The Last Frontier Frozen Planet


The Last Frontier

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The polar regions are more hostile

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to life than any other part of the Earth.

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Human beings have little natural protection against the cold,

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so why, for thousands of years,

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have we endured the hardships that come from living here?

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And what keeps us coming back today,

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to the farthest extremes of our planet?

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Winter in the most northerly town on Earth, Longyearbyen.

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Here, for three months of the year, the sun never rises.

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Only the full moon, which never sets as far north as this,

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sheds any light into the darkness.

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This town was built here in Svalbard,

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only 700 miles from the North Pole, to support a mine.

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The Arctic is rich in coal, oil and minerals.

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In Siberia, the Russian Arctic,

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the mineral wealth has given rise to large cities.

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This is Norilsk, the coldest city on Earth.

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Temperatures regularly drop to below minus 50 degrees Centigrade.

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Fuel freezes in the tanks of the trucks,

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and has to be melted in a rather alarming way.

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Ships are frozen into the rivers for nine months of the year.

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The ice must be cut away from their hulls

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because steel becomes brittle and vulnerable to the thickening ice.

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Like all Arctic cities,

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Norilsk depends on a power plant which heats everybody's home.

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Waste heat from the plant even keeps a lake ice-free all winter.

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Even at air temperatures of minus 50,

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the Norilsk Walrus Club come here every day.

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There is evidence that a dip in cold water is good for the immune system,

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but when the water is a degree above freezing,

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it's hard to imagine that the benefits could outweigh the pain.

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Today's Arctic city dwellers can lead an almost normal existence

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thanks to technology.

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But towns and cities are very recent arrivals in the polar landscape.

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The polar regions are the least populated part of our planet.

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Most of the Arctic remains empty of human beings.

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In the north, the Pole itself is covered by a freezing ocean.

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Around it lie vast lands, of which Siberia is the largest and coldest.

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Human beings first ventured onto the great plains of Siberia,

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the tundra, thousands of years ago, and some live here still.

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The Dolgan are one of the few tribes who still live in much the same way

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as those first Arctic pioneers.

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They are reindeer people.

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Reindeer are one of few animals

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that can endure these bitterly cold conditions,

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scraping a living by nibbling tiny plants that survive beneath the snow.

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Nobody has ever totally tamed reindeer,

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but today's animals are docile enough to allow the Dolgan

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to drive them across the tundra in an everlasting search for their food.

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This is a typical Dolgan village, home to just two extended families.

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Here, in the coldest part of Arctic, the only way to get water

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for nine months of the year is to melt ice from the frozen rivers.

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At least there's no problem preventing food from decay.

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Outside is one big deep-freeze.

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Survival is only possible because of reindeer fur.

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It makes wonderfully warm clothing,

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though small children still have to be sewn into their clothes

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to prevent instant frostbite.

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The Dolgan even use reindeer fur to insulate their huts.

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This is living at its most communal.

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Good relations with the in-laws are essential.

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Reindeer are so valuable

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that the people only eat them if they have no other choice.

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Their favourite food is raw fish from the frozen rivers.

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Every week or so,

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these families have to travel to find new feeding grounds for their herds.

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First, they round up their strongest animals with lassoes,

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a skill that their ancestors brought with them

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when they came north from Central Asia.

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And then, literally, they move house.

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A whole Dolgan village can move on in just a few hours.

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Over the year,

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they travel hundreds of miles like this across the vast tundra.

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It was the herds of reindeer,

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wandering over the lands of the Arctic,

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that brought the first Dolgan here.

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Other people, however, took on an even greater challenge.

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They left the land and looked for their food out on the frozen sea.

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Here in the shifting world of the sea ice, they found sea mammals.

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Pasha leads a group of Inuit men in Chukotka,

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the North Eastern corner of Russia.

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The men have travelled many hours from home in the bitter cold,

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fighting their way through a dangerous maze.

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These hundred tonne ice floes

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could crush their small boats like eggshells.

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The men have big families,

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and this is the only way they have of feeding them.

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Pasha is looking for the puffs of steamy air produced by their quarry.

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An animal that is bigger than many Arctic whales.

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A two tonne seal with formidable tusks.

