Ice Dogs

In the harshest winter in Siberian memory, Benedict Allen is in Siberia's remotest and most secretive province of Chukotka to learn from native hunters how to use a team of husky dogs to travel 1,500 kilometres into the Arctic and attempt to cross the Bering Strait into Alaska. On his first day's training he gets frostbite and is only saved from being dragged into the icy sea by one of his guides. Soon after there is a break in the weather, and in a place where clear blue skies are far rarer than frostbite they start on their epic trek. After his disastrous first outing, this doesn't seem such a good idea. Having successfully crossed a frozen bay, Benedict and his team go over a cliff before getting lost in the deadly Arctic night. On a hunt with a local official into the trackless tundra, they become disorientated and totally lost. Night falls and their snowmobile breaks down in the heart of polar bear country and the territory of the Arctic wolf, the largest in the world.

On the third leg, Benedict and his two native guides are hit by a massive storm and a wind chill of minus 60 in the frozen northern night. As they head north the weather becomes more extreme and the settlements even more bizarre. Benedict's dog team remains unconvinced by his leadership and a near fatal journey down an iced-up river fails to fill them with confidence. Benedict and his team have struggled over 1,000 kilometres as they continue north through the Arctic winter towards the Bering Strait. One of his dogs has begun to listen to his commands, but with mountains ahead he needs his entire team's loyalty. If the dogs don't listen to him now they could all go over a cliff. At the most dangerous point Benedict discovers that one of his dogs has developed a potentially fatal neurosis and they are lucky to make it to the next settlement alive. Once there, the strain of the journey starts to show and his native guides begin to crack.

Benedict and his team are nearing the end of the trek. When they reach the home town of his guides he will be on his own. Coming across a family of nomads and an Arctic Stonehenge in the middle of nowhere shows Benedict that people can thrive in this seemingly impossible terrain. But has he learnt enough to lead his dogs onto the shifting ice floes of the Bering Strait? On his first night alone, his dogs start howling - there is an intruder in the camp. Alone on the frozen Bering Strait trying to cross over into Alaska, Benedict is right on the path of the annual polar bear migration, packs of Arctic wolves are patrolling about and gales come out of nowhere, plunging the temperature to -40 degrees. When the ice walls form a barrier ahead, he is forced to leave his dogs and try to find a route through. The unthinkable happens, as he loses his team, his tent and his supplies, and is left stranded 150 kilometres from help with no radio.