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DALLAS: You guys ready for this?
[howls]
NARRATOR: Deep in the Alaskan wilderness...
MAN: Bear!
NARRATOR: ...one of the toughest competitions in the world...
DALLAS: I'm losing it!
NARRATOR: ...is under way.
Four teams of rugged outdoorsmen...
surviving off the land...
MAN: You got him!
NARRATOR: ...with just the gear in their packs.
Each leg only 60 hours to make it from start to finish...
MAN: Holy cow!
NARRATOR: ...or they're sent home.
Eleven legs, four teams, one winner.
On this episode, all hell breaks loose...
[yells]
...as the competitors charge through a crumbling canyon.
MAN: Let's go!
RUDY: I got it.
NARRATOR: One team nearly loses everything.
DALLAS: Holy [bleep].
NARRATOR: Leg seven.
The three remaining teams begin their journey
off the toe of the Barrier Glacier.
GRADY: Here we go again.
NARRATOR: The Military team, Grady, Jared and Rudy,
are hungry for another victory.
RUDY: Let's do this.
NARRATOR: With only
five legs remaining,
they're tied for the lead
in the fight for the title
of Ultimate Alaskan Survivor.
But having gone the last three legs without a win,
the team's determined to get back on track.
RUDY: I do believe my team is the best all around.
And we want to win, we want to get back in the fight.
We were third place last time. We want to be first place.
NARRATOR: From here,
the teams will cross a steep ridge
to Strandline Canyon,
then trek 40 miles to the LZ,
an old plane wreck on Beluga Lake.
GRADY: But you know what? It's the fastest.
It's the fastest, easiest.
NARRATOR: Dead set on winning this leg,
the Military strategy is to charge down
the glacial drainage basin.
RUDY: We're picking the fast route.
It's basically difficult, but we think it'll cut off time.
My team can handle it and we're in it to win it.
NARRATOR: But just as they hit their stride...
JARED: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
I'm in it.
Oh, [bleep].
GRADY: We're just trucking along, and bam.
We're up to our knees in quicksand.
That came out of nowhere.
NARRATOR: The basin is laced with quicksand--
a deadly combination of glacial silt and meltwater
that can swallow a man whole.
RUDY: Yeah, it's getting real soft.
This could get dicey.
Just get completely bogged down in quicksand.
Freaking quicksand like from "The Mummy."
This glacier water is freezing, man.
JARED: Oh, my God.
RUDY: Whoa!
[bleep]
GRADY: Holy cow. This is awful.
JARED: Push left.
GRADY: I'm pushing over to these rocks here.
JARED: Oh, man.
GRADY: Solid ground on the right.
RUDY: First to the feet, bend the knees, then the waist.
Freezing freaking cold.
So it's ahhh!
So freaking fired up and pissed off, you know.
If you struggle too hard against it, it just gets worse.
Slow and steady.
GRADY: Ah, son of a ***!
I've always heard about quicksand,
never experienced it myself.
It's literally just a matter of inches
from hard ground to absolute certain death.
RUDY: Ah!
GRADY: We need to get out of here ASAP.
I'm not liking this at all.
RUDY: Not at all.
NARRATOR: Meanwhile...
after losing the last leg,
the Endurance Athletes, Dallas, Sean and Eddie,
are struggling to regain momentum.
DALLAS: We've only won one leg.
I mean, we are so far behind right now,
and it is incredibly frustrating.
You know, we all come from backgrounds
of being successful at what we do, and that means winning.
So we have to get this win in the bag.
NARRATOR: The team will head straight for Strandline Canyon,
and follow its winding valley to the LZ.
EDDIE: Okay, let's do this, bud.
DALLAS: Let's do it.
SEAN: You got it.
DALLAS: The past couple weeks,
we're doing crazy things and we're trying to travel fast.
We're all a little tired, more than a little hungry,
so our strategy was to kind of take the safer road.
It's kind of risk management.
Stay focused.
SEAN: Yeah.
