Jessi: Some of the best days I've ever had in my
entire life are out here.
There is an amazing gorgeousness,
and it's delicate.
It looks like something out of a fairytale.
But things do happen out here.
Sometimes you can see the absolute viciousness
of the cosna.
It is an unmovable force and you have got to get out
of the way to survive out here.
Chris: I'm cut. I'm cut.
I'm flayed open, man.
I need evac. I'm in bad shape.
Jessi: I'm here. Chris: I'm close. Jessi: I see you.
Chris: Don't look at the wound, jess.
It's to the bone.
It ain't gonna stop unless we go full tourniquet.
Pain is weakness leaving the body.
I can handle anything.
Oh, it's so close.
Have to focus on tomorrow.
I'm just gonna pass out for a minute.
Crew: No. Do not pass out for a minute, chris.
Stay with me.
♪ ♪
chris: There we go. Look at this damn tire.
Hopefully, it holds.
It is what it is.
To go get firewood this year,
we're gonna have to go farther than we've ever gone before.
The old woodyard, it's just decimated.
We've taken all the dead standing out of it.
Right now, it's dipping down into freezing
temperatures at night.
Last year we started running out of wood.
So, this year, we feel like we really need to start early.
I don't just want to survive and grit my teeth
through the winter.
Jessi: Hey, love. Chris: Hey, how's it going?
Jessi: Got everything set up to go find some wood?
Chris: Yeah, the back tire is leaking really bad.
Jessi: This one?
Chris: I put some duct tape on it to slow the leak down.
Ooh, my brake just disconnected.
Jessi: I knew that.
Chris: Let me get that fixed.
Jessi: Have your gun?
Chris: I got the bear gun.
Jessi: Um, I figured you should probably take a walkie
with you, so if you get into anything or you need help.
Chris: Once an hour, you'll hear from me just so you know
that I'm safe and let me show you where I'm
going on the map.
This is where our old woodyard was,
is right in here,
and we haven't been past the swamp.
But I think if we cut up into the trees,
it looks really wooded up in here.
Jessi: Okay, so you're gonna head up there and
check it out.
Chris: Yup.
Jessi: And then, you're headed back.
Chris: If worse comes to worse.
If I'm hurt, or if, um,
you don't hear from me in a few hours,
if it's just totally silent, please come for me.
Jessi: Okay.
Chris: Okay? Oh, man. That's a long ways out there.
All right, love.
Give me a hug?
And I'll see you in a couple hours.
Jessi: I hope you find a lot, abundance of wood and
you have an easy trip.
Chris: Me too. Jessi: Love you. Chris: Love you.
Kaleb: Out here, preparation is a lot different than what
most people perceive.
We look forward to what needs to be accomplished
for the next season.
It's hard in the winter.
You don't want problems to arise.
Brittany: Why are we bringing both tarps?
Kaleb: This goes under the tent,
so the floor of the tent don't get wet at night,
and the other one is to put stuff over.
Elovie: Dad, what we doing?
Kaleb: We are going to my wood lot,
where we're gonna get a bunch of wood ready for
next winter when I can go there on a snow machine,
and we're gonna camp overnight.
Isn't that fun?
Elovie: Yeah.
Brittany: We haven't gotten to go camping in a while
as a family.
Elovie: That will be so fun.
Kaleb: Let's get everything loaded up so we can go.
My wood lot is the outflow of a creek where there's
lots of spruce trees.
They're all fallen down and all of the limbs and stuff
freeze into the ground and it makes it difficult to pull the
wood out of the forest.
So, what we need to do is completely delimb the trees.
That way, when I come in with a snow machine in
the middle of winter, it's easy to pull them out.
Piper, load up.
Brittany: Good girl. Yeah.
Kaleb: Good girl.
All right, gilbert and ellie, both climb in there.
Being able to load my family into the air plane and
fly over glaciers, get to chat a little bit.
It's my happy place.
I love getting out and seeing what all the
world has to show.
Brittany: All righty, ready to go?
Kaleb: I am ready to go.
Elovie: Me too!
Brittany: I can't watch this part.
It always makes me so nervous.
Kaleb: Nothing to be nervous about.
Brittany: Really?
Kaleb: Yup.
Brittany: Like, I shouldn't be nervous about your
arm getting chopped off or something?
Brittany: But what if it did?