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A walrus.

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It's heading for open water. They must reach it before it dives.

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An angry walrus could easily overturn the boats.

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The harpoon sticks firmly in the walrus's thick layer of blubber,

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and floats attached to it prevent the animal from diving.

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Pasha wants to kill quickly with a single clean shot.

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The hunters are exhausted after a long day,

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but they still have a lot more work to do.

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This enormous prize will feed everyone's family for weeks.

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It will take many hours to butcher. Nothing will go to waste.

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The meat is parcelled up in bags made of the animal's skin.

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It's midnight, but the sun is still up.

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Summer is almost here.

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This far north, the seasons change fast,

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the sun is rising higher and growing warmer with each passing day.

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The transformation from winter to summer is so dramatic

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that it dominates the lives of all who live here.

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The ice around the coast has almost disappeared,

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and gone are the seals and walrus that Pasha and his men relied on.

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They set off on another search for food.

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Their destination is an island in the bay.

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Their walrus skin boat is an ancient design,

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light enough to carry high up the beach so it doesn't drift away.

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THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN

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Once again, the men will have to work as a team,

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but one of them will be taking very serious risks.

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The lightest man in the group, Kolya, is also the oldest.

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He will trust his life to a length of old nylon rope

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and the strength of his friends.

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These 100 metre high cliffs are home to thousands of guillemots,

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and Kolya is after their eggs.

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He relies on the men above to lower him to the right place.

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Kolya is tough but his stress is obvious.

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HE SHOUTS IN RUSSIAN

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The men lower Kolya down to the bottom of the cliff,

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and from there, he works his way back up the crumbling rock face.

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Stop!

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This mission will produce no more than about 50 eggs,

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but at least there's no need to carry a packed lunch.

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Over the years,

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many men have fallen to their deaths collecting sea bird eggs.

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This is truly dangerous work.

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These Arctic peoples can't grow crops.

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The frozen ground never thaws to allow them to do so.

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They rely on animals for their food so the chance to collect a few

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dozen eggs has to be taken, even if it means risking your life.

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The change of season has transformed the Arctic's coastline

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and inland, the difference is just as extreme.

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July temperatures on the tundra can be surprisingly high,

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over 30 degrees centigrade.

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Reindeer now move not just to find fresh pasture,

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but also to avoid the summer swarms of blood sucking flies.

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To keep their animals healthy,

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the local herders are driving them to the sea.

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The cooler conditions on the coast bring relief to the herds

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and the chance, every year, for different tribes to meet.

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Pasha and his hunters live close by.

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They've had word of the herders' arrival.

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The hunters' cargo is highly prized for the winter ahead,

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fat-rich walrus meat

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that's been fermenting in the skin bags for two months.

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Today will see an exchange

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that has taken place every summer for centuries.

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The herders barter reindeer skins for walrus meat.

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Pooling their resources has helped these communities

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to survive for so long.

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A fry-up of guillemot eggs is all the better when shared with old friends.

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Summer brings a brief chance for isolated peoples to meet.

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This is an opportunity to exchange news, arrange weddings,

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and tell the latest jokes.

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HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

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By August, the summer is over.

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Winter arrives only too swiftly, but the peoples of the Arctic,

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who came here originally to hunt, have devised ways to deal with

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the hostile and changing conditions that have stood the test of time.

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Today, there's a new draw to the Arctic.

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This is Greenland,

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a territory of Denmark now known to be rich in oil and precious metals.

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This sled team is part of the Danish Special Forces.

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They're on one of the world's toughest journeys,

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a 2,000 mile patrol

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to maintain Denmark's claim to this valuable wilderness.

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But the patrol's mission is only possible

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with the help of man's oldest Arctic companion.

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Rasmus and Roland have spent the summer months training

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and getting to know their team of Greenland huskies.

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They need to have a very close bond with every single dog.

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This is Roger and Armstrong,

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actually the oldest dog in the whole patrol, but he's still going strong.

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The men are totally dependent on the stamina of their dogs,

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which will keep on running all through the bitter cold

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of the winter.

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This is the last time the team will see the sun for two months.

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The most intelligent dogs always lead,

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choosing the safest route, feeling for hidden crevasses and thin ice.

