World's Coldest Fierce Earth

This is a Fierce Earth special and we are all in the danger zone.

We've travelled to the Yukon territory in Canada's frozen north

where the temperature right now is minus 36 degrees Celsius.

That's twice as cold as your freezer at home.

Watch this. A cup of boiling water turns to ice in mid air.

Wow, that's cold.

Your eyelashes freeze and when you breathe in your nostrils freeze.

Stay exposed for too long and it could be fatal.

These are the toughest conditions in one of the world's coldest places

and we're going to find out how to survive. And this is how.

I'm going to fly up, up and away over the frozen landscape.

We're going to learn how to build a special snow shelter

invented in this part of the world.

It's 10 degrees warmer than outside.

We'll meet the locals who've learned how to live

in one of the world's coldest places for thousands of years.

And we're going to put on a very special race

between a team of husky dogs and some human rivals.

Go!

What happens when the ground shakes, the seas rise up

and the air tears itself apart?

The Fierce Earth team move in,

taking on the most powerful forces on the planet.

Get ready for Fierce Earth -

the Earth and how to survive it.

Every winter, a blanket of snow, ice and freezing temperatures

spreads out from the North Pole.

In this Fierce Earth special, we are taking you deep into that cold zone.

Here in the Yukon territory, Northern Canada.

This frozen region is next door to Alaska

and the Arctic Circle runs straight through it.

It's so remote and cold only a few people choose to live here.

About 30,000 in a place twice the size of the UK.

Snow covers the ground here for much of the year.

The lakes freeze. The rivers freeze.

The temperatures stay below zero for about 180 days every year -

compared to about four in the UK.

Why so cold? I'm going to find out.

It is currently minus 40 degrees Celsius

here in the Yukon.

What makes it so much colder here than in Florida

where I spend most of my time in shorts, or in the UK

where you spend most of your time in a raincoat.

I am going show you the secrets of this frozen landscape

and the best way to do that is take to the air.

Today I'm flying with extreme cold pilot Gurd Mannsperger

in a very special type of aircraft.

It's a plane on skis!

So by getting in this plane, we're going to get very high

and have a look around the Yukon area

and see what makes it so very, very cold

and one of the coldest places on the planet. Wish me some luck.

And we're getting our oil temperature, everything's good,

we're ready to take off if you guys are brave, we shall be too.

Here we go. This is really exciting.

We're flying at a height of 1,000 metres, and from here

we can begin to understand what makes this place so very cold.

As far as the eye can see it's just frozen land.

White, ice, just that very, very cold look.

It's the middle of the day, but because of the tall mountains

and the Yukon's northern position on the globe,

the sun only peeks over the horizon at this time of year.

The low sun means the solar rays hit the ground at a shallow angle.

So most of the sun's energy is reflected away

before it can heat the surface.

That keeps the ground cool and when the snow falls it doesn't melt.

The bright white landscape from the snow and ice

is even better at reflecting the sun's energy away from Earth,

making everything even colder.

And there's something else that makes the Yukon territory

one of the coldest places on the planet.

When you're in the UK, you're basically surrounded by water

so you have some heat energy coming from that surrounding water.

But here in the Yukon, the closet body of water

is about 75 to 100 miles away but these mountains will block

any of that potential of it even making it here.

It's almost like when you close your freezer door

and leave it closed and it stays cold and gets colder and colder.

The distance of the Yukon Territory from the sea

and the barrier of the high mountains means that warm air

from the oceans struggles to ever reach the freezing cold interior.

I think that pretty much explains it.

Gurd, take us down, I've got what I need.

So you can basically land anywhere if you have a plane like this.

There's frozen lakes everywhere

so it's almost like you have these landing strips all over the place.

But the thing is I am a little bit nervous because we were

at a cruising speed of 150 mph landing on skis on a frozen lake.

What could possibly go wrong?!

Are you ready for this, Mr Cameraman?

No? Well, you better be because we are coming down.

The ice on this frozen lake is 50cm thick

and we touch down safely.

My fact finding mission is over

and we now know the truth behind the freezing temperatures.

That wasn't much of a landing, that was a pretty nice landing.

So planes are the modern way of getting around here in the Yukon

but for centuries it was these dogs instead.

They're huskies and for hundreds of years they've helped humans

survive in the world's coldest places.

Today the dogs are used to transport tourists, compete in races

and in the places where there are no roads, get the locals from A to B.

I've come to meet owner and husky team leader, Frank Turner.

I have just meet some of them and they are all so friendly.

Well, yeah, that's what it's about.

