Antarctic mountains
41:24that Captain Scott took 100 years ago.
41:28His team hauled their sleds over 100 miles up this glacier, the Beardmore.
41:41Skirting seemingly endless crevasses with no map to guide them
41:45and no idea of what lay ahead,
41:47it was a journey of extraordinary suffering.
41:55BEARDMORE
42:03Their target lay beyond the mountains,
42:06over 3,000 metres above sea level, on the Antarctic Plateau.
42:17An unbroken sheet of ice larger than Western Europe.
42:21This is the coldest, the windiest, the most lifeless place on Earth.
42:30Roald Amundsen's team narrowly defeated Scott's
42:34to become the first people to reach the South Pole
42:37on the 14th of December, 1911.
42:42Nobody else successfully completed the journey
42:45for nearly 50 years after that.
42:52But since 1957, there's been a permanent base at the South Pole.
42:57You could even land a plane on the ice runway.
43:03The early explorers would be astounded by the facilities at the South Pole today.
43:12Construction work isn't easy
43:14when the average summer temperature is minus 25 degrees centigrade.
43:18But despite the difficulties,
43:20the most high-tech scientific research station ever built
43:24was unveiled here in 2006.
43:32The brand-new Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
43:36is designed to cope with the world's most extreme conditions.
43:41The building's sloping edge deflects the prevailing wind.
43:45Beneath, there are stilts that can raise the whole building a further eight metres
43:50to keep it above the accumulating snow.
44:02Living inside is as close to being on a space station as you can find on Earth.
44:07This space is totally self-sufficient.
44:11The people are completely cut off from the outside world
44:14for more than half the year over winter.
44:24The total darkness makes this the perfect place to study the night sky.
44:30The group of stargazers will be the most isolated community on our planet,
44:35but they will have all their needs catered for.
44:43There is even a greenhouse
44:45where fresh vegetables grow under artificial light
44:48all through the darkest, coldest winter anywhere.
44:53The sun sets in March at the South Pole
44:56and won't rise again for six months.
45:01This is a perfect place to study the night sky.
45:07The sun sets in March at the South Pole
45:10and won't rise again for six months.
45:16The sun sets in March at the South Pole
45:19and won't rise again for six months.
45:26For a few days at this time of year,
45:28high-altitude clouds of ice crystals continue to catch the sunlight
45:33even when the sun itself is far below the horizon.
45:50But soon, all trace of the sun disappears,
45:54and today's overwintering scientists remember the first explorers.
46:03These men, who endured the winter in flimsy wooden huts,
46:07borrowed knowledge from the Arctic pioneers before them,
46:11but they came here to study and explore
46:14rather than to hunt or exploit.
46:20They embodied the human spirit
46:22that has enabled us to survive at the poles.
46:29Here, we're pushed to our limits,
46:32but in being pushed, humanity has achieved the extraordinary
46:37and opened up the last frontier.
46:50BELL RINGS
46:57To tell the story of how we survive at the poles,
47:00Frozen Planet travelled to Siberia, the far north of Russia,
47:04where most of the Arctic's people live.
47:10The team got to know many extraordinary people.
47:14But one group of men above all really opened their eyes
47:17to what it means to live off the land
47:19in the most unforgiving environment on Earth.
47:24Men who take their life in their hands every day
47:27just to find their food.
47:43Producer Dan Rees led the Frozen Planet team
47:46on their longest journey in the Arctic.
47:50Their mission was to film walrus hunters
47:52in Russia's most remote region, Chukotka,
47:55the closest point to their old enemy, the United States,
47:584,000 miles and nine time zones east of Moscow.
48:04It's still a sensitive region,
48:06and the team soon learned that the border guards
48:08remained twitchy about foreigners with cameras.
48:14WHIRRING
48:17To get permission to film,
48:19the crew relied on anthropologist Niobe Thompson,
48:22one of the few Westerners to have worked with the people here.
48:28But even Niobe finds a lot of doors closed to him.
48:33I have experienced a level of red tape
48:37I never could have anticipated.
48:39So we've got our Russian visas in our passports, that's fine,
48:42but that's just the beginning.
48:44Here is the special permission given by the security services
48:48to be in the region of Chukotka.
48:51A special permission to be in every one of the population centres
48:55we will visit on our trip.
48:57Permission to shoot with a telephoto lens.
49:01Permission to shoot from a helicopter.
49:06Permission to shoot in a natural reserve.
49:10But we still don't have our migration cards,
49:12I'm trying to get them,
49:14and if we don't get them by the end of the day,
49:16we're going to be deported back to Alaska,
49:18it'll take three months to get new ones.
49:20Niobe's paper chase takes two days,
49:23but finally the team is allowed to begin their journey
49:25to the hunters' camp.
49:27With no roads, sometimes the only passable route
49:30is over the fast-melting surfaces of the lakes.
49:36THUNDER
49:41HE CHUCKLES
49:44OK.
49:50They need to be prepared for a quick exit.
50:00The next day, the crew finally reach the coast.
50:04The hunting camp is now just 30 miles away across a bay,
50:08but the crossing could be risky.
50:10The frozen sea is melting fast in the spring sunshine.
50:19Confident it's safe? It's not going to break underneath us?
50:2250-50.
50:2450-50.
50:27The locals employ several generations of Arctic transport,
50:31from the ancient to the merely antique.
50:38With the sea ice cracking up beneath them,
50:40Dan has to trust the crew and a tonne of filming gear
50:44to the experience of the locals.
50:47Even by their standards, this was fast becoming a risky journey.
50:56Where the first sleds crossed just minutes before is now impossible.
51:02It's broken right up. We can't cross the leads in the ice here,
51:06so we need to get on some boats,
51:08and the ice is just breaking up too fast for us at the moment.
51:12Fortunately, the hunters from the camp turn up in the nick of time
51:16to rescue the crew for the final leg of the journey.
51:32Six days and 5,000 miles from home,
51:34the crew finally arrive at the place that will be their home for the next month.
51:46This is an active hunting camp,
51:48and that evening the team are introduced to the realities
51:51of fending for yourself in the Arctic.
51:55We've just seen a walrus hunt out here in the waters of the Bering Sea.
52:02All the meat will be eaten.
52:04They eat an awful lot of the internal organs as well.
52:06They use the skin, they use the sinews,
52:09they use the stomach for making drums.
52:11So it will get used very heavily,
52:13and it is a completely free-range, wild-caught animal.
52:21You can't grow any vegetables up here,
52:23but sea mammal meat contains all the nutrients the hunters need
52:27and is very low in cholesterol.
52:30Dan is keen to try some of Collier's health food.
52:33Well, this is yesterday's seal, and there's a chunk of flesh there.
52:37Behind it is some intestine.
52:41We should try a bit.
52:43That's seal intestine.
52:49It's quite fishy.
52:51Fishy rubber.
52:53That's not too bad.
52:54I thought it was going to be more disgusting than it actually is.
52:57The salt helps.
52:59Would he like to try what we eat?
53:02Chicken korma?
53:03No?
53:06Don't blame me, to be honest.
53:08Yours is much better.
53:16As well as providing food,
53:18the animals here traditionally provided transport.
53:21Collier and Pasha, the oldest hunters,
53:23keep alive the skill of building walrus-skin boats.
53:27You don't need a welding torch to repair this boat,
53:30just a juicy lump of seal fat to bung any holes.
53:36By living amongst them,
53:37the crew had really begun to get to know the hunters.
53:41But there was one big part of their lives which remained a mystery.
53:48As spring turns to summer,
53:49the hunters head out to an island to gather seabird eggs.
53:54The crew had heard stories of this,
53:56but had little idea of what it was going to involve.
54:01That's where they climb.
54:02Those are impressive heights.
54:05It's quite something.
54:10For cameraman Ted Giffords,
54:12this was the first sight of the rock face he was about to work on.
54:20These cliffs can be treacherous,
54:22as Collier, the expert egg collector, knows only too well.
54:50Ted will rely on steel stakes for anchors
54:53and an array of climbing gear and ropes.
54:58Collier preferred to stick with the simpler method
55:01that has served him well for many years.
55:09The crew can't quite believe what they're seeing.
55:20If you fell on that, that would be absolutely horrendous.
55:26It's a bit sketchy, and the rope is only about that thick.
55:30It's an interesting method.
55:33The limestone cliff is loose and crumbling
55:35because of hundreds of years of freezing and thawing.
55:40Even for a highly trained professional climber like Ted,
55:43it's a dangerous descent.
55:50TED GIFFORDS CLIMBING EXPERT
55:56Collier has been climbing here for four decades,
55:59but this is the first time he's had company,
56:02and sometimes he forgets that Ted is just below him.
56:08Climbing supervisor Adam Scott holds his breath as he watches.
56:12A fall to the rocks 100 metres below would almost certainly be fatal.
56:19TED GIFFORDS CLIMBING EXPERT
56:27This is the most hardcore thing I've ever seen.
56:35It was when the team returned to the boat to finish filming
56:38that they got their most spectacular view
56:40of the lengths Collier was going to to get his dinner.
56:43TED GIFFORDS CLIMBING EXPERT
56:48This shot sent the team home with a fresh perspective
56:52and a deep respect for these people
56:54who still live off the land in the Arctic.
56:57A way of life for which there is no safety net.
57:13TED GIFFORDS CLIMBING EXPERT