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This is one of six teams that patrol the whole of northeast Greenland,

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the only people in an empty wilderness that is larger than

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France and Great Britain combined.

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Conditions here are too extreme for current mining technology,

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but someday, ways will be found of digging out

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the huge mineral treasures that lie hidden within these mountains.

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The patrol secures Denmark's claim to do so simply by being here.

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But it's not the prospect of getting rich

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that makes men sign up for this patrol,

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it's the chance for the journey of a lifetime.

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The team travel over the ice for six months,

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covering up to 40 miles in a day.

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Friendship and teamwork are essential if they're to succeed.

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Their dogs can sleep outside no matter how cold it gets.

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Rasmus and Roland have a nice cosy tent.

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They have a few modern conveniences, including a radio,

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with which they report their position back to headquarters in Denmark

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and catch up on the latest news.

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Right now it's the section of money,

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what's new in the economy in Denmark, the financial crisis

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and all the other things that we actually don't care about out here.

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If you can cope with the conditions,

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then winter in the Arctic can be magical,

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especially when the greatest light show on Earth is overhead.

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The first humans in the Arctic believed the Northern Lights,

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or aurora borealis, were dancing spirits.

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Now we know the lights are caused by electrically charged particles

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streaming from the sun,

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attracted by the magnetic pull of the earth's poles.

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A big aurora storm contains enough energy to knock out satellite

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communications and power supplies across the northern hemisphere,

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so understanding the aurora is vital.

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In Alaska, rockets are used to study the Lights.

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A hundred miles up, at the edge of outer space, the rockets

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release a cloud of glowing smoke that's visible from earth.

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The smoke is blown by fierce winds which are generated by the aurora.

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Mapping the movement of the smoke helps scientists to understand

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how this unearthly spectacle affects our atmosphere.

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They constantly monitor the aurora to help protect us

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from its effects, so the rest of us can simply enjoy the magic,

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just as the Arctic's first people must have done,

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thousands of years ago.

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For all the many peoples of the Arctic,

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the aurora is a reminder of the sun's presence

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throughout the dark days of winter.

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But when the sun is below the horizon in the north,

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it's above it at the southern end of our planet.

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Here, humanity's history has been very different.

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Antarctica is far colder than the Arctic,

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and 99% of its land is permanently blanketed by ice.

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Antarctica is so utterly remote

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and inhospitable that no people ever settled here.

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It was only 200 years ago that the first human beings

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even glimpsed the vast continent.

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The first people who crossed the Southern Ocean did

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so for the same reason that the first people went to the Arctic Ocean,

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to hunt sea mammals.

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The populations of whales and seals are only now beginning to

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recover from 150 years of intensive hunting.

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But none of those hunters ever tried

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to venture into the frigid interior of the Antarctic continent.

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The first successful attempt to do that

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was made only a hundred years ago.

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This hut was the base

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for one of the most famous expeditions in polar history.

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It was from here in 1911 that Captain Scott and his team

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launched their attempt to be the first people to reach the South Pole.

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The cold, dry conditions have preserved the interior

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of the hut almost exactly as the expedition members left it.

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Expedition photographer Herbert Ponting

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captured the spirit of the age of exploration.

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These first explorers borrowed the techniques of the Arctic peoples.

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They wore fur gloves and boots and burned seal blubber to keep warm.

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They built sleds based on a traditional Inuit design.

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They even made their sleeping bags from reindeer hide.

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Scott and his men sought the glory of discovery

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in an untouched wilderness, and died in the attempt.

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But he, and those who followed him, were the first to reveal

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the splendour of Antarctica to the rest of the world.

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The lure of adventure still draws intrepid travellers today.

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Like the first explorers,

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most modern visitors come during the brief summer when the cold relents

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enough for the toughest icebreakers to reach the edge of the continent,

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but most still need a helicopter to go further.

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The scenery in Antarctica is magnificent and dramatic,

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but what really attracts people here is the wildlife.

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An emperor penguin colony is a particular highlight.

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Because human beings didn't arrive in the Antarctic

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until the past few centuries,

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the animals have never developed a fear of man.