Kaleb: Mccarthy is an aviation community.
Over 50% of the residents here fly to some degree.
And as soon as I was big enough to fly one,
I was in one, and I just fell in love with it.
Brittany (over radio): Look at that glacier, ellie.
Isn't that amazing?
Glacier!
Kaleb: The access that airplanes provide is just unbeatable.
Brittany (over radio): Hang on. Good job.
Alex: Muscle power is my renewable resource I prefer,
because it's clean, it's reliable,
and even a dummy like me can use his body.
Alex: Sipsey. Hey, come here.
Come on, buddy. Let's go.
So today, I'm headed back down to my new plot of land because
my next big project is I need to build a new cabin.
My cabin here, it's pretty far from anything else.
Getting water and hauling these supplies up to my cabin
is a big problem.
So that's why I bought a plot of land that is half the
distance closer to the water.
It's also a flatter land.
I want to build a cabin that'll really be
nice to live in.
Narrator: Alex javor is taking his first steps to
build his dream cabin.
Alex: Come on, sipsey.
Narrator: But with winter looming,
he must work fast before snow and ice cover
the landscape making any progress impossible.
Alex: Here's my hunting cabin.
It's a shelter, but it's not a home.
It's not a permanent thing.
This is basically the spot I want to put my, uh, new cabin.
The problem is, here, there's no big trees.
I need big trees to build a cabin from.
I wanted to build a log cabin.
The bigger the log is,
the more insulation you have.
Too big and I can't handle it myself.
I need something, probably six to eight inches and I just
don't have that here.
But I found a place with lots of great cabin trees.
It's not very far away.
I just gotta figure out how I'm gonna get the logs here.
Yeah, there's a good cabin tree.
There's one. There's one.
These ones are not.
They're all big, they're tall, they're straight.
The major problem is this hill.
It's pretty steep.
I'll never carry a log by hand up it.
You know, I don't think the world's strongest man
could haul logs up this hill.
It's gonna weigh 1,000 pounds or more.
I'm gonna build, kind of, a zipline using a cable and
some ropes and some pulleys to haul logs from,
that I cut down there and get them up my land.
Some of these are good.
My first thing is I'm setting up an anchor up here.
Anchor is just basically tying it off to a couple trees.
That's good.
Pretty much everything I do out here I have to kind of
learn how to do on my own.
(metal clang)
it's not rocket science,
but you know it is my first time doing it.
I can't kind of just set things up willy-nilly.
I gotta make sure all my anchors are really solid.
As this all gets weighted down with significant weight,
it could become dangerous.
Okay. So, I got my two anchors set up.
I got my cable rolled out.
It's getting kind of dark, so I think it's enough
work for one day.
So, I'm gonna grab my gear and head home, rest up,
and get to work on step two tomorrow.
Johnny: Out here, I'm in charge of myself.
I'm essentially my own boss.
If something needs to get done,
it's up to me to do it.
The only person that's held accountable is myself.
Johnny: Hey, where are you going with my hammer, huh?
Come here. Thank you.
I appreciate your help out here.
This is my first winter in the arctic.
And I'm gonna be experiencing temperatures that
I've never seen before.
Windchill, it's known to get 60 even 70 below zero.
Narrator: Johnny rolfe recently moved to the
brooks range and built a cabin.
In order to survive his first winter,
johnny must ensure that his cabin is ready for the harsh
elements and possible predators when darkness and
freezing temperatures arrive.
Johnny: First order of business is to start making
the windows.
The window's important for me.
I'm north of the arctic circle.
That means I get true 24-hour periods of complete
darkness for weeks.
So any little light I can get from nautical twilight,
reflection off the snow is gonna help in my cabin.
This is polycarbonate.
It's a shatter-resistant material.
Putting a window in a cabin is basic,
but it doesn't mean it's easy.
I really only have one shot to make this work.
It's not a good feeling cutting a hole in the side of
your newly built cabin.
It's a terrible feeling.
But I gotta do it.
♪ ♪
(pounding)
awesome. That's a start.
See if I cut too much.
Great.
So, it looks like I played it pretty safe,
and I could take another shave off of this end,
with the chainsaw.
Oh, god!
That's why you gotta wear eye protection.
I hit the very end of a spike.
There's a, there's a spike that comes through from this
log down into this one.
A quarter inch of it is hanging down.
A chain caught it, and it threw my saw back.
