Himalaya Mountain: Life at the Extreme


Himalaya

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High above the clouds...

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..there are lost worlds.

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Unexplored.

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Unforgiving.

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Wildly unpredictable.

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But here, on the great mountains of our planet,

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life does exist.

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Against all odds,

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a few extraordinary animals and remarkable people

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make their home on the highest places on Earth.

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Time for school in the highest village in the Himalaya.

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But these pupils have no ordinary school run.

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For those who live in the Himalaya,

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every day is extraordinary.

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This is the mountain range of the greatest extremes.

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And the weather harsher,

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mountains higher...

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..gorges deeper than anywhere else in the world.

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To survive here, the only option

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is to face these daily extremes head-on.

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Only then can you carve out a life...

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..on the roof of the world.

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The Himalayas stretch from Pakistan in the west

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through northern India, into Nepal.

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They climb to the highest point on Earth, Mount Everest...

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..before pushing on through Bhutan and ending in China.

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Here, in the province of Yunnan, at 2,500 metres above sea level,

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is a frozen forest.

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Hidden here is a remarkable animal.

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Rarely seen.

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The Yunnan snub-nosed monkey.

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The highest-living monkey in the world.

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They have no nose to get frostbitten.

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Pink lips help them stand out to other monkeys.

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Six-inch-long fur to protect from the cold.

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And they need it.

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Temperatures can drop to minus 28.

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They endure this hardship to have access to their food - lichen.

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In winter, the only thing that grows in this frozen world.

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To prevent freezing to death, they must huddle together for warmth.

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For that, they need family.

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This young three-year-old male is alone.

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He has no family.

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He was recently thrown out when his mother had a newborn.

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Come nightfall, the temperature will plummet.

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If he doesn't find others to huddle with he won't survive long.

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He has only one option.

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To be accepted into a gang of exiles.

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MONKEYS CHATTER AND CRY OUT

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Like him, they have all been thrown out of their family troupes.

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They fight to decide their rank.

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Huge canines, not for eating...

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..but weapons.

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And they're ruled over by a ferocious leader.

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If he's rejected, he'll have little chance of survival.

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His first attempt at being accepted has not started well.

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To the lower-ranking members

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he's seen as a threat to their position in the gang.

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MONKEYS CHITTER

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He's quickly seen off.

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He faces 12 hours on his own in a freezer.

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WIND HOWLS

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It's a very long, cold night.

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But clouds come in, insulating the land.

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They keep temperatures from dropping too low.

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It gives the young male a lifeline.

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At least for another day.

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If he's allowed to groom the dominant male

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he could secure a place for himself in the group.

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He spots his chance.

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The boss is on his own.

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He lets the young male clean his fur.

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It's a sign of acceptance in the group.

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The youngster's gamble has paid off and saved his life.

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He can now huddle with his surrogate family.

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A safeguard against the extreme cold of his Himalaya home.

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As harsh as the conditions at this altitude seem,

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this is just the beginning.

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The higher you climb in the Himalaya, the tougher it gets.

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They contain some of the harshest weather ever recorded.

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175mph winds.

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And minus 40 degrees.

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They are the highest peaks on the planet...

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..stretching almost nine kilometres high.

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Between these giants lie some of the most inaccessible

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valleys in the world.

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Completely isolated, it can take weeks of trekking to reach them.

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Astonishingly, people live here.

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The village of Kibber, in northern India.

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One of the most isolated villages in the Himalaya.

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In winter, snow and ice block the roads.

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It cuts the village off from the rest of the world.

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They must be completely self-sufficient.

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All they have to keep them alive are their livestock.

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But a mysterious beast is taking their animals.

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The villagers call it

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the Ghost of the Himalaya.

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MAN SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

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Everyone has their own tale to tell.

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Come evening, the villagers are forced to lock their livestock up

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in their own homes.

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SHEEP BLEAT

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Everyone is on edge.

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When night falls...

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..the creature may come into the village looking for food.

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COW LOWS

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HORSE WHINNIES

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Dawn, and villagers can breathe a sigh of relief.

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Their defences have held.

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But the mysterious creature is never far away,

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keeping an eye on its prey.

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Snow leopard.

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Mountain specialists.

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Thick fur to tackle the cold.

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Enlarged lungs for the thin air,

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and huge paws to spread their weight as they navigate the cliffs.

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They've no desire to be close to people.

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But in winter, the weather's so bad it pushes them down to the village.

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It's hard to turn down an easy meal.

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SHEEP BLEAT

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For this isolated community,

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each animal lost is the equivalent of two months' salary.

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Yet remarkably, they don't want the snow leopards gone.

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Here, the Buddhist philosophy of acceptance

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stretches beyond the village walls.

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HE SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE

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SHE SPEAKS IN HER OWN LANGUAGE

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With the help of local conservation groups,

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they've come up with a simple but ingenious plan.

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They have made their own local wildlife sanctuary.

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They've set aside areas where they won't graze their livestock.

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This provides food for wild blue sheep...

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..the natural prey of the snow leopards.

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This enterprising community

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has reduced the number of livestock lost...

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..whilst increasing the number of critically endangered snow leopards.

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Normally an elusive animal,

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Kibber is now a safe haven for one of the rarest big cats in the world.

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The mountain peaks surrounding Kibber stretch up for 6,000 metres.

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Clouds, heavy with rain, arriving on the southern slopes,

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cannot climb over this barrier.

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They are forced to dump their rain.

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THUNDER CLAPS

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The Indian monsoon.

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In just four months, 3,000 billion tonnes of rain falls.

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High in the mountains, the rivers swell, gouging deep valleys.

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In the River Ganges alone, 40,000 tonnes of water can rush past...

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..every second.

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With devastating consequences.

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In the foothills of Mount Machapuchare in Nepal,

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the water is so powerful

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it bores a hole into the mountain.

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Here, the rock is mainly limestone.

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It's easily eroded by the water.

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It creates a labyrinth of caves and tunnels under the mountain.

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Giant stalactites build up over tens of thousands of years.

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This water has created the only place in the Himalaya

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where nothing ever changes.

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Winter to summer, the temperature is a constant five degrees Celsius.

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Ideal for the most unexpected of Himalayan creatures.

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Greater horseshoe bats can only flourish in the mountains

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because of these caves.

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Down here, it never freezes.

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It never snows.

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There is no wind.

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These bats are perhaps the one Himalayan animal

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that deals with extremes by avoiding them.

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A perfect sanctuary...

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..created by the water...

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from the monsoon.

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But 3,000 metres up on the northern slopes, there is no water at all.

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This is the driest place in the Himalaya.

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The Indian province of Ladakh.

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The rain clouds struggle to reach here,

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kept out by the towering peaks.

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The result, a high-altitude desert.

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For centuries, the famous trading path, the Silk Route,

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ran through this hostile desert as traders went from Persia to China.

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To transport goods, they depended on a mountain specialist.

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The Bactrian camel.

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Coming from Mongolia, it's toughened,

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splayed feet can tackle both sand dunes and rocky passes.

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Thick hair can grow a foot long for winters in the deep freeze.

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And Bactrians have not just one but two humps...

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..each holding up to 45kg of fat for food storage.

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They're so well adapted they became the ultimate mode of transport

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over these Himalayan paths...

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..and are even sometimes used today.

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There are some travellers in the Himalaya...

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..who wish to go even deeper into the mountains.

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Down ancient routes even more remote.

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3,500 metre up.

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Lama Dorje is a Tibetan monk.

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He travelled high into the Himalaya in search of solitude.

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He was guided here by ancient scriptures.

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CHANTING

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HE SPEAKS HIS OWN LANGUAGE

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Behind this door is a cave in the side of the mountain.

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For eight months, this was Dorje's home...

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..with only candles for heat.

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Totally alone, he spent every waking hour meditating.

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Every month, food was left at a drop-off down the mountain.

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He saw no-one.

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Dorje used the solitude of this extreme land

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on his quest for enlightenment.

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Tibetan Buddhism was born in the Himalaya.

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In the Phyang Monastery in India,

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rituals rooted in the mountains go back thousands of years.

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At the centre of one ritual is the very rock of the Himalaya.

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This is calcite...

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..forged deep under the mountain millions of years ago.

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Tibetan monks collect it from the mountain slopes.

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It is crushed into a fine sand...

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CHANTING AND RINGING OF BELLS

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..and mixed with coloured dyes.

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Grain by grain, the ground up mountain rock is precisely placed.

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The monks go into a state of meditation.

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It has taken over 60 hours of work, and a lifetime, to master the craft.

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The humble calcite has been transformed into a masterpiece,

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called a sand mandala.

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For Buddhists, it is a symbolic representation

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of the entire universe.

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The centre running right through the Himalaya.

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Climb higher...

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..and at 4,000 metres, on the slopes of this mountain, is a burrow.

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Inside is a tiny animal...

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..who's about to take his first-ever glimpse

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of the outside world.

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A baby Himalayan marmot.

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HE SNIFFS

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He has one big task ahead.

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He has to triple his weight in the next 12 weeks.

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When winter arrives, he will hibernate for eight months,

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and for that he needs to build big fat reserves.

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He has a lot of grass to eat.

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But there's competition.

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There are 50 other marmots living here,

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all facing the same challenge.

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On this, his first day outside...

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..he must stake his claim.

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THEY SQUEAK

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The fight starts with a ritual pose.

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Then the rule book gets thrown out.

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Securing a patch of grass is just the first challenge.

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Up here, marmots are on everyone's menu.

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Tibetan fox...

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..Himalayan brown bear...

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..and golden eagles...

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..all feed on marmots.

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It's hard to concentrate on eating...

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..when you might get eaten yourself.

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DISTANT GRUNTING MARMOT SQUEAKS

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When the alarm is sounded, there's only one course of action.

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This time, it's a herd of Himalayan yak.

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They may be intimidating in size...

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..but they're not here for the marmots.

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The meadow has become the staging ground for the yaks' annual rut.

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Males compete for the right to mate.

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One-tonne bulls fighting near you...

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..is not good for the digestion.

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Luckily, the yaks quickly exhaust themselves.

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And, in fact, their visit actually helps the marmots.

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They provide plenty of fertiliser for the grass.

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But also, their grazing creates lots of new grass shoots,

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rich in energy and protein.

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Far more nutritious for a growing marmot.

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He can now start to pile on those precious calories.

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It's given him a fighting chance to be ready for winter

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and his eight-month hibernation.

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4,200 metres up, to the west of the marmot meadows,

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is the most barren and unforgiving lands shaped by the Himalaya.

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The Tibetan Plateau.

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It runs for 1,800 miles along the north of the Himalaya.

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Incredibly vast, larger than Western Europe.

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Frost for six months of the year.

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Dry as a desert.

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But creatures do make their home here.

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The chiru.

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With the finest and warmest wool in the animal kingdom...

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..it copes with minus 40 degree winters.

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The kiang, an ancient relative of the horse...

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..it can survive without drinking for weeks.

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But the strangest creature of them all...

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..is the Tibetan hot-spring snake.

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The highest living snake in the world.

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Here, on the Tibetan plateau, there are thermal pools

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heated by magma deep under the Earth.

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Snakes are cold-blooded.

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So what better way to warm up than to sit in a hot tub?

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Living and feeding in these pools sounds like paradise.

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But outside these springs, the snakes are surrounded

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by hundreds of miles of frozen wilderness.

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Bathing in these heated pools isn't a choice.

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It's the only way to stay alive.

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A haven, but also a prison they can never leave.

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On the very edge of the Tibetan Plateau,

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there is an enormous mountain, so high it towers over all others.

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It sits on the border between Nepal and China.

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The route to its summit is guarded by an ever-changing river of ice.

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The Tibetans know it as Chomolungma, meaning "mother of the universe".

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To most, it is known as Mount Everest.

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The tallest mountain on the planet.

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Today, an elite group of athletes are gathering on its slopes

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to take part in the highest race in the world.

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The Everest Marathon.

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For Mira Rai, a Nepalese runner, this is her first attempt.

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SHE SPEAKS HER OWN LANGUAGE

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The start of the race is at 5,200 metres, by Everest base camp.

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It takes ten days of trekking just to get here.

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But that's not the biggest problem in this extreme place.

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As altitude increases, the air pressure drops.

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Here, each breath contains only half the amount of oxygen

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than at sea level.

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Mira and the other athletes are about to starve themselves of oxygen

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whilst running down the side of the tallest mountain in the world.

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Here, even while resting, the body is suffering.

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There's headache and nausea, blood vessels start to burst,

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the pulse rate doubles.

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And that's before they even start running.

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The advice doctors give is not to push your body.

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START GUN FIRES

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CHEERING

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Immediately, the athletes feel the full force of this altitude.

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Normally, this level of oxygen starvation happens when someone

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is critically ill.

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The mountain's tough terrain force the pack to quickly thin out.

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HEAVY BREATHING

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Mira takes an early lead.

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Like all who live high in the Himalaya...

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..her body has transformed to tackle the conditions.