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But very strict regulations govern

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how close people can approach any wildlife.

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And when visitors leave,

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they must take every trace of their visit away with them.

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Since 1959,

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the whole of Antarctica has been protected by international treaty.

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The nations of the world have agreed that no country can claim Antarctica,

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or prospect for its oil or minerals.

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The only significant human activities allowed here are those that

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extend our scientific knowledge.

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But unlocking Antarctica's secrets requires some unusual tools.

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This brand new robot submarine has been designed to go

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far beyond the limits of any human.

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Today, this diver is putting the sub through its paces

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on one of its very first dives.

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It's designed to be small and nimble enough

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to explore the Antarctic sea bed without damaging it.

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The submarine's mission, as it journeys into the unknown,

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is to map the sea floor and look for species new to science.

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The sea water here is a degree below zero,

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so even the toughest human diver can't stay down for long.

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The submarine will explore deeper under the ice

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than anyone has gone before.

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From the depths of the ocean to the highest peaks of the land,

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new discoveries are being made

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even in places which were first visited over a century ago.

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Mount Erebus was an irresistible draw

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to the legendary explorer Ernest Shackleton.

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In 1908, his men became the first to climb this active volcano.

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They soon discovered that this is the coldest place on the Antarctic coast.

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Today's explorers still have to guard against frostbite

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in the height of summer

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when temperatures rarely creep above minus 30 degrees centigrade.

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Shackleton's men had no idea of the extraordinary spectacle

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that lay beneath their feet.

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-Yep, OK, up on the wall there somewhere now.

-Yeah.

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Under the ice and snow is a network of caves,

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which only a handful of expert cavers have ever dared to enter.

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This is the first scientific expedition to explore them in detail.

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Here, there are ice formations that occur nowhere else on Earth.

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Each cave contains its own unique collection of structures.

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The team is mapping the caves

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to see how their shape changes over the years.

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OK, flat side to here.

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That's 126.8 degrees for the angle.

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-126.8.

-Correct.

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The steam leaking from vents in the side of the volcano

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is constantly sculpting this labyrinth that extends deep

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under the ice.

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When the hot breath of the volcano hits the icy walls,

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the moisture in the air freezes into beautiful shapes.

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Some of the crystals are so unusual that the cavers are investigating

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a remote but tantalising possibility about their formation.

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Could it be that some of these extraordinary crystal shapes

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are formed by highly specialised bacteria, living in the ice?

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Nobody yet knows the answer.

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This is just one of the many strange mysteries that draw people to

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work in a place that is so hostile to human life.

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While some scientists come to Erebus to explore its bizarre ice caves,

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others visit the volcano to study the innermost workings of our planet.

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Erebus is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth,

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but even so, volcanologists work on the very rim of its crater.

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They stand in the bitter cold, while 100 metres below them

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is a lava lake where temperatures are over a thousand degrees centigrade.

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This is a rare glimpse of the molten rock

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that lies beneath the earth's crust.

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But research here is looking up as well as down,

0:38:590:39:02

measuring how the gases that bubble out of the volcano

0:39:020:39:06

influence the make-up of the air we breathe.

0:39:060:39:09

Antarctica is the best place to measure any changes in our atmosphere

0:39:120:39:17

because it has the least polluted air on Earth.

0:39:170:39:21

It's also the perfect place to launch more outward-looking missions.

0:39:220:39:27

This balloon, made of material no thicker than Clingfilm,

0:39:330:39:37

will eventually grow to be 300 metres tall.

0:39:370:39:40

It will carry a device for detecting cosmic rays,

0:39:430:39:47

tiny particles from the beginning of time

0:39:470:39:50

that are only now reaching earth.

0:39:500:39:53

The balloon will travel to the very edge of outer space

0:40:030:40:08

to gather clues about the formation of the universe.

0:40:080:40:12

Even today, very few ever make the journey inland from the coast.

0:40:210:40:26

We still know remarkably little about the interior of the continent.

0:40:270:40:32

The people on this plane

0:40:330:40:35

are trying to answer one of the fundamental questions.

0:40:350:40:38

How much ice is there in Antarctica?

0:40:380:40:41

They measure the depth of the ice sheet,

0:40:470:40:50

which is over 4,000 metres in places, using radar.

0:40:500:40:54

Their work will enable us to see

0:40:560:40:59

how the volume of Antarctica's ice changes in the future.

0:40:590:41:02

It also makes it possible to map a hidden landscape.

0:41:030:41:07

This plane is following the same route

0:41:200:41:23

through the Trans-Antarctic Mountains

0:41:230:41:25

that Captain Scott took a hundred years ago.

0:41:250:41:29

His team hauled their sleds over a hundred miles up this glacier,

0:41:290:41:34

the Beardmore.

0:41:340:41:35

Skirting seemingly endless crevasses, with no map to guide them

0:41:410:41:46

and no idea of what lay ahead, it was a journey of extraordinary suffering.

0:41:460:41:51

Their target lay beyond the mountains,

0:42:020:42:04

over 3,000 metres above sea level, on the Antarctic Plateau.

0:42:040:42:10

An unbroken sheet of ice, larger than Western Europe,

0:42:160:42:20

this is the coldest, the windiest, the most lifeless place on Earth.

0:42:200:42:24

Roald Amundsen's team narrowly defeated Scott's to become

0:42:290:42:34

the first people to reach the South Pole on the 14th of December 1911.

0:42:340:42:40

Nobody else successfully completed the journey

0:42:410:42:44

for nearly 50 years after that.

0:42:440:42:47

But, since 1957, there has been a permanent base at the South Pole.

0:42:510:42:56

You can even land a plane on the ice runway.

0:42:560:42:58

The early explorers would be astounded by the facilities

0:43:010:43:05

at the South Pole today.

0:43:050:43:07

Construction work isn't easy

0:43:100:43:12

when the average summer temperature is minus 25 degrees Centigrade.

0:43:120:43:16

But, despite the difficulties, the most hi-tech scientific research

0:43:170:43:21

station ever built was unveiled here in 2006.

0:43:210:43:25

The brand new Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is designed to

0:43:310:43:35

cope with the world's most extreme conditions.

0:43:350:43:39

The building's sloping edge deflects the prevailing wind.

0:43:390:43:45

Beneath, there are stilts that can raise the whole building

0:43:450:43:48

a further eight metres to keep it above the accumulating snow.

0:43:480:43:51

Living inside is as close to being on a space-station

0:44:000:44:04

as you can find on Earth.

0:44:040:44:06

This base is totally self-sufficient, the people are completely

0:44:060:44:10

cut off from the outside world for more than half the year over winter.

0:44:100:44:15

The total darkness makes this the perfect place to study the night sky.

0:44:220:44:26

The group of star gazers will be the most isolated community on our

0:44:340:44:39

planet, but they will have all their needs catered for.

0:44:390:44:42

There is even a greenhouse where fresh vegetables grow under

0:44:470:44:52

artificial light all through the darkest, coldest winter anywhere.

0:44:520:44:56

The sun sets in March at the South Pole,

0:45:130:45:16

and won't rise again for six months.

0:45:160:45:18

For a few days at this time of year, high altitude clouds of ice crystals

0:45:240:45:29

continue to catch the sunlight,

0:45:290:45:31

even when the sun itself is far below the horizon.

0:45:310:45:34

But soon all trace of the sun disappears,

0:45:510:45:54

and today's over-wintering scientists remember the first explorers.

0:45:540:46:00

These men, who endured the winter in flimsy wooden huts,

0:46:040:46:08

borrowed knowledge from the Arctic pioneers before them,

0:46:080:46:12

but they came here to study and explore,

0:46:120:46:16

rather than to hunt or exploit.

0:46:160:46:18

They embodied the human spirit

0:46:180:46:20

that has enabled us to survive at the poles.

0:46:200:46:23

Here, we are pushed to our limits, but in being pushed, humanity has

0:46:290:46:33

achieved the extraordinary and opened up the last frontier.

0:46:330:46:38

To tell the story of how we survive at the Poles, Frozen Planet

0:46:560:47:00

travelled to Siberia, the far north of Russia,

0:47:000:47:03

where most of the Arctic's people live.

0:47:030:47:06

The team got to know many extraordinary people.