These dogs are perfectly adapted to life in the deep freeze.

They've got two layers of coat to protect them from the fierce cold.

It's a bit like putting on two jackets.

One big fluffy one to keep you warm

and then a waterproof one to keep you dry.

You can see he's got a really good thick fur.

He's got an outer coat, and a thick inner coat.

So the other coat is good for keeping snow

and any moisture away from getting close to the body.

The coldest I have been out with the dogs is 57 below.

At those temperatures, when they breathe out, it freezes

and believe it or not when you have a pee at those temperatures

you can hear your pee freezing on the way to the ground.

The stamina of these dogs in this pee-freezing weather is amazing.

They can run 150 miles in a day.

But they can only do that because they work brilliantly as a team.

Frank has agreed to put a squad of his most talented dogs

together for a very special race I'm going to challenge Leo to.

Like all the best teams, we're going to need a real mix.

So who is my winning team today, Frank?

This is Ginger, and Nancy right here.

Sakura is one of my all-time favourites,

she is just a great leader.

And Shiner is just very, very strong.

This is a great leader too.

Beethoven and his brother Schubert right here,

their main thing is just their steadiness.

We have just got to hook them up and you better hang on.

That's my dog squad.

They can travel so quickly across big distances

because even though they all bring their own talents,

they also pull together amazingly as a team.

I wonder if there are any other animals who could work together

in the cold as well as them?

Well, to show just how great these dogs are, Leo has gone

to enlist the help of another two-legged team who are also famous

for moving at speed in the cold.

I have come to see some other wild animals play.

Like the huskies, this squad of teenage ice hockey players

move at high speed,

and they work together brilliantly as a team in cold conditions.

The guys in white are the Midget Mustangs.

Only they don't look that small to me!

I'm going to see if we can pick a team

capable of taking on the Husky dogs and winning.

What I want is a mix of pace, aggression, teamwork and stamina.

They look pretty savage to me, I reckon I'm onto a winner.

I've got my team.

Bring on the first official Man vs Mutt race!

We've brought the teams to a frozen river on a day

when temperatures have dropped to minus 30 degrees Celsius.

Right then, gentlemen, everybody ready?

The first ever Man vs Mutt challenge.

They are only dogs, how hard can it be?

It's a straight out running race

and the first squad to cross the finish line wins.

This is all about teamwork and my dogs are an amazing team.

They are a racing machine and we are going to win.

Go!

-Go, go, go!

-Come on!

My Midget Mustangs are off to a great start.

But my huskies are soon pulling up alongside them

and when the ice hockey players start to lose grip

on the snowy surface, we overtake!

And there's one of my men down!

The strength of the others pulls him along

but without a full team pulling together we've got no chance.

It's my Huskies who are the heroes today!

Here's the reason for their victory.

The dogs pulled together and matched each other's speed

but there was one weak link in the hockey players' squad.

They stopped working as a team when they lost one runner.

My boys did well but...it's really hard competing with the dogs.

They had more speed.

We left them for snow and dust to be honest.

I think the dogs should challenge us to hockey next.

Maybe next time. For now, me and my winning team

are off to enjoy a well-earned rest.

Still to come on the Fierce Earth special -

Leo's going to hack my way up a terrifying wall of ice.

As soon as it gets vertical, like it's about to,

it becomes a lot more difficult.

But first, what would you do if you found yourself stranded

and alone in one of the worlds coldest places?

The temperature is at minus 29 degrees Celsius.

Without shelter or something to warm us up,

we'd be in trouble very quickly.

Hector Mackenzie is a cold weather survival expert, and he's going

to teach us how to take on the world's coldest places...and win.

Hello.

To get out of the weather we've got to build a shelter

and get right out of it.

Get into the snow and get comfortable for the night

otherwise it is a serious situation.

-I'm ready to get warm.

-I'm cold, I'm really cold.

Hector piled this snow up before we arrived

because it takes time for the snow crystals to bind together.

-It's a big pile of snow.

-Yeah, it's a big pile of snow.

Animals like bears and wolves know how to survive in this

inhospitable place, but as human visitors we need to learn

how to use what's close at hand if we want to survive as well.

Hector, I know this is a silly question

but why are we using snow for a shelter?

Well, it is something that there is lots of round here

and the ancient people learned to live with it and build shelters.

And it is a really good insulator.

It makes sense, doesn't it?

I think it is time for the shovels now.

Let's start digging.

What do you call this? What's the official name for one of these?

Well, it is a pile of snow but we call them quinzhees.

OK, so I'm building my first quinzhee.