Yeah, that, that chain could have easily hit that spike,
and that's how people get cuts in the face.
If I was to get thrown down on the ground and have a saw cut
my face open, there is, that's that.
That's me lying on the ground.
Nobody knows I'm out here.
Nobody knows where I'm at.
Nobody knows I'm hurt.
And time and time again where I'm shown how real life is out here.
Every day, there's some sort of reminder.
It's a... Whew, man.
Let's see how this sheet fits in here.
Oh, that's a really awesome fit.
That's great.
Just gotta take your time.
That's kind of what this lifestyle's all about for me.
It's a good feeling, to be able to do this with my own hands.
I feel self-reliant.
And that's my goal out here.
Oh, you want a hug real quick?
Oh, well, I'll give you a hug.
Come here. Give me a hug, huh.
You happy this window is done?
You scare all the bears out of the yard now?
Is that what you're happy about?
You're a good dog, aren't you, huh?
To have a warm, comfortable cabin is paramount for me and
my success out here.
So, first thing tomorrow morning,
I'm gonna get that floor put in,
so I can get that stove in there.
Kaleb: Piss poor planning makes piss poor results.
So we're gonna negate that and have great planning with great results.
Brittany: We got you guys some really cool things that are
going to be very helpful.
You get to carry them.
You have to walk slow and careful.
Your very own hatchets!
Elovie: Aww! Brittany: Look at that!
Elovie: Thank you! Brittany: You're welcome.
Kaleb: You guys have to walk with the sharp point facing down.
Narrator: The rowlands must prepare their wood lot before
freezing temperatures and dark winter hit.
To ensure the logs are retrievable once the river freezes,
they will limb and hoist fallen trees to prevent
them from getting frozen into the ground.
Kaleb: So, I think your job is gonna be to just start limbing everything.
I, personally, like limbing off the top of the chain
because then it doesn't blow sawdust chips in my face.
Brittany: Okay.
Kaleb: The chain is moving this way which makes the saw
want to kick back toward you, so you have to be real careful.
Brittany: One thing, when it comes to learning from my
husband is he shows you once and then he walks away.
And you either better have gotten it or you're going to
flounder and figure it out.
Kaleb: I grew up going to the firewood lot every year as a kid.
And, right now, it's fall, and I'm working on getting ready
for the winter season.
One of my biggest jobs in the wintertime is gathering firewood.
My job now is to prep that firewood to make it easier to
get it out of the woods.
Work smarter, not harder.
Brittany: Wow, gilbert, you're so strong.
Don't whack yourself in the eye.
Kaleb: I'm feeling good about this.
All this stuff that I'm just able to just pick up and
carry away is just frozen in in the wintertime.
So this gets me a good start.
Brittany: Okay, let's prop the trees.
Kaleb: Yup.
Brittany: And then, we'll go have lunch?
Kaleb: Sounds good.
Alex: If I'm getting frustrated because things
aren't going my way.
I always gotta remember
"okay. Take my time, you know, it's gonna pay off in the end."
just try to enjoy the process of learning more and not get
frustrated with it.
I'm too young to die.
So, I left off yesterday with the cable setup.
I got my two anchors kind of set up.
Cable's still loose.
So now I need to elevate the cable.
So, I got this nice and high.
Uh, once I pull out the slack in the cable,
I think I'll be good.
Uh, the only question is, uh, is this tree strong enough to
handle a heavy load?
Sometimes these birch trees can be a little rotten on the
inside, even though they're still standing.
Now I think I can go down and start to put tension on the cable.
Hopefully, that's tight enough.
I think I need another rope down here.
Pull it really tight and tie it off.
Yeah, we'll try that.
If the cable isn't as tense as I can make it,
the log could be dragging on the ground, waving.
Having it slack would make the job really difficult,
and a little more dangerous.
It's not making it any easier.
I didn't think tightening up this cable would be such a big
pain in the butt but, uh, it's kind of taking some doing.
I suck at mechanical stuff.
It's not really my strong point.
When things go my way, I'm a pretty happy camper.
When things don't go my way, I get frustrated pretty quick.
I (bleep) suck at this (bleep).
I got kind of used to working alone out here,
so usually if things aren't going my way,
I just cuss and just let it all out.
Maybe I need a second (bleep) pulley.
Dang. (bleep).
Why would you design it this way?