0:47:090:47:12

But one group of men above all really opened their eyes to what it means

0:47:140:47:18

to live off the land in the most unforgiving environment on earth.

0:47:180:47:23

Men who take their life in their hands everyday,

0:47:250:47:28

just to find their food.

0:47:280:47:29

Producer, Dan Rees,

0:47:410:47:43

led the Frozen Planet team on their longest journey in the Arctic.

0:47:430:47:47

Their mission was to film walrus hunters

0:47:490:47:51

in Russia's most remote region, Chukotka,

0:47:510:47:54

the closest point to their old enemy the United States,

0:47:540:47:57

4,000 miles and nine time zones east of Moscow.

0:47:570:48:00

It's still a sensitive region, and the team soon learn

0:48:030:48:06

that the border guards remain twitchy about foreigners with cameras.

0:48:060:48:10

GUARD: Nyet! Nyet!

0:48:100:48:12

To get permission to film,

0:48:170:48:18

the crew relied on anthropologist Niobe Thompson,

0:48:180:48:21

one of the few westerners to have worked with the people here.

0:48:210:48:24

But even Niobe finds a lot of doors closed to him.

0:48:270:48:30

I have experienced a level of red tape I never could have anticipated.

0:48:320:48:38

We've got our Russian visas in our passports,

0:48:380:48:41

that's fine, but that's just the beginning.

0:48:410:48:43

Here is the special permission given by the security services to

0:48:430:48:47

be in the region of Chukotka,

0:48:470:48:50

a special permission to be in every one of the population centres

0:48:500:48:54

we will visit on our trip,

0:48:540:48:56

permission to shoot with a telephoto lens,

0:48:560:49:00

permission to shoot from a helicopter,

0:49:000:49:05

permission to shoot in a natural reserve,

0:49:050:49:09

but we still don't have our migration cards.

0:49:090:49:12

I'm trying to get them, and if we don't get them by the end of the day

0:49:120:49:15

we're going to be deported back to Alaska,

0:49:150:49:17

it'll take three months to get new ones.

0:49:170:49:19

Niobe's paper chase takes two days,

0:49:190:49:21

but finally the team is allowed to begin their journey

0:49:210:49:24

to the hunters' camp.

0:49:240:49:26

With no roads, sometimes the only passable route is over

0:49:260:49:29

the fast melting surfaces of the lakes.

0:49:290:49:33

OK?

0:49:430:49:44

They need to be prepared for a quick exit.

0:49:490:49:51

The next day, the crew finally reach the coast.

0:49:590:50:03

The hunting camp is now just 30 miles away across a bay,

0:50:030:50:06

but the crossing could be risky.

0:50:060:50:08

The frozen sea is melting fast in the spring sunshine.

0:50:080:50:13

Confident it's safe? It's not going to break underneath us?

0:50:180:50:21

Is that the decision, 50/50?

0:50:210:50:24

50/50!

0:50:240:50:26

The locals employ several generations of arctic transport,

0:50:260:50:29

from the ancient to the merely antique.

0:50:290:50:32

With the sea ice cracking up beneath them, Dan has to trust the crew

0:50:360:50:41

and a ton of filming gear to the experience of the locals.

0:50:410:50:44

Even by their standards this was fast becoming a risky journey.

0:50:460:50:49

Where the first sleds crossed just minutes before is now impassable.

0:50:550:50:59

It's broken right up, we can't cross the leads in the ice here,

0:51:050:51:08

so we need to get on some boats,

0:51:080:51:10

and the ice is just breaking up too fast for us at the moment.

0:51:100:51:13

Fortunately, the hunters from the camp turn up in the nick of time

0:51:130:51:16

to rescue the crew for the final leg of the journey.

0:51:160:51:20

Six days and 5,000 miles from home,

0:51:300:51:33

the crew finally arrive at the place

0:51:330:51:36

that will be their home for the next month.

0:51:360:51:38

This is an active hunting camp and, that evening, the team

0:51:450:51:48

are introduced to the realities of fending for yourself in the Arctic.

0:51:480:51:52

Well, we've just seen a walrus hunt

0:51:550:51:57

out here in the waters of the Bering Sea.