DALLAS: Yeah.
EDDIE: I wonder where those other teams are at.
SEAN: I haven't seen anything!
We're always worried about what the other teams are doing,
but the only thing we can do is go with what we know best,
our instinct, to get to that extraction point first.
NARRATOR: Up ahead...
DALLAS: Check that out, guys.
SEAN: Whoa! That's the canyon alright, huh?
Look at that.
NARRATOR: The team sees Strandline Canyon,
their road to the finish line.
SEAN: You come out and there's like a wonderful view.
That's the motivation.
Once you see something in the distance,
that's what you got to get.
It's like cat with a mouse.
It's in the distance. It's there. Go get it.
DALLAS: Alright, let's do it!
NARRATOR: Over in the drainage basin,
the second place Military team
is still fighting through the quicksand.
[bleep]
JARED: You all right?
GRADY: We're up to our knees in quicksand.
Something I've never experienced,
something that the other guys have never experienced.
It was a showstopper.
JARED: Oh, [bleep]!
Ah!
Hey. I'm going down.
GRADY: It's all right, buddy.
[bleep]
Take your pack off if you need to up there.
Keep going, keep going, keep going.
Get to this rock.
Get out. Pull yourself out.
You good?
JARED: Yeah.
You just have no trust in what is going to happen
when you put weight on your foot.
You don't know what that next step is gonna bring.
GRADY: Real quick.
RUDY: Ah!
[Rudy groans]
GRADY: You all right, Rudy?
RUDY: Yeah!
Ah.
GRADY: Oh, man.
Keep going, keep going, keep going.
I'm coming in, too.
RUDY: Hey!
GRADY: Come on. RUDY: [bleep] I'm stuck!
RUDY: Alright. Come on.
JARED: Oh, that is a workout.
The good news is, hard ground over there.
GRADY: You know what? Walking's not working.
Why don't we just sprint through this last part?
JARED: We absolutely took a risk.
We're just going to push through as hard as we can.
We got to win this one.
NARRATOR: The team's taking a chance
and betting that running
will put less pressure on the soft ground.
JARED: You ready? GRADY: Let's do it. Go!
RUDY: You all right?
JARED: Son of a...
NARRATOR: A mile behind...
NARRATOR: In third place, the Mountaineers,
Marty, Thomas and Tyler,
are feeling confident coming off their second win.
MARTY: Here we go again.
TYLER: All these teams has their skill set.
And they're formidable opponents.
But I want to win this.
We're Alaskans, man.
I know we're tougher than the rest of these guys.
THOMAS: Yeah, we got to double time, for sure.
TYLER: Alright, let's go.
Oh, dude, hey, guys, check that out.
See that?
THOMAS: Oh, yeah.
TYLER: People, they're booking.
Maybe we should hop down that drain.
It's just going to be a little bit easier walking.
We're kind of doing a circle right up here, yeah.
We looked over the edge
and we saw the Military just cruising by us.
So we're going to go down the riverbank
and start following those guys.
NARRATOR: The team decides to follow
the same flatland strategy as the Military.
But they're unaware of the impending danger.
MARTY: Man, it's getting rugged.
That's deep.
TYLER: And it's quicksand.
THOMAS: Oh, mud.
Be careful, Marty.
MARTY: It's silt from the glacier
grinding the granite boulders for eons at a time.
It develops some kind of a quick silt, if you will.
Whatever it, it was quickly sucking me down.
TYLER: Hey, you want to hand me one of your skis?
We'll use it. We'll kind of probe out.
This stuff's pretty crazy.
NARRATOR: To keep up with their Military rivals,
the team presses their luck.
THOMAS: I don't think it's that bad.
MARTY: Hang on. Slow down, buddy, slow down.
TYLER: I've never seen quicksand like this before, ever.
It was insane.
You mean, you're going along,
you think you're on solid ground and then boom.
You're up to your waist in quicksand,
and it's not just sandy, watery sand.
I mean, this stuff will lock in around your legs.