You might have heard of an igloo before,

but this quinzie is another type of shelter made from snow,

that people from this part of Canada invented.

The cold environment is so dangerous here that this is something

even the youngest children are taught how to build.

But they get special lessons

so don't go trying this at home yourselves if it snows!

Kids at school have to learn how to build these things,

that's how dangerous this environment is.

Unlike Britain there is no-one around in this part of Canada.

It's so remote, it's like a wilderness, and the temperatures

are absolutely extreme and excruciatingly cold.

My face feels like little needles are poking it.

It's like a stinging feeling and it actually hurts.

It's actually painful. Anything that's exposed,

it feels like someone slapped you in the face.

The thing is with here is that it's even colder than your freezer.

That's just insane.

Back home, our relatively high temperatures mean

you've got a lot more time before hypothermia

or freezing to death becomes a problem.

But here in these freezing conditions,

things get serious very quickly.

Are we talking hours or minutes?

It could be a short time, less than an hour.

You will start losing your balance and feeling a bit wobbly

and eventually fall over.

That's the beginnings of hypothermia when you lose that balance.

Luckily, and before we fall over, we've nearly finished the quinzie.

And once we've put some home comforts in,

it's starting to feel quite cosy and warm.

It's noticeably warmer in here, currently.

Don't take our word for it though.

I've brought along a cool bit of equipment that will show us

if the shelter really is working.

A thermal imaging camera. I'm going to take a photograph

and I'm going to see what the temperature is.

-Say cheese.

-Cheese.

So the temperature is about minus 17.9.

That's the lowest colours. That's the dark blues.

And let's get Hector to take a look from the outside.

It's quite warm even in the doorway here.

Ten degrees warmer than outside.

The insulating snow has done its job.

It's minus 32 degrees outside and around minus 17 inside.

That's means it's 15 degrees C warmer in the shelter which could be

the difference between surviving the night or not.

As darkness falls and the temperature drops

it's time to settle in.

Well, we are in one of the world's coldest places,

but in one of the world's cosiest quinzies.

-Night night, Mike.

-Night.

-Sweet dreams. See you in the morning.

Mike, turn on your back, for goodness sake.

-What?

-Shhh! I'm trying to get to sleep.

The people who live here in the Yukon

know how to stay safe in the cold.

But when cold Arctic or Siberian air arrives in places

where people aren't used to it,

the resulting cold conditions can be deadly.

Here are the fiercest big freezes of the last 20 years.

In the European cold snap of 2009, temperatures hit a low point

of minus 47 degrees C and snow swept across the continent.

In 2010, it was the UK's turn as Britain experienced

its coldest December on record.

The average temperature never made it above freezing.

In 2004, parts of America saw one of their coldest winters for 100 years

and some of their biggest cities ground to a halt.

We're just visitors to this freezing part of the world

but there are some people who have called the planet's coldest places

home for thousands of years.

Hi there. I'm Clare. Nice to meet you.

This is 12-year-old Rain and Christy,

and their elder, Jonny Brass.

They are First Nations people.

They got this name because their ancestors were the first humans

to live in this part of Canada.

There are still about 8,000 First Nations people here.

They have their own languages and religion,

and they've adapted to living in one of the world's coldest places.

So how do you kids feel

when the first bit of snow falls in the winter?

I feel excited.

Dress up warmer.

It's just a normal part of life.

It's something we look forward to.

So what are you going to take us to do today, Jonny?

So what we are going to do now is we are going to go down to Jackson Lake

and we are going to do some ice fishing with the youth here.

I can't wait! Brilliant, let's go.

This is a frozen lake and the icy surface is 50cm thick

but that's not going to stop Rain and Christy from fishing

because this is one of the traditional ways their ancestors

would have fed themselves when all around them was frozen.

These kind of skills are some of the first things

these kids are taught and it's now second nature.

Two 12-year-old kids drilling through the ice to get

their own food - it makes you feel just a little inadequate.

Rain and Christy's ancestors would have chipped away at the ice

with an axe, chisel and spear.

Wow, look at that!

Hole drilled and the rod ready, the kids take over.

Now we just wait for a bite.

So what do you guys feel about the temperature today?

-Is this pretty normal for you, are you cold?

-No, this is normal.

This is normal. Wow, this is extreme for me.

And for you, Christy, I have noticed your hair is starting

to freeze on the front. Are you cold?

-No.

-You're not cold.

I am not even going to say where I'm cold, I'm cold everywhere.

To be honest, we're standing on a frozen lake -

we are going to be cold. It's minus 27 outside.

And plus the wind chill.

See, and Rain is saying plus the wind chill.

These young kids know that dressing properly is the key

to surviving these freezing cold conditions.

These gloves look really warm. What are they made of?

It's made out of moose head.

So the animals know how to adapt to this cold and we use them

to help us adapt, basically.

Help us to keep warm.

They help us with the fur and we get to eat them.

So some of them feed us and some of them we use

not necessarily to eat but use parts of their body to stay warm.

But most of things that you catch you have to mostly eat.

It's disrespectful.

If you could pick one animal you could have or catch,

what would be the best for the most resources?

-A moose.

-So a moose is the best one to catch.

Its not easy to just pop to the supermarket here,

so Rain and Christy hunt for wild food like moose and fish

because it's just right on their doorstep.

How long would a whole moose last for a family?

-Probably the whole winter.

-Really? Wow.

They haven't had any luck today but in this cold climate

they know you've got to call it a day when the temperatures start dropping.

So they take us back inside to meet some of their friends.

The First Nations people have learnt that you need to spend

a lot of the freezing winter sheltering inside.

It's just a small community

but they've found the best way to enjoy the long winter months

is to get together for some fun and games as a group.

With darkness and the temperatures falling outside,

this is definitely the place to be.

As the sun rises over the Yukon,

we've just got time for the final challenge for Leo.

I know all about life on the edge.

I've climbed to the top of the world's highest mountains,

frozen in the Antarctic

and parachuted off the planet's biggest cliffs.

I've come to an ice climbers training facility

to find out what extremely low temperatures can do to water,

and if my cold climbing skills are up to scratch.

Today, this is my challenge. A 15 metre high tower of ice,

slippery cold and dangerous and I have got to get to the top.

To make these towers, you basically leave a tap running at the top

and you end up with these amazing structures

because the water freezes before it can even hit the ground.

It takes weeks and weeks of seriously sub-zero temperatures to make them.

Today, it's minus 25 and I'm freezing.

This ice has built up over several freezing weeks.

It's now a sheer, slippery wall. 4 metres wide, 15 metres tall

and covered with razor sharp icicles.

Climbing up is going to be a real challenge.

Your hands get really cold. You know when you make a snowball

in the winter, and your hands go totally numb. Well, that happens.

And when you're hanging onto your ice axes 10 metres up the cliff,

you really need to be able to feel it. So I've got to wrap up warm,

but I'll also need a few extra bits of kit to survive this climb.

A pair of winter boots with spikes called crampons attached to the bottom.

And very importantly, helmet.

Cos when you climb ice like this, you smash a lot of it down.

And finally, with a pair of ice axes, I'm ready to go.

It's the extreme cold that turns water into something solid enough

to hold all of my weight.

The thing is with ice climbing,

as soon as it gets vertical like its about to,

it becomes a lot more difficult.

You are hanging on your arms and the blood drains out of them,

so your hands get really cold.

Yeah, this is going to be interesting.

The lower the temperature, the more brittle the ice.

It's so cold here it's like climbing on glass.

As you can see, it's all a bit brittle.

ICE SHATTERING

That ice is so sharp and so heavy.

If it fell on someone it could do them some real damage.

This is one of the more difficult bits. You can see it's overhanging

-and there's a lot of daggers.

-ICE SHATTERING

Your arms start to get tired as you're hanging off them.

Your hands get really cold.

And with a surface as loose and brittle as this,

danger is never far away.

Watch out below!

That was at least 10 kilograms of ice.

Big enough to knock me out if it had hit my face

rather than my shoulder.

It's pretty easy to give yourself

a broken nose or a black eye doing this.

I've made it!

Yes! That was great fun!

And the trip up that treacherous wall of ice was worth it.

But I'm even colder now I've stopped.

You can see, hands are pretty cold. Feel really numb.

It's like, you almost feel like someone's...

Like someone else is in control of them, they feel really weak.

Got to get out of here quickly,

Thankfully, the Fierce Earth team have set up a quick way down.

So here goes sub-zero zip wire. Woo-hoo!

That was brilliant.

I've done it.

The temperature was minus 25 degrees Celsius.

I scaled a 15 metre high wall of brittle ice.

I was hit by a 10kg block.

But I made it to the top.

If you do ever find yourself in one of the planet's coldest places,

here is the Fierce Earth survival guide.

Seek warmth as the temperatures drop

and if you're in the wilderness, use snow to create a shelter.

Remember, you're far stronger if you work as a team.

See it coming! Look at that.

Coming up next time on Fierce Earth.

I can't stand up any more!

We explore the awesome force of flood water.

I can't... Whoa!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd