Life Below Zero

There's the Kavik airstrip.

All right, there's home.

Roughly four months since the date of the injury.

Boneheaded myself on the snow machine.

Broke the collarbone, bad.

I've had some surgeries,

I'm still carrying a bunch of stitches,

but the doctor said, if you behave yourself,

I will trust you to go home.

It all looks, uh, slightly different than when I left.

It looks like it might be,

might not be quite as nice out at Kavik.

Why don't we just go down here?

Yeah.

This has been almost four months since anybody has set foot

in Kavik.

I don't know what I'm walking into.

Sue Aikens has spent the past four months

in Fairbanks recovering from surgery.

As Kavik River Camp's sole proprietor,

her absence has left the site uninhabited and unprotected.

I have to visually check everything.

Behind any corner, any trailer,

it's the things you don't see that bite ya in the ass.

I got injured, in the winter,

and it was very cold and very snowy in winter.

I've been down through the flooding.

Four months have thawed out.

It has gone through the awakening of the bears.

There's 83 bears tagged within so many miles a camp

that can walk through.

I can't go in unarmed in case something decides

to take me out of the equation.

You got a scratch here.

That's been torn.

How do you know it's new? Well, it's a different color.

It's bright yellow.

All the other wood is weathered, this is yellowish.

Can't say if it's a bear, can't say what it is.

It's just that, I don't see where the building isn't,

it has been, uh, the integrity has not been compromised

on the building.

But you can see something pushed.

Okay, I don't see any breaks in the material.

Time to go in the Twinkie.

Dark in here, man.

The door back here is still shut.

So, that's good.

All's I'm looking for, did something open a door?

Is there a problem?

I don't care if the bears come scratch, scratch, scratch,

I care about open, open, open.

So, everything's looking pretty good.

And uh, silly as it seems, this right here.

The coffee grounds that I spread everywhere.

What it does, a bear's nose is so sensitive,

that mild acidic scent is just like an outhouse.

They don't like it.

It is a miracle that I was able to be gone and no bears came in.

They scratched and they didn't destroy it.

Um, that is, it's pretty amazing.

I feel proud of myself for that.

I'm one lucky bitch in camp.

Nothing ate it.

But I got a lotta cleanup to do.

To us, this is living rich.

This is adventure and time with my family.

Ain't no amount of money can ever get to hold that.

My name is Agnes Hailstone.

I am married to Edward Hailstone.

We call him Chip.

I'm Edward Hailstone.

I'm a subsistence hunter.

I'm a subsistence gatherer, fisherman.

I'm married to Agnes, and I have five daughters.

I try to get 'em all involved in everything from caribou,

to seals in the ocean, to fish in the river,

to birds flying overhead, to digging stuff out of the ground.

We gotta be kind of nomadic, and change our camps,

and go where the animals are.

Or we have to go where the fish are,

or we have to go where the plants are blooming,

or the berries.

And sometimes we have to go where the weather tells us to.

So, we're spending the spring here in the Kiwalik.

'Cause this, to us, is the place to be.

Hi, Dad.

Hello, Bun.

Warm temperatures and long days allow the Hailstones

to live off the land in Kiwalik.

They'll spend the summer harvesting the area's vast

resources, in order to survive the harsh winter ahead.

We've got some important things to do.

We're gonna have to set up the tents,

we're gonna have to set up our kitchen.

Gonna have to go get some willows and grasses

to make our beds.

Just generally set things up the way we like 'em

in the summertime and be here 'til August.

Okay, we got to start moving before the weather

come.

Towards evening it's gonna get cold and start getting moist.

One, two, three, let's go.

Altogether.

Should I push?

Uh, up to you.

Well, your back will get tired.

I need like, uh.

You need, you could. Hold onto the rope.

Yep, hold onto a rope babe,

that's all you gotta do.

Yep.

It's bulky is what it is, okay?

Okay, stop you guys.

Oh wait, dad, you see that?

Oh, those are Caribou!

, look at that. We missed 'em!

It's a pretty tough sell.

I think we probably should just stick with the job we're doing

and hope they come a little closer.

Let's keep going, one, two, three, go.

If I wanted to go after a caribou,

that would be a considerable effort and a considerable

amount of time.

And to go up there, to run something down,

carry it back here would be exhausting.

And then, to have to put up the teepee and the tent,

that'd be even worse. So,

the whole idea is that once we got the teepee and the tent up,

then I can run off.

I can go get firewood, I can go chase caribou.

I can go do all that stuff.

Keep going for it, love.

Oh, it's far away.

Be careful, it's deep over here on this side.

Ah! I warned ya.

Getting our tents up is the number one thing.

If we have our tents up, then we're able to operate, stay dry.

Without a good place to stay, ain't no fun.

There we go right there.

Okay.

Well, it's gonna rain you guys.

Let's get this up and let's make a place to cover our stuffs.

Okay.

Underneath, Carol, grab a pole.

Pull towards Mom.

I know we gotta, we gotta fix 'em.

It's important to have shelter, as fast as you can.

We've got rain coming.

And we have tons of work to do.

But what we do is we cover our bases first,

so that if anything happens, we got a home.

Pretty good job, girls.

Look like you all be, secure.

It's gonna hold for the rest of the summer.

So, we're gonna just, uh,

knock off for the night and we'll start out in the morning

and see what we come up with.

I can't live this lifestyle

if I don't work my butt off, to make it possible.

My name is Jessie Holmes.

And when I was young, things just weren't working for me.

I was a real rambler.

I couldn't stay still, I couldn't stay in one town.

I got myself into a lot of trouble, and

I realized I needed to turn that around quick and go back

to the genuine thing in me that was just like calling for like

quiet, peace, and wilderness.

So, like, I directed my life, to correcting that and going back

to what I knew I needed and wanted.

And, you know, now, I just strive to live

a simple lifestyle here on the Nenana River.

Running my dogs, trapping, hunting, fishing.

Doing whatever it takes to maintain this lifestyle.

I'm a lucky man to live the way I do,

and I thank God for it every day.

Polar Bear.

You ready for me to cook for you?

I'm gonna cook up some dog food for my dogs.

I'm gonna add a bunch of meat in here.

Now, I'll throw a couple of this fish in here,

just to give that good fish flavor.

This is the last of the dry fish that I had.

This was put away last fall.

Running out and, uh, it's time to start catching

some more fish.

For Jessie Holmes,

getting his fish wheel in the water for the chum salmon run

is crucial.

If he's not able to catch fish,

he won't be able to feed his dog team.

It's really critical that I do this,

because I can't afford to, like, feed these dogs

through the winter.

I have almost, close to 40 dogs.

If you were feeding them a dry commercial kibble,

it'd be, like, you know, 45, 50 dollars a day.

I'm gonna close this lid tight.

It'll all steam and cook together and make a nice meal

for the dogs.