Careful, man.
You can do this.
How's the creek?
THOMAS: Do it here.
TYLER: Go, you go that way, go that way.
THOMAS: Hey, you all right, Tyler?
MARTY: You all right?
TYLER: Ah! Ah!
MARTY: Are you good?
TYLER: No, I'm stuck.
MARTY: Whoa!
TYLER: I'm stuck. Holy crap.
MARTY: Hey!
Get a rope out.
THOMAS: Alright, hold on.
MARTY: Oh, God.
THOMAS: Just don't move.
The more you move, the more you struggle,
the more you're going to sink.
The quicksand, it can kill you, really quick.
It's definitely something to worry about.
MARTY: Dude, I'm into my-- I'm up to my waist.
TYLER: Thomas, you got to hurry up, man!
MARTY: Oh, my God!
[yells]
[howling]
NARRATOR: In the Barrier Glacier basin...
MARTY: Are you good?
TYLER: No!
MARTY: Whoa!
NARRATOR: The Mountaineers are rapidly sinking
into deadly quicksand.
TYLER: I'm stuck.
MARTY: Hey!
THOMAS: Hold on!
MARTY: It was like a bear trap.
Snap! You're not getting out.
Oh, God! Damn.
THOMAS: Just don't move, the more you move,
the more you struggle, the more you're going to sink.
MARTY: It's really unbelievably cold.
TYLER: That water's frigid, ice-cold water.
I mean, you got 10, 15 minutes, and you go hypothermic
and then you're screwed.
Thomas, you got to hurry up, man!
MARTY: Oh, my God!
[yells]
THOMAS: I got it.
I have a few tricks up my sleeve,
and I busted out a couple of carabiners,
throw rope and pulley,
and rigged up a simple pulley system.
Take it.
TYLER: Alright.
NARRATOR: Drawing on his mountain climbing experience,
Thomas creates a Z pulley rescue system
and reduces the amount of force needed to free Tyler
by two-thirds.
THOMAS: You got it, Tyler?
TYLER: I got it, I got it.
MARTY: Dude, I'm getting deeper in here.
THOMAS: Alright.
Marty is 250, 300 pounds with his pack on, you know,
so he sunk deep and he sunk hard.
MARTY: Ah!
I'm screwed!
Hand me that ski.
TYLER: Can you get turned around?
MARTY: No.
[groaning]
TYLER: Alright.
Stay on your knees, buddy.
MARTY: That was pretty intense.
If I was by myself, if I didn't have the help,
that could have been serious.
My whole Chalmer is frozen hard as a chunk of ice.
We got to get a fire, I'm not joking.
TYLER: Alright, let's go.
NARRATOR: Up ahead...
After escaping the quicksand,
the second place Military team builds a commanding lead
over the Mountaineers.
JARED: Speaking of the mountain men,
isn't that them right there?
GRADY: Yeah. Get down.
JARED: Oh, man, we're way ahead of them.
RUDY: Yeah.
GRADY: We've got an advantage on them right now, at least a mile.
JARED: We know where they are. They don't know where we are.
RUDY: Uh, I know this is their land, but...
GRADY: It's a little shaky up there.
RUDY: You know how hard going it was for us.
GRADY: Alright, well let's try to keep a low profile up here.
RUDY: Yep.
JARED: We're going to push through as fast as we can,
and we're not going to stop until we get there.
NARRATOR: Halfway through day one,
the Endurance Athletes are in the lead,
while the battle through the treacherous quicksand
leaves the Military in second place
and the Mountaineers in last.
At the head of the pack,
the Endurance team is making good time in the canyon.
But a furious river blocks their path.
DALLAS: This one looks a little dicey, guys.
SEAN: A little bit hairy, man.
EDDIE: The river's pretty nasty and that's something that
I definitely don't want to forge across.
But it's going to save us some time
rather than going all the way up the ravine
and to a low part in the river.
DALLAS: See the whitewater over there?
