Frozen Planet

The polar regions are more hostile to life than any other part of the Earth.

Human beings have little natural protection against the cold,

so why, for thousands of years,

have we endured the hardships that come from living here?

And what keeps us coming back today,

to the farthest extremes of our planet?

Winter in the most northerly town on Earth, Longyearbyen.

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

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

sheds any light into the darkness.

This town was built here in Svalbard,

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

The Arctic is rich in coal, oil and minerals.

In Siberia, the Russian Arctic, the mineral

wealth has given rise to large cities.

This is Norilsk, the coldest city on Earth.

Temperatures regularly drop to below minus 50 degrees Centigrade.

Fuel freezes in the tanks of the trucks, and

has to be melted in a rather alarming way.

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

The ice must be cut away from their hulls

because steel becomes brittle and vulnerable to the thickening ice.

Like all Arctic cities, Norilsk depends on a

power plant which heats everybody's home.

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

Even at air temperatures of minus 50, the

Norilsk Walrus Club come here every day.

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

but when the water is a degree above freezing,

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

Today's Arctic city dwellers can lead an

almost normal existence thanks to technology.

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

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

Most of the Arctic remains empty of human beings.

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

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

Human beings first ventured onto the great plains of Siberia,

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

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

as those first Arctic pioneers.

They are reindeer people.

Reindeer are one of few animals that can endure these bitterly cold conditions,

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

Nobody has ever totally tamed reindeer,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Outside is one big deep-freeze.

Survival is only possible because of reindeer fur.

It makes wonderfully warm clothing,

though small children still have to be sewn into

their clothes to prevent instant frostbite.

The Dolgan even use reindeer fur to insulate their huts.

This is living at its most communal.

Good relations with the in-laws are essential.

Reindeer are so valuable that the people

only eat them if they have no other choice.

Their favourite food is raw fish from the frozen rivers.

Every week or so, these families have to travel

to find new feeding grounds for their herds.

First, they round up their strongest animals with lassoes,

a skill that their ancestors brought with

them when they came north from Central Asia.

And then, literally, they move house.

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

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

It was the herds of reindeer, wandering over the lands of the Arctic,

that brought the first Dolgan here.

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

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

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

Pasha leads a group of Inuit men in Chukotka,

the North Eastern corner of Russia.

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

fighting their way through a dangerous maze.

These hundred tonne ice floes could crush their small boats like eggshells.

The men have big families, and this is the only way they have of feeding them.

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

An animal that is bigger than many Arctic whales.

A two tonne seal with formidable tusks.

A walrus.

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

An angry walrus could easily overturn the boats.

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

and floats attached to it prevent the animal from diving.

Pasha wants to kill quickly with a single clean shot.

The hunters are exhausted after a long day,

but they still have a lot more work to do.

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

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

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

Summer is almost here.

This far north, the seasons change fast,

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

The transformation from winter to summer is so dramatic

that it dominates the lives of all who live here.

The ice around the coast has almost disappeared,

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

They set off on another search for food.

Their destination is an island in the bay.

Their walrus skin boat is an ancient design,

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

THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN

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

but one of them will be taking very serious risks.

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

He will trust his life to a length of old

nylon rope and the strength of his friends.

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

and Kolya is after their eggs.

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

Kolya is tough but his stress is obvious.

HE SHOUTS IN RUSSIAN

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

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

Stop!

This mission will produce no more than about 50 eggs,

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

Over the years, many men have fallen to their deaths collecting seabird eggs.

This is truly dangerous work.

These Arctic peoples can't grow crops.

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

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

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

The change of season has transformed the Arctic's coastline

and inland, the difference is just as extreme.

July temperatures on the tundra can be

surprisingly high, over 30 degrees centigrade.

Reindeer now move not just to find fresh pasture,

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

To keep their animals healthy, the local herders are driving them to the sea.

The cooler conditions on the coast bring relief to the herds

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

Pasha and his hunters live close by.

They've had word of the herders' arrival.

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

fat-rich walrus meat that's been fermenting

in the skin bags for two months.

Today will see an exchange that has taken place every summer for centuries.

The herders barter reindeer skins for walrus meat.

Pooling their resources has helped these communities to survive for so long.

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

Summer brings a brief chance for isolated peoples to meet.

This is an opportunity to exchange news, arrange weddings,

and tell the latest jokes.

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

By August, the summer is over.

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

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

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

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

This is Greenland, a territory of Denmark now

known to be rich in oil and precious metals.

This sled team is part of the Danish Special Forces.

They're on one of the world's toughest journeys, a 2,000 mile patrol

to maintain Denmark's claim to this valuable wilderness.

But the patrol's mission is only possible with

the help of man's oldest Arctic companion.

Rasmus and Roland have spent the summer months training

and getting to know their team of Greenland huskies.

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

This is Roger and Armstrong,

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

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

which will keep on running all through the bitter cold of the winter.

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

The most intelligent dogs always lead,

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

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

the only people in an empty wilderness that is

larger than France and Great Britain combined.

Conditions here are too extreme for current mining technology,

but some day, ways will be found of digging out the huge mineral treasures

that lie hidden within these mountains.

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

But it's not the prospect of getting rich

that makes men sign up for this patrol,

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

The team travel over the ice for six

months, covering up to 40 miles in a day.

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

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

Rasmus and Roland have a nice cosy tent.

They have a few modern conveniences, including a radio,

with which they report their position back to headquarters in Denmark

and catch up on the latest news.

Right now it's the section of money,

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

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

If you can cope with the conditions, then