yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Getting To Kiwalik - Behind the Scenes | Life Below Zero


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

Campers aren't working. That's getting super frustrating. This is what it's like on Life Below Zero. Cameras are already down. Tough conditions all around. I fill in: no heat, no car, no anything; won't even turn on. Too many times we've had batteries go out. It's just a typical day in the Arctic.

They confessed: what we've got takes a lot of food to feed a bunch of people for a few weeks out in the wilderness to make the show. While we're out there, we're getting ready for a winter move-off, and the place we want to go is to Kowalik. We go down there sometimes for several months at a time. We hunt, fish, and gather. It's worth the challenge, it's worth the dangers, it's worth the time and the unknown. It doesn't bother me because nobody knows.

Today we're loading up our entire show in order to follow the hailstones to Kowalik for some adventures out there. Part of what we have to do is load everything that we need for a couple weeks in the field: one sled with most of the camera gear, personal camping gear; the other sled that mostly carries food, a bunch of propane, and a generator. We use a tremendous number of camera batteries on a daily basis, so we have to run a generator when we're out in remote areas.

I always carry this safety bag that's got our communication devices; it lets us keep in touch with our office in Anchorage and LA. It's also got emergency provisions, a medical kit, and emergency shelter, warm clothes, food, and fire—everything you would need if you were stuck somewhere. I'm pretty excited to go; the hailstones are almost ready to leave, so we're going to start up the machines and follow them out to Kowalik.

[Music]

So we're carrying this big load out to Kowalik. We're going over these really hard-packed wind drifts, and it's pushed up the gate. It's bent the gate the wrong direction on two of these hitches now, so we're kind of in a bit of a sticky place here.

[Music]

So we're here in Kowalik; we finally made it. A bit of a victory celebration is going on at 3 a.m.—110 miles over some really rough terrain across tundra and frozen Bering Sea. We got here and pretty much just had to make hard luck shelter and get some food into the crew. We've got everything that we need for the next month with us in these four sleds. We'll roll out our sleeping bags, get some rest, and then wake up in the morning and build our little tent city here. Everyone's pretty excited to be here! This is what it takes to follow the hailstones in the middle of nowhere.

[Music]

More Articles

View All
What Happened Before History? Human Origins
The world we live in feels normal, ordinary. It feels like this is just how humans exist and always existed. But, it’s not. Never before have we humans lived in a world as sophisticated and engineered to our needs as today. Giving us the luxury to forget …
Collecting Ice for Cocktails | Restaurants at the End of the World | National Geographic
Oh my God! So what are we getting? We’re getting ice. We’re getting…the most obvious choice. Kill the engine, brother. If you’re really quiet, and you listen through the waves, you hear all the pops and cracks? Mm hmm. This is the glacier ice expansion, …
How To Cold Email Investors - Michael Seibel
Founders often ask me how to cold email an investor when they’re interested in raising money. I receive tons of cold emails from founders, and I try to actually reply to all of them. Here are some tips on some things you should and shouldn’t do when cold …
How to Mountain Bike Like a Pro | Get Out: A Guide to Adventure
Hi, I’m Eric Porter. I’m a professional mountain biker, and I’m going to teach you how to get started with mountain biking. I love mountain biking ‘cause it’s a great way to get away from everything, get out into the woods, ride your bike, challenge your…
Embracing Death | Explorer
It’s interesting in our society, and you know how we do things. You know, we plan for so many life celebratory events. We plan for a wedding, we plan for a baby, we plan for a graduation from high school, from college. We plan for our career. But the one…
Meta's Moment of Truth (Facebook's Ad Problem Explained)
Mark Zuckerberg is dark in the door of Capitol Hill. Facebook is scrambling to contain the fallout; it’s facing a real threat to its cultural relevance. Do you think, in the wake of all these revelations, Facebook’s gonna make any changes? It is an extra…