That sucker is moving.
EDDIE: This is straight off the glacier, guys.
DALLAS: Yeah.
Just like this wind.
Take it piece by piece.
Let's keep moving, alright?
Woo, that's cold!
There's no easy way to cross a river like this.
That glacier water itself
is only a couple degrees above freezing.
I mean, it was frozen a mile ago.
It's moving, but there's good footing!
And it's running pretty fast.
So as soon as your body hits that,
it's pins and needles all up and down your body.
That stuff is insanely cold.
Easy.
EDDIE: Water is a big killer in Alaska.
And that's always in the back of my head.
NARRATOR: Meanwhile...
Abandoning the perilous route through the drainage basin,
the second place Military team now heads to Strandline Canyon.
GRADY: Please don't fall and take me out, Rudy.
RUDY: You got it.
NARRATOR: But they face a new danger.
RUDY: Some of these handholds are not too positive!
This is a risky, dangerous maneuver.
Boulders just sliding out from underneath you.
My team and I decided was worth the risk,
so we could cut time and make distance.
And we don't want to be in third place again,
so we're pushing hard.
Watch your footing.
GRADY: Oh!
RUDY: Pretty insane.
GRADY: Wow.
JARED: We can do this in our sleep. Let's go.
GRADY: Rudy's the third and fourth man of Team America.
I mean, he's the cook.
He's the cheerleader.
He's the motivator.
He's the muscle.
He's the backbone.
Let's push, gents.
You got it.
JARED: Oh, brutal.
GRADY: That'll work.
JARED: Get up here.
GRADY: That will work just fine.
[bleep]
Woo!
Holy cow.
NARRATOR: Finally on top,
the team spots the entrance to Strandline Canyon.
GRADY: Well, that's our end game, right there.
RUDY: Yep.
GRADY: We got to figure out how to get down there.
NARRATOR: In first place...
SEAN: How is it right here?
DALLAS: This is good, that's solid!
NARRATOR: The Endurance team is battling
a powerful stretch of rapids.
DALLAS: We had reached a pretty dang big river.
And like always, let's just plow through it.
So shortest, most direct route.
SEAN: Careful, man!
Be careful, Dallas!
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
[bleep]
God damn it!
EDDIE: Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
And he's just clinging on for life.
I'm just hoping I can make it there in time to help my friend.
Dallas!
Come on!
Hold on.
DALLAS: Holy [bleep].
[howling]
NARRATOR: In Strandline Canyon...
DALLAS: Damn it. [bleep]
NARRATOR: Dallas Seavey's clinging...
SEAN: God damn it!
NARRATOR: ...for his life.
EDDIE: Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
SEAN: Dallas!
Come on!
EDDIE: Hold on.
EDDIE: Come on!
You all right?
DALLAS: Alright, let's move.
Damn, that's cold!
EDDIE: We got to get him warm.
It doesn't take long for hypothermia to set in.
SEAN: And we'll get a freakin' fire right now, man.
DALLAS: Get a fire.
Mmm.
Burns like hell.
EDDIE: He's in the beginning stages of hypothermia.
You know, I could see the look of terror in his eyes.
And we got to get him warm.
That's the number one priority.
DALLAS: If these guys weren't here
doing what they're doing right now,
this would be the worst case scenario pretty much right here.
In this wind, 10 to 15 minutes before
you get into the later stages of hypothermia,
and then at that point,
you don't have the, the dex--dexterity
to do what they're doing.
SEAN: Yeah, hot water.
DALLAS: My feet are doing a lot better,
but now my whole body's cooling off.
SEAN: Yeah. We know the feeling.
You'll feel better once you get the hot water in you, brother.
DALLAS: Yeah.
NARRATOR: As Dallas raises his core body temperature,
the third place Mountaineers search for a spot
to set up camp.
TYLER: Ah!
MARTY: This place is so rugged.
That's the only flat spot up there.
You got to pick and choose where you camp.
A lot of the time you're getting rained on,
it's wet, it's windy.