If I can't get the cable pulled all the way tight,
I won't be able to make it work.
What's all this (bleep)?
Alex: Let's just try it, see if it'll work.
I'm trying to do this kind of like the same way rock
climbers climb up a rope with a ladder of anchors.
One goes up, holds.
The other one comes up higher, holds.
I wasn't really feeling like I could do this,
but if you just stick with it, you'll find a way.
I got the cable tight.
So, what I'm gonna do now is basically like a test run.
I don't completely trust my work 'cause this is
my first time doing it.
I want to test it out with a small amount of weight first
before I fully load it.
So let's, uh, send it down.
That little bit of slackness kind of makes it go slow.
I pulled the little guy right on up.
Uh, no issues.
It took a little muscle, but not very much at all.
My full-sized logs will be heavier,
I'm really hoping this is gonna work because I need cabin trees.
I'll be back here first thing tomorrow to start cutting down
the big boys.
Johnny: Out here, in nature, everything is soft edges,
it's rolling curves.
There's no straight, perfect, parallel lines,
uh, in nature.
It takes one log to make two boards for the floor.
And to make two boards, I need to make five passes.
Around 48 boards total.
That's a lot of cutting.
How does that look, sideburns?
It look good?
At this point, I'm sleeping on the ground.
It's cold. It's damp.
It's a great way to get sick.
So, if I don't get the floor in,
it's kind of a recipe for disaster.
In order to make a floor for my cabin,
I need to make dimensional lumber.
Dimensional lumber is wood that's been cut to a specific size.
A lot of work, but I'd rather be doing this than
a lot of other things.
It's not always about what's easy.
I just get a lot of satisfaction of out of being self-reliant.
These are the last two boards.
You know, they're not perfect but, uh,
I like character.
(sneezing).
I think there's enough sawdust on my dog and I to completely
insulate my cabin alone.
Some people look at it as a nuisance,
but I look at it as a resource.
I'm gonna use this resource to insulate the floor of my cabin.
I'm gonna put it down on the floor before I put the
floorboards in.
This is gonna be a damn toasty floor.
I am excited about this.
It's a lot of work.
I'm hauling trees across the uneven tundra.
I'm getting dirty.
I'm getting covered in sawdust.
Honestly, there's no other place I'd rather be.
The next thing to do is to grab some nails,
pound them in.
A little bit of a workout, man.
Slamming this thing around.
Ooh-wee.
What do you think, java, does it look good?
It adds a lot of character in the floor.
You got bumps and curves, and I like it.
That's my style.
Kinda imperfectly perfect.
So that's step two of three.
Next thing I gotta do is get the stove installed.
Um, and that's gonna start warming up my cabin,
I can cook in here, I can heat my water,
and I can dry my clothes.
So I'm really excited to get that started.
I'm out of breath.
Chris: I have to prepare for everything.
Out here, you fall behind and you're cold.
You fall behind, you're hungry.
You fall behind and life gets hard.
Narrator: Chris morse is on the hunt for new land to
secure much needed firewood for him and jessi to survive the winter.
But in order to get to the new area,
he will need to clear enough trail for a loaded
three-wheeler to drag logs through.
Chris: Must've had a windstorm come through here and knock
down a bunch of trees.
All sorts of crap to cut out of the way.
It's too bad I can't use this.
This is all green.
I have to spend the time to find a new wood yard.
When you think about an entire eight-foot pickup truck.
That's a quart of wood.
We're burning up to two of those,
in a week, when it's really cold.
That's just a ton of firewood.
All right.
That's out of the way.
Keep moving forward.
So really, the name of the game is to get out,
find some wood, 'cause in two weeks,
everything's gonna be frozen and I don't wanna be wasting
time looking for wood when I need to be burning wood.
Oh. (bleep)
this is some swamp. I did not expect this.
Last time I came down here, this is all dry.
But, man, we got a lot of rain this year and everything's
flooding in, cosna's flooded, makes sense that all these
swamp lands are flooded.
Guess I'm gonna have to cut a trail around.
I gotta keep moving forward.
So, it is what it is.
I've got my trail breaker to cut my way through.
Ain't too bad.
Little extra work.
I feel like the cosna's always throwing sticks in my progress.
And today, I feel like I ran into a big old swamp of despair.
Oh, it's swampy everywhere.
And it's really disheartening.
Every time I try to do something,
the cosna sets me back.
But sometimes I feel like it's just testing me,
and if I keep up with my perseverance and I keep
pushing forward, there will be rewards at the end.
All right, I've cut a trail around this swamp now.
I need to push through before the light disappears.
Otherwise, it's gonna be very difficult to get home.
Jess, you there?
Jessi (over radio): Hey, I'm right here.
Chris: I'm down at the woodyard looking around.
There ain't anything left.
I mean, maybe four trees in total in this entire woodyard.
Jessi (over radio): Oh, my love.
That sucks.
Chris: Yeah, I think I'm gonna call it a night.
The sun's setting.
I'm pretty far out here.
I'm gonna start working towards home.
Tomorrow, hopefully, I can get to the new woodyard and find some trees.
Brittany: Life takes effort.
In order to really live a full life,
you have to be willing to put in the effort.
Elovie: Dad? Kaleb: What?
Elovie: What you up to? Kaleb: Stuff and nonsense.
Our goal is just get these tops off the,
off the ground so they're not frozen in.
Brittany: What is this tool, the black one, called?
Kaleb: Called a handyman jack.
Brittany: Handyman?
Kaleb: All right, now get that stump situated under there so
it's nice and not precarious.
Yeah, that's perfect.
The goal of this trip is to lift the big heavy logs up out
of the moss.
I start by limbing the trees down and now we'll pick the
log up and set it on that stump.
That way in the winter time, I'll be able to just yank it
right out of there because nothing will be frozen in.
Brittany: How's that? Kaleb: Perfect. Yeah!
Now just get this one under and I'll drop it down.
Well, hopefully, I don't drop it.
Brittany: Like that? Kaleb: Yup.
All right, look at that, it got it up out of the moss.
That was perfect.
Brittany: Nice.
When I got dressed this morning,
I put on a plaid shirt and overalls.
And I had this moment of, "who am I?"
I'm not a lumberjack for sure, but I'm posing as one today.
Timber!
The brittany of seven years ago would be like,
"why would I be the one going out and getting the wood?"
kaleb: That cleans this out pretty nice.
I think we're going to prop this up and probably call it.
Brittany: Sweet!
Kaleb: This is a big tree.
Brittany: Yeah. There you go.
Kaleb: That won't roll off when it gets weight?
Brittany: I don't think so? Kaleb: Okay.
Brittany: It's pretty set there.
Kaleb: Man, we have made a huge difference in the forest today.
Brittany: Yay!
I am so glad I was able to help.
Kaleb: Everything's propped up.
Brittany: So we're done?
Kaleb: Yup. You did a great job today.
This would have taken me, like,
four or five days in the wintertime.
Brittany: Cool.
Kaleb: Let's get boogying.
Brittany: Okay.
Alex: In the army, I got used to, you know,
everything you do, you do as fast as you can.
Go, go, go.
But out here, that's just, that's the wrong mindset.
If you try to do stuff in a hurry like that,
it's just, it's just bad business.
This is probably my favorite thing I do out here,
cutting down trees.
Uh, just a couple tools for this job,
just a saw and an axe.
Yesterday I verified that the zipline does work in theory.
So, it's time to cut down the big trees and haul 'em up.
I like using my axe.
I like the simplicity of it.
I like the rhythm of it.
I like the smell of the spruce.
I would've been happy as a, you know,
an old school lumberjack.
Timber!
Well, another tree bites the dust.
Sipsey is all eyes and ears.
I'm sure the wind is making him nervous.
There's a lot of strong wind.
It's gonna make this kind of dangerous.
Now, I gotta haul these logs up the zipline.
This will be a lot heavier than the test run I did.
Just kinda going with a simple setup here,
wrapping the tow strap around it.
So, this wind, I don't know if it's gonna cause a problem.
Can't predict what's gonna happen.
First log of the day.
Heavy son of a bitch.
Some of my anchors are squeaking and popping and the
birch tree is bowing.
This might be a problem here.
Okay break for a second.
Whew.
Ahhh!
I hate this log.
Whew!
Well, that's the first log up.
Everything held good.
Definitely feel, you know, kinda glad I got that done.
(laughing).
Yeah, well, so much for the soft landing.
I was a paratrooper, I know how to fall on my ass.
Now I can just go into work mode and just enjoy the work,
grind it out.
You know, I took a little time,
built this new apparatus.
I pay thousands of pounds worth of wood.
And I still am able to stick with my values of using
muscle power only.
So, that makes me feel good.
Johnny: If you come out here without self-reliance,
you're gonna quickly find it or you're gonna find yourself
in trouble.
All right, java, just stay back, dude.
All right, here we go.
Winter is definitely coming.
Very, very fast transition.
I can see snow creeping down the mountains already.
It's time that I stop cooking outside and get this stove
installed in the cabin.
Well, it's gonna cool it down pretty fast.
Be just a little bit longer, maybe a little more water and
it'll be ready to move.
Nice.
The stovepipe's gonna come up right through the ceiling here.
Gotta cut a hole.
Boom.
This is my great-grandfather's hand drill.
I wonder what this has built, what this has seen.
Feels good augering a hole with his tools.
I'm the fourth generation to use this tool.
Yup, I'm through.
It's like a relationship with him even though I've never met him.
Yup, I see light through the top.
So, that's my pilot hole.
I have about a week before snow is on the ground and I'm
cutting a hole in my roof.
You know, if it goes wrong, can't go to a hardware store,
I can't pick up spare parts.
It's kind of a one-shot deal.
Yeah, that looks good to me.
I gotta open it up some more.
Taking it a little bit at a time so I don't take too much off.
Gotta put the stovepipe and that rain cap on.
It's kinda like the star on top of the christmas tree.
It's been a long process to get all this done.
Uh, I'm really looking forward to getting inside that cabin
and, uh, giving this stove a test run.
I'm gonna sleep warm tonight.
Chris: Alaska has taught me to be a survivor.
Persevere. Aim forward.
Push through the pain.
Push through adversity and make it.
This is looking pretty good.
Got a lot of white spruce up on the ridgeline there and the
dead spruce burn really well.
Yesterday I got out to the old woodyard and it's pretty
picked over.
There's not much left.
So today I'm in, uh, a new area and I really just want a
lot of tall, standing, dead spruce.
Oh, there's a good dead tree.
Oh, yeah!
That's what I'm talking about!
Hey, jessi!
Jessi (over radio): Hey, love!
Chris: I found the motherlode of trees.
I'm gonna fell a couple, try to load my sled up,
and I should be back to you before too long.
Jessi (over radio): Be safe, love.
I know that you're really far out there and I want you to be
really safe when you fell those trees.
Chris: Sounds good. I'll talk to you in a little bit.
This is the closest dead tree to the trail.
It's really dry.
It's all crunchy and it's gonna burn really good.
But if this tree doesn't fall in the right direction,
it's gonna get hung up and it just makes it more dangerous.
I'm hoping to get it to fall towards the three-wheeler.
Well, damn!
That did not fall the way I wanted it to,
but it fell into two other dead trees and knocked 'em over,
so, I got three dead trees with one cut.
I'm gonna chalk this one up to a win.
I gotta get this thing chopped up,
get it in the sled, and get home.
I got a long trail ahead of me.
Whoo!
It has taken a lot of work to get to this wood yard,
but I am pumped.
We're not gonna be cold this year.
We're gonna be raging the fire.
I'm stuck in a (bleep) swamp hole.
(bleep).
(grunting).
Come on!
(bleep).
Cut myself with that trailbreaker.
I am 0.75 miles away from my cabin on the nodwell trail
stuck in a swamp hole.
Someone should check in with jess.
It's deep.
We just gotta get my pants cut off,
and I gotta get something tied tight around it.
Crew: Copy that.
Narrator: A mile away from his cabin,
chris has sustained a serious leg wound.
Fearing for his life, he asks the crew to walkie jessi for
her immediate assistance.
Chris: It might be chopper worthy.
She's deep.
I mean, it ain't gonna stop unless we stitch it.
Whoa! I'm getting nauseous.
Crew: So, okay.
Chris: Oh, I just don't wanna pass out.
Crew: Nope. Do not pass out.
Chris: I'm real woozy.
Crew: Stay with me.
Chris: Once we go full tourniquet, we have 45 minutes before problems start.
My leg's turnin' purple.
Jessi: I'm here! Chris: I'm close.
Jessi: I see you!
Chris: Don't look at the wound, jess. It's to the bone.
Jessi: Okay.
Kyle: We're gonna beam you into this sled.
Jessi: Okay.
Crew: On my count. One, two, three, straight up.
Okay.
Terry (over radio): Terry for kyle.
Kyle: Go, for kyle.
Terry (over radio): Um, national guard is getting their crew together
right now, coming out, and landing in the landing strip
outside of the cabin.
Chris: Never been the one pulled home on a sled before.
Getting down.
Pain is weakness leaving the body.
Let it go.
(bleep) it hurts!
Push the pain out.
Jessi: I'm right here.
Chris: I'm doing great.
Never give up.
Crew: Keep it up. Keep it up.
Chris: Never give up.
(bleep).
You've got this.
Keep it together.
Jessi: What are we stuck on?
Chris: I'm better than this. I can push through.
I can handle anything.
Oh. It's so close.
Have to focus on tomorrow.
Jessi: Yeah.
(helicopter whirring).
You're gonna be just fine.
I love you.
National guard: Gonna get a litter.
We're gonna have to move you into a litter.
Get you the hell outta here.
There you go, bud.
Crew: There you go, brother.
National guard: All right.
Now, I'm gonna need help from everybody here.
Just, uh, gotta get a corner, and let's get him out to the aircraft.
(helicopter whirring).
Jessi: This might be worse than I originally thought.
We have been in some tight situations.
Never quite like this.
The fear of the unknown is always gonna outweigh knowing
exactly what's ahead of you.
I'm really worried.
♪ ♪
♪ this is the moment ♪
♪ it's the cold, it's the flames, ♪
♪ it's the fog lights ♪♪
alex: The zipline adds a new tool to my toolbelt.
Definitely one step closer to being self-sufficient than I
was before, now that I made this.
I got one wall of my, uh, new cabin sitting here in front of
me waiting to be built.
It's pretty amazing what you can do when you set your mind
to it and you use a little ingenuity and,
uh, put in some sweat equity.
I wouldn't write anything off as impossible.
♪ this is the moment ♪
♪ it's the moment we take from the main line ♪♪
johnny: This moment, right here,
just sitting in front of this fire,
in a cabin I built with hand tools,
it's a secure feeling.
And I couldn't have done it without my grandfather and
his tools, really.
Imagine what he built, and what his dad built,
what my dad built, and now what I'm building.
It's, it's a powerful emotion.
There's gonna be a lot more challenges coming my way.
This is just the start.
At this point, I say bring 'em on.
Let's get busy living.
♪ I keep my eyes out and I'm taking the air from the heat ♪
brittany: Kids, I have noodles and salmon.
We worked so hard today and I'm really proud of how the
children and kaleb and I worked together.
Here you go, kaleb.
Kaleb: Thank you, darling.
Brittany: I think we live a really blessed life and
sometimes I take that for granted.
This winter, I'm going to enjoy our fire even more
knowing that I helped this stage of getting our firewood
into the house.
♪ ♪
chris: Oh, (bleep) that hurts.
Ugh.
Well, it's good to be back.
It's been a, a tough 12 hours.
When the national guard showed up,
a wave of happiness flew over me.
It's a very deep, sharp cut.
I missed the femoral artery by just centimeters.
There's little pieces of leaf and twigs and sticks that are
coming out of my wound.
They put seven large stitches in me.
Jessi: Here we are.
We were medevac-ing you out of this exact same spot not
12 hours ago.
Chris: I was really worried when I left here,
I wouldn't be back.
We need to let toze out. I wanna see her.
Jessi: Yeah.
Chris: We're still in fall time.
It's time to be hunting, gathering,
and bringing firewood home.
But now, I've got this injury.
That's gonna put me at a big disadvantage.
If I lose this leg, this entire lifestyle's gonna be over.
I've got to just push forward.
Jessi: Toze, you wanna go see chris?
You wanna go see chris?
Go get him! Go get him! Go get him!
Chris: Toze!
I don't care what the adversity is out here.
Just because the cosna pushed me to a breaking point
doesn't mean I'm broken.
In a few weeks the frost will be here,
and the snow will be falling, and I'll get on that snow
machine, and I'll go for that wood.
I fought so hard to get back out here.
I'm not giving this lifestyle up.
I'm not going back to a desk job.
I'm not working for the man.
I'm not letting the cosna beat me.
Oh.
Jessi: Home sweet home.
Yeah! Finally.
Captioned by cotter captioning services.