0:51:570:52:01

All the meat will be eaten,

0:52:010:52:03

they eat an awful lot of the internal organs as well,

0:52:030:52:05

they use the skin, they use the sinews,

0:52:050:52:08

they use the stomach for making drums,

0:52:080:52:10

so it'll get used very heavily

0:52:100:52:12

and it is completely free-range, you know, wild caught animal.

0:52:120:52:18

You can't grow any vegetables up here, but sea mammal meat contains

0:52:190:52:24

all the nutrients the hunters need and is very low in cholesterol.

0:52:240:52:29

Dan is keen to try some of Kolya's health food.

0:52:290:52:32

Well, this is yesterday's seal and a chunk of flesh there,

0:52:320:52:37

behind it is some intestine.

0:52:370:52:39

We should try a bit.

0:52:390:52:42

That's seal intestine.

0:52:420:52:44

It's quite fishy. Fishy, fishy rubber.

0:52:480:52:51

That's not too bad.

0:52:510:52:53

I thought it was going to be more disgusting than it actually is.

0:52:530:52:55

-The salt helps.

-Yeah.

0:52:550:52:59

Would he like to try what we eat? It's chicken, chicken korma.

0:52:590:53:02

No?

0:53:020:53:04

I don't blame you to be honest, yours is much better!

0:53:040:53:08

As well as providing food,

0:53:140:53:16

the animals here traditionally provided transport.

0:53:160:53:20

Kolya and Pasha, the oldest hunters,

0:53:200:53:22

keep alive the skill of building walrus skin boats.

0:53:220:53:26

You don't need a welding torch to repair this boat,

0:53:260:53:29

just a juicy lump of seal fat to bung any holes.

0:53:290:53:33

By living amongst them,

0:53:350:53:37

the crew had really begun to get to know the hunters,

0:53:370:53:40

but there was one big part of their lives which remained a mystery.

0:53:400:53:43

As spring turns to summer,

0:53:470:53:49

the hunters head out to an island to gather sea bird eggs.

0:53:490:53:52

The crew had heard stories of this,

0:53:520:53:55

but had little idea of what it was going to involve.

0:53:550:53:58

That's where they climb, those are impressive heights.

0:54:000:54:04

Quite something.

0:54:040:54:05

For cameraman Ted Giffords,

0:54:090:54:11

this was the first sight of the rock face he was about to work on.

0:54:110:54:15

These cliffs can be treacherous, as Kolya, the expert egg collector,

0:54:190:54:23

knows only too well.

0:54:230:54:24

Ted will rely on steel stakes for anchors

0:54:510:54:54

and an array of climbing gear and ropes.

0:54:540:54:57

Kolya preferred to stick with the simpler method

0:54:580:55:02

that has served him well for many years.

0:55:020:55:04

The crew can't quite believe what they're seeing.

0:55:100:55:14

If he fell on that, that would be absolutely horrendous.

0:55:200:55:25

It's...yeah, it's a bit sketchy, and the rope is only about that thick.

0:55:250:55:29

It's an interesting method.

0:55:290:55:31

The limestone cliff is loose and crumbling

0:55:330:55:35

because of hundreds of years of freezing and thawing.

0:55:350:55:38

Even for a highly trained professional climber like Ted,

0:55:400:55:44

it's a dangerous descent.

0:55:440:55:45

Kolya has been climbing here for four decades, but this is the first time

0:55:550:56:00

he's had company, and sometimes he forgets that Ted is just below him.

0:56:000:56:03

Climbing supervisor Adam Scott holds his breath as he watches.

0:56:070:56:11

A fall to the rocks 100 metres below would almost certainly be fatal.

0:56:110:56:16

This is the most hardcore thing I've ever seen.

0:56:250:56:29

It was when the team returned to the boat to finish filming

0:56:340:56:37

that they got their most spectacular view of the lengths

0:56:370:56:40

Kolya was going to to get his dinner.

0:56:400:56:42

This shot sent the team home with a fresh perspective and a deep

0:56:470:56:51

respect for these people who still live off the land in the Arctic.

0:56:510:56:57

A way of life for which there is no safety net.

0:56:570:57:01

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:57:300:57:33

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