Look at that. That's rain.
Cold rain moving in, let's do something.
Sometimes it makes for less than a perfect night's rest.
NARRATOR: In second place, with a storm approaching,
the Military team rushes to make camp.
JARED: We're all soaking wet. It's raining.
But we built a shelter, collected some firewood.
We make it work.
GRADY: Solid.
RUDY: So we can get this pot boiling
and cook up our rice and our beans.
We're thankful we got heat.
We're working on food.
A lot of small victories
that will eventually let us succeed in the big picture.
We're working on water.
NARRATOR: Day two.
The Endurance Athletes remain in first
as they wind down the treacherous canyon.
Up on high ground, the Military holds second,
while the Mountaineers trail close behind.
Waking to a brutal downpour,
the second place Military team searches
for a quick and safe way down to the canyon floor.
GRADY: Holy [bleep].
Yeah, it's going a distance, man.
Wow, boom!
Alright, so it's day two.
We woke up in a lot of rain, cold and wet.
We got a couple options to get down.
We're going straight down this scree slide.
Definitely the fastest way to go.
NARRATOR: The men will risk a dangerous descent
down a scree slide--
a near-vertical slope covered in loose rock.
One wrong step, and the team could be swept away
by a rock avalanche.
JARED: Let's do it.
GRADY: Here goes nothing.
GRADY: Clear!
RUDY: There's big rocks and obstacles underneath there
that you cannot see.
And when you're going down a mountain slide,
you're having milliseconds to ascertain
whether this thing's going to kill you,
or you can bypass it, or you can slide onto it.
Grady!
GRADY: Yeah, I'm good, keep coming!
That was wild.
NARRATOR: Back up top,
the third place Mountaineers reach the crest of the ridge.
MARTY: Man, look at the view.
THOMAS: Hey, hey, hey, hey. See those guys?
TYLER: Are those guys? Are those people?
THOMAS: Yeah, yeah, I think that's the Military.
Woo-hoo!
You'd better start moving.
We're going to catch you!
GRADY: I dare you!
Jump!
TYLER: Well, they've worked themselves
down in the canyon already.
They can't see where they're going.
We can see exactly where they're going.
MARTY: That's an advantage. We have that advantage.
TYLER: Big time advantage. THOMAS: Yeah, yeah.
MARTY: We already know where we're going.
THOMAS: Yeah, we got an easier path right...
MARTY: Let's go!
THOMAS: Yeah. Try to head 'em off down over there.
NARRATOR: Rather than shoot straight down the scree,
the team finds a more gradual descent.
TYLER: Let's get out of this, man, this is crazy.
MARTY: Lots of rockfall. Let's go!
If a rock this big around seems fairly benign--
wrong, wrong, wrong.
It's doing 30, 40, 50 miles an hour.
And I know people, friends of mine that have died
from this very same thing we're doing.
Thomas!
Rock!
[bleep]
THOMAS: You all right, Tyler?
TYLER: Yeah, I'm good.
NARRATOR: Just below...
GRADY: Do you hear that? RUDY: Yeah.
GRADY: We got to go.
RUDY: That's freaking rockslides.
[bleep]
Get cover! Get cover!
Let's go!
We got big rocks.
GRADY: Go! Let's go!
[howling]
NARRATOR: In Strandline Canyon...
the Mountaineers have accidentally triggered
a rock avalanche.
GRADY: Do you hear that?
RUDY: Yeah.
NARRATOR: And the Military are caught in its direct path.
[bleep]
GRADY: Get out of here! RUDY: Get cover! Get cover!
GRADY: We got big rocks.
JARED: When you're going through a canyon
and there are rockslides with boulders the size of small cars
coming your way, it is a scary thing.
RUDY: Let's go!
Duck down! Duck down! Tuck it in!
JARED: Whoa!
GRADY: It was no joke.
Get cover!
Everything stopped down.
Kind of a frightening situation.
We could have all been absolutely squashed.