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She has up to 50% more haemoglobin in her blood...

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..allowing her to carry more oxygen.

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Boosting her ability to keep running.

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All those who live in these mountains know that

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one wrong step could end in disaster.

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In this race, the first seven runners are all Nepalese.

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Even though some are local farmers

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competing against highly trained Western athletes.

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Many Himalayan people have genetic adaptations allowing them

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to cope with critically low oxygen levels.

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Mira, too, was born in the mountains.

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She is a natural master of this world.

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The end is in sight.

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Namche Bazaar, the highest town in the region.

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CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

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She's not only made it, but won the women's race.

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Ascending past Everest base camp, the mountain becomes

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a desolate world.

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It seems like an impossible place for anything to live.

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But there is life.

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At 6,700 metres lives the highest animal in the world.

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The Himalayan jumping spider.

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At just four millimetres long, he may be tiny...

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..but he has gigantic superpowers.

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Eight eyes that give him 360-degree vision,

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his body can be super-cooled to minus 20.

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And tiny hooks on his feet help grip

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as he leaps from rock to rock.

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He can jump...

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..50 times his body length.

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But his greatest asset is his size.

0:44:540:44:58

Being so small, he hugs close to the rocks.

0:45:010:45:04

They are charged with the sun's heat,

0:45:070:45:09

creating a one-inch layer of warm air.

0:45:090:45:12

The perfect microclimate

0:45:120:45:15

for a tiny hero.

0:45:150:45:17

But he's missing just one crucial thing.

0:45:250:45:28

Up here, there's nothing for him to eat.

0:45:300:45:33

He relies entirely on stray insects blown up on the wind.

0:45:380:45:43

Little to eat, and terrible weather.

0:45:510:45:54

It seems a strange place to make a home.

0:45:560:45:58

But there's a good reason.

0:46:010:46:03

As nothing else can live up here,

0:46:050:46:08

there is nothing to eat him.

0:46:080:46:10

He might be tiny,

0:46:140:46:16

but up here on Everest he's the top of the food chain.

0:46:160:46:21

Above the spider, at 8,000 metres,

0:46:340:46:37

there is a realm where nothing can live.

0:46:370:46:40

Climbers call it the Death Zone.

0:46:480:46:50

The only living things that can climb this high are humans,

0:46:550:47:00

aided by modern technology.

0:47:000:47:02

Past this point, the oxygen levels drop so low...

0:47:050:47:09

..the body starts to die.

0:47:110:47:12

Battling relentless exhaustion...

0:47:190:47:21

..the climbers summon their last piece of courage...

0:47:250:47:28

..and get their prize.

0:47:310:47:32

Woo!

0:47:400:47:42

To stand at 8,848 metres,

0:47:440:47:50

the highest point on the planet.

0:47:500:47:53

But bound by the mountain's extreme conditions,

0:47:570:48:00

they can only remain here for 15 minutes.

0:48:000:48:03

For many, the climbing of Everest is their greatest achievement.

0:48:210:48:27

But for those that live here,

0:48:300:48:32

there is perhaps an even greater achievement.

0:48:320:48:36

To live amongst these mountains and to face their extremes

0:48:380:48:41

every single day.

0:48:410:48:44

To do that is to face a world of constant challenge...

0:48:450:48:50

where every day you must find the resolve

0:48:500:48:54

to start all over again.

0:48:540:48:58

Sometimes, in making the Mountain series,

0:49:230:49:26

the film crew was most surprised by how mountains

0:49:260:49:30

affect the people they met.

0:49:300:49:31

Filming Mira Rai, the marathon runner...

0:49:340:49:37

..showed more than anything the impact mountain life can have.

0:49:380:49:42

It quickly becomes clear how well-adapted Mira is to

0:49:460:49:50

the extreme altitude during the walk in to the start

0:49:500:49:53

of the marathon race.

0:49:530:49:55

It's a ten-day trek to Everest base camp.

0:49:570:49:59

As they climb higher, in every breath there is less oxygen.

0:50:030:50:07

By 4,000 metres, there's already a third less than at sea level.

0:50:080:50:14

OK, this altitude...

0:50:140:50:16

You take two steps and you're like, "Whoa!"

0:50:160:50:19

I'm very tired. Very out of breath.

0:50:190:50:22

I've kind of lost track of how many days it's taken us to get this far.

0:50:240:50:28

And I notice that Mira is not out of breath.

0:50:280:50:31

SHE LAUGHS

0:50:310:50:32

Oh, my God.

0:50:350:50:37

Mira has 50% more haemoglobin in her blood, so she feels fine.

0:50:370:50:43

She's even got the energy to make her own film.

0:50:430:50:46

-Me?

-Yeah.

-I feel very tired.

0:50:530:50:55

-Really?

-Yeah.

0:50:550:50:57

-Yeah?

-Yes.

-Do you like going uphill?

0:51:020:51:05

Why?!

0:51:090:51:10

Without any roads in these mountains,

0:51:130:51:15

everything has to be moved by either pack animal

0:51:150:51:19

or by hand.

0:51:190:51:20

The 300 kilos of BBC equipment is carried up by six yaks.

0:51:220:51:27

Here's the rest of our camera kit.

0:51:310:51:33

Luckily, we don't have to carry this stuff.

0:51:330:51:35

Do you think it's OK to hold some people once this lot comes through?

0:51:360:51:40

Just hold them there, that would be great. This is getting heavy.

0:51:400:51:43

Good.

0:51:510:51:53

But keeping up with Mira on her daily training is tough.

0:51:550:51:59

HEAVY BREATHING

0:51:590:52:02

Each day, the crew's bodies make more and more red blood cells,

0:52:060:52:10

slowly enabling them to acclimatise.

0:52:100:52:12

Mira is always a step ahead.

0:52:130:52:16

Oh...!

0:52:170:52:18

The secret to Mira's sporting success lies in her upbringing.

0:52:220:52:27

She was born and bred in the mountains

0:52:270:52:30

and her ancestors have lived at high altitude for at least 3,000 years.

0:52:300:52:35

Her family home is a village in eastern Nepal.

0:52:370:52:40

There's no electricity or running water

0:52:470:52:50

and it's a day's trek to the nearest shop.

0:52:500:52:53

It's a life of hard, physical labour.

0:52:540:52:57

To collect water, the community must climb down to a spring...

0:53:000:53:03

..400 metres down the mountain.

0:53:050:53:07

Mira's been doing it since she was just five years old.

0:53:090:53:12

Living at altitude fine-tunes the body, making wider arteries,

0:53:320:53:37

more capillaries and bigger lungs.

0:53:370:53:40

But mountain life was also her biggest obstacle.

0:53:440:53:47

Like many women in rural Nepal, she was destined to a life of housework.

0:53:520:53:57

But her mother dreamed of a better future for her daughter.

0:54:200:54:23

Aged 14, Mira left home looking for adventure.

0:54:380:54:42

She ended up in the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu.

0:54:470:54:50

It was here, in a forest on the edge of the city,

0:55:060:55:10

that she entered her first-ever race.

0:55:100:55:12

50km long.

0:55:140:55:16

She'd never run such a distance before in her life.

0:55:160:55:19

But she didn't just complete the race, she won it.

0:55:390:55:42

From that day on, Mira went on to win race after race across Nepal.

0:55:440:55:49

There is just one race she has yet to attempt...

0:55:500:55:53

..the Everest Marathon.

0:55:550:55:56

And the exhausted film crew has finally

0:55:580:56:00

reached the start to film it.

0:56:000:56:02

-And you ready, Mira?

-Yes, I'm ready.

0:56:120:56:15

-Good luck, Mira.

-Oh, yes, thank you.

0:56:260:56:28

START GUN FIRES

0:56:360:56:38

CHEERING

0:56:380:56:40

In just a few years,

0:56:410:56:43

Mira has gone from a tough life in her remote mountain home

0:56:430:56:47

to the biggest sports star in Nepal.

0:56:470:56:50

Winning every race there is in the country.

0:56:540:56:56

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:56:560:56:58

Now she also trains children from other mountain villages...

0:57:080:57:12

..helping them to become athletes.

0:57:140:57:16

Since Mira started,

0:57:390:57:40

the number of girls signing up to racing equals that of boys,

0:57:400:57:45

for the first time.

0:57:450:57:47

For those born in these mountains...

0:57:490:57:51

..there are many obstacles in life.

0:57:530:57:55

But they are also the perfect training grounds for success.

0:57:570:58:02

Next time, the longest mountain range on the planet

0:58:070:58:12

is full of extraordinary hidden worlds

0:58:120:58:16

and even more extraordinary animals, with the most surprising lives.

0:58:160:58:22

The Andes.

0:58:230:58:24

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