Capturing the Iditarod - Behind the Scenes | Life Below Zero

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. Working on Life Below Zero can be very dangerous. Guns here, cameras; you never know what to expect. You see that? Gonna be tough, but we're gonna get the shot.

Every scenario we got to prepare for this, but we're still smiling or having fun, still making Life Below Zero. Yes, bring it on!

So, 2019, I did her Iditarod. Excited to be back this year. We're just trying to keep up with our boy, Jesse Holmes. I'm back to the Iditarod for my second run. Last year was my rookie run. It was an incredible experience for me as a dog racer. I feel like after last year, this is what I'm cut out for in my mushers career. It really changed my life, honestly. We've worked really hard for years for it.

Today is the official start of the race. You got to have all your things together because once you leave here, it's a thousand miles. And now we're setting off for a 1,000-mile ride. Our goal is to just get out in front of most of the pack without having to pass many or any mushers. Film Jesse's stories, see how the race evolves for him day to day. Should be pretty amazing.

Just get stuck? Nacho, how you doing? Are you stuck? Maybe if you come up here, you'll be on some firm enough ground to pull me out. Started off well. We got some great shots with Jesse, and then everything just went to hell. I hit this huge pocket of overflow, sunk my tow sled. My machine stopped moving, and I just threw up my hands like, "What next?"

So, the trail basically just disintegrated around us. You're in this slush pond, and the snow machines lose traction, sleds get stuck, and we just ground to a halt. Just basically keep full-throttle, keep the faith, and hopefully, you can keep up the momentum and make it through the ice. Thirty miles of horrendous overflow. It sounds like we're gonna have a really slow-moving trail.

You know it's always a good day when you don't actually think you're gonna die. So it definitely could have been worse, but at least it wasn't open water. Nacho and I have just arrived at the blow hole, which notoriously last year kicked our asses. I'm gonna go inside there, and we're gonna film Jesse going by. I've been dreaming of this shot of Jesse coming through and having a camera set up in this window. He's coming pretty quick right now on the trail, so we're gonna get in there.

The other tricky part is we don't have any communication with Jesse, and so he keeps turning off his headlamp to kind of just enjoy the ride. We never really know when he's coming or not. Sometimes we set up, and he just goes by in the dark, and we can barely see him. Don't get a shot at all, so this could be worth nothing in the end.

Eighteen men, you finally got some sleep last night. We've been gone 40 hours, 30 hours, something like that without sleep, getting up early. I'm doing all that we had to do to cover Jesse's race. We weren't sure whether we were going to be able to do it, but it worked out great, and we're feeling really proud that we've kind of pulled this off.

We've made a lot of friends along the way. It's incredible to see how people come out for this race, all the people in the villages who just come out to cheer on the mushers and see the dogs. All the kids that come out and the enthusiasm that they showed to welcome people to their home. Just to have that word fired up, we're excited.

A long trip; we were 12 days out on the trail, day and night, really very little sleep, kind of living the life of an Iditarod musher. So, we made it to Nome—over a thousand miles on the trail, safe and sound, in one piece. Feels pretty amazing to be here.

Really feel privileged to do this trip of a lifetime, really. To be able to come out here and travel the trail, experience it—that was really special to be a part of that.