NARRATOR: Stalled by the rockslide,
the Military falls into third.
JARED: Looks like the worst of it's done.
RUDY: The freaking Mountain Men!
MARTY: Hey, guys! Woo!
GRADY: God damn.
How did you get here so fast?
RUDY: You must have skied down, Marty!
MARTY: This is the opportunity availed to us to get ahead.
JARED: Oh, man.
RUDY: There they go!
GRADY: Damn. Son of a ***.
RUDY: Marty and his crew,
I've never thought of them as much of a threat.
I was wrong.
Those guys are absolutely excellent athletes,
and this is their country, and this is their pride.
MARTY: Let's go!
TYLER: Let's do it. Let's crank it.
RUDY: We got to keep moving.
GRADY: A mountain falling down is what it took
for the Mountain Men to pass us,
but we're going to beat them to the finish, no questions asked.
Lot of overhead, keep going.
Push through.
NARRATOR: Midway through day two,
the Endurance Athletes command a lead,
while the Mountaineers hold second.
And the Military team lags behind in last.
Farther down the canyon...
the first place Endurance team hits a dead end.
DALLAS: Obviously we're not getting by that cliff.
NARRATOR: A jagged cliff jutting into the water
blocks their path.
The only way forward is another perilous river crossing.
DALLAS: I sure don't want to walk across it.
Now, with the bad luck we've had on this river so far,
it's going to change how we cross these silty rivers
from here on.
We have to learn from our mistakes.
Exactly.
There's two ways we can do it.
I say we get that rope, and tie this in the middle of the rope.
And then we can paddle across, and narrow enough
that I should be able to hold half the rope on one side.
And feed out the rope, get some pullback over here.
The next person can get on, pull it back.
That way we can just keep the raft in the middle,
tie it to the rope, and not make it too elaborate.
SEAN: Probably the best way.
DALLAS: What we're going to do here
is we're going to bust out the pack raft,
and waste only enough time to inflate one of them,
and ferry ourselves across.
NARRATOR: With the Endurance team stopped,
the Mountaineers surge into the lead,
and are the first to escape the canyon.
TYLER: Hey, guys, what do you think about that?
I'm pretty tired. You guys tired?
THOMAS: Yeah, I'm getting there.
TYLER: It was a long day.
You got firewood there.
That's an option for a campsite.
And it might be better up on that slope, too.
MARTY: Well, we can see from that point,
we can see a long ways the other side, you know, big vista.
THOMAS: That is a good point.
If anybody's approaching,
we can catch them from a long ways away.
Keep out ahead of them, you know.
MARTY: Well, look, it's only ten minutes away.
What do you think?
TYLER: Let's go hit it.
MARTY: Campsite with a view, waiting for you.
NARRATOR: As the team heads for higher ground...
The second place Endurance Athletes prepare
to cross the violent, frigid waters of the glacial river.
DALLAS: Okay, so here's middle mass.
Pile this in here.
Fill this thing up.
Hopefully if two people can stay on the bank,
one person in the pack raft with the line tied to them,
they can paddle their way across.
SEAN: Unless you call out,
we're just going to let it run between our hands, all right?
DALLAS: Sounds good, yeah, let's try it!
And then create a system in by which
we can pull that pack raft back and forth,
to move the backpacks, and the rest of the people across.
If it does get weird and I end up facing downstream that way,
careful not to pull it, 'cause you'll spin me all the way.
You know what I mean?
EDDIE: We're going to let you paddle unless you say grab it.
Alright?
DALLAS: Sounds good! EDDIE: Alright?
SEAN: Be careful, Dallas!
DALLAS: Hey.
Hey, hey, hey! I'm losing it!
EDDIE: Whoa!
You all right?
DALLAS: Pull me back.
It's not working.
SEAN: I can't hold him.
[howling]
NARRATOR: In Strandline Canyon...
EDDIE: Come on!
NARRATOR: ...while fighting to cross a powerful river...
DALLAS: Tighter, tighter, tighter, I'm losing it!
NARRATOR: Dallas is dangerously close to capsizing.
DALLAS: Work with me down the beach.
Pull me back.
Pull it tight. Nope, not working.
[bleep] Reel it in.
We have to take another shot at that.
This seems like it's slowing us down at the time
when you're messing with this stuff and you're frustrated.
But this really is the quickest way.
'Cause it's not going to save us any time
if we walk out in that thing and somebody gets swept downriver,
and now we're dealing with a hypothermia situation.
As soon as I hit that,
the combination of the weight of the rope and that current,
slingshots me.
SEAN: Alright, yeah.
DALLAS: So let's start in this little eddy right up here.
Give me a good push.
Alright.
SEAN: There you go.
There we go.
Perfect!
DALLAS: That's a little better!
Nice.
Alright, go ahead and reel it in.
SEAN: Yep.
Heck, yeah.
EDDIE: I'll get the packs.
DALLAS: You all right?
EDDIE: Hell, yeah!
DALLAS: It is taking a more cautious approach.
But in the end...
SEAN: Yeah!
DALLAS: ...being reckless isn't always fast.
SEAN: You're on a roll, dude!
DALLAS: Oh, yeah.
EDDIE: Good job, buddy!
Good work, guys.
DALLAS: Yeah, man, up top.
NARRATOR: In first place, native Alaskan Thomas Ginn
relies on ancient Tlingit knowledge to feed his team.
THOMAS: This is lowland fireweed.
It has a stiff, barky of a stalk.
And if you strip it,
it has this little white center here.
That's really sweet and really delicious tasting.
When you grow up in Alaska, we do what we need to do
in order to collect the food that we need to survive.
You know, we take pride in our Alaskan background and heritage.
We're just a little bit more hardcore than most.
Oh, [bleep]. Hey, guys, guys, guys, look.
That's the Endurance team right there.
TYLER: What? THOMAS: Look, look, look.
THOMAS: Oh, crap, dude. If we started packing now,
I don't think we could even catch up to them.
TYLER: Hey, you know what? Maybe just let them go by, dude.
MARTY: The Endurance team is passing us.
And now, pffft, we're number two.
And those guys are running like freakin' gut-shot caribou.
TYLER: Dude, we'll catch them, man.
You know how hard they had to work to catch up to us?
That means they're going to be tanked, so I'll tell you what,
we're playing it smart, man.
We traveled smart today.
That's all I got to say.
MARTY: Oh, man.
NARRATOR: Planning to make up time tomorrow,
the second place Mountaineers hunker down for the night.
But the Endurance Athletes
aren't the only team on the move.
JARED: I'll take this over the bushwhacking any day.
RUDY: I second that.
We did have the Mountaineers pass us,
while we were being bombarded with the rocks.
JARED: We got big rocks.
Let's go, let's go!
GRADY: How did you get here so fast?
RUDY: So we made a, kind of a silent agreement with each other
that we were going to choose to keep pushing
instead of making camp.
JARED: We see the Mountaineers, but they do not see us.
So we try to sneak down the hill as quietly as we can.
At this point, the gig is up.
It's game on.
RUDY: So we passed the Alaskan team, and it gave us the time,
and it gave us the space to take advantage, and dig on,
and drive on, so that we could accomplish the mission
and be number one.
NARRATOR: Four miles from the LZ,
unaware that the Military is charging ahead,
the Endurance team stops to get some protein.
DALLAS: This thing probably hasn't been really fished
in who knows how long?
EDDIE: Yeah, that's true,
we might be the first ones ever here, man.
After going day after day in this expedition,
it really wears you down psychologically and physically.
Any time you can get some food,
other than beans and rice, is a plus.
This is the kind of stuff that we need to take advantage of
when we come across it.
Alright. Here we come.
NARRATOR: Without any poles, the team improvises
using some fishing line and their water bottles.
DALLAS: See any fins in there?
EDDIE: Whoