Life Below Zero

Rocking and rolling out there.

Hell of a wake-up call.

Looks like it's just basically moving right now

in the main channel.

Let's just hope that it doesn't turn into, oh .

Coming up fast.

That's a big wall ice coming this way.

Well, I'm glad this didn't happen

in the middle of the night.

That's one good thing.

There's nothing worse than waking up to putting

on your rubber boots and running around in the dark.

I just hope it all keeps moving.

It's when it stops moving that I got problems.

Breakup is a symphony of sounds out here.

You can hear the water rushing.

The slushing of the ice.

You can hear big chunks of ice kinda thumping and banging

and booming and popping.

First hour here is really gonna tell the tale on what's gonna

happen here.

So right now, the river level's actually higher than I am.

It's got a big crown in it.

Keep on pushing, boy, keep on pushing.

Yes, indeed.

She's gonna come up!

Oh, crunch!

Andy Bassich is in the midst of one of the Arctic's

most powerful and fearsome events,

the spring breakup of the Yukon River.

Massive flowing ice and rising waters could bring severe

flooding and destroy Andy's livelihood in a heartbeat.

Andy has done his best to prepare his property

and sled dogs for disaster.

But his fate rests solely in the hands of Mother Nature,

and for now, he can only hope that breakup doesn't demolish

his camp.

Slippery stuff.

Keep on moving, buddy, keep on moving.

It's slowing down a little bit.

Oh, .

Yeah, buddy. I'm gonna get trapped here if I don't get

outta here in a heartbeat.

Not good.

I'm feeling pretty nervous right now.

It's coming in pretty fast.

I mean, the water just came up two and a half feet in about

five minutes.

Try and gain another higher vantage point.

It stopped.

Everything stopped.

That's a big wall ice out there.

Uh, my heart's starting to beat pretty good right now.

This kinda reminds me of 2009.

Well, 2009 flood was one of those events in life

that you just never forget.

You know, to have pretty much everything you'd worked for

for 20 years taken away from you in 24 hours, it's pretty hard.

There's nothing easy about carving a life out in the middle

of a wilderness environment.

Throw on top of that the possibility of losing your life,

and it's a pretty powerful experience.

If the ice doesn't come in, I'll be all right.

If the ice comes in, then it's all a big loss here

'cause there won't be anything left of this place.

It's like the whole pace of nature just picks up

in the springtime.

Everything speeds up, gets into high gear.

Wow, what a beautiful day. Springtime.

Things are starting to thaw out. Look at this water.

Don't have to chisel a hole through the ice anymore.

This whole lake could all be open water

in just a few more days.

Ooh, that water is cold.

Ice water.

Things are thawing out, warming up.

It's up in the 40s today.

Things are changing, it's springtime.

Just a couple weeks ago, there was snow all over this yard.

Breakup, it's one of the best times of the year.

I'm gonna take a walk, head over to the outlet,

see if that's flowing yet.

And if that's flowing, it's possible that fish are coming

back up the outlet, and also ducks will be coming in.

I can go over to the outlet, walk down it for a ways

and just take a look. See what's going on out there.

Hey, look at this.

Bald eagle sitting on its nest over there.

She's already got eggs.

It's always good to see the eagles come back because

these eagles, they've been here longer than I have.

When I first came to this lake 16 years ago,

this same pair of bald eagles was nesting here.

And every year, they come back.

There she goes.

There's nothing like having bald eagles nesting in your backyard.

Every summer, I watch a little eagle or two grow up right here.

The ground, it's all bare now.

The last time I was out walking, there was a lot more snow

and I can get to all kinds of things that were buried

under the snow before. Look at this juniper right here.

Sometimes I like to eat one or two of these.

They're a real strong flavor.

It's not a berry you eat like fruit,

but I like to just suck on one or two of 'em.

It's kind of a strong flavor, but that's stuff you can't get

to in the wintertime.

You can smell the earth again.

You can't smell that in the winter, everything's sterile,

it's all covered in snow and ice up here.

Okay, so this is the outlet.

Just a couple weeks ago, this was all covered with ice here,

and now it's flowing out of the lake.

Hey, I think I see a fish.

There's a species of fish, Arctic grayling,

that I don't have up here most of the year.

I've never caught one in the lake, but in the springtime,

they migrate up this creek.

And they come right up just to the edge of the lake.

They're really good eating.

It's just a narrow window of opportunity.

If I wanna eat grayling, this is the time to get one.

For grayling, just a little spinner like this usually

does the trick.

Let's see if there's anything in there that wants a bite.

No, nothing. Didn't get a bite.

I'll keep going downstream, there's some bigger holes,

easier places to fish.

I'm gonna keep moving.

We have ideas of what we'd like to do,

and then we bend and shift with them.

Because that's the best way you can survive up here.

Wow, it looks a lot better than it was earlier.

Soaking wet all right, but the rain has passed.

The river is coming up,

and it's gonna start to flood pretty soon.

The river's not gonna get us today or tomorrow

or the next day, but it is gonna come up eventually.

I wanna go get a few more caribou so I don't have to live

on birds this summer.

There should be some down here in the lagoon.

In Kiwalik, Chip and Agnes Hailstone are preparing

for the spring caribou hunt, which provides a key food source

for the family this time of year.

But melting snow and rising waters in the region have made

conditions dangerous for traveling.

We're gonna go over towards Mud Creek

so we only have to cross the river once.

If we try to go down any other place,

we have to cross the river at least twice.

And that hill is pretty barren to be driving over,

and especially over with a load.

We're not gonna go past Willow Mountain,

we're gonna stay on the lagoon Minnehaha area.

There should be lots of caribou up there.

If you hear us coming or something,

you make sure there's a thermos of something hot,

and take some wood in there and I wanna be able to have a hot

place to come back to because it was not only raining,

but it's very wet, and the likeliness of us coming back wet

and tired is a lot.

Oh, yeah, you got this. Yip! Yip!

We wanna go get caribou bulls.

The bulls are lean from a long winter,

and the females are really wide with babies and pregnant,

and we don't want them anyway.

And we don't end up separating cows from their calves

and then having a calf that's gonna starve to death.

So we just let them go right now.

There's a time to hunt a cow,

but not when her calf is needing her.

That would be in the spring.

Right now, it's bull season.

Waah!

Whoo!

Whoo!

That lead one up there is a male.

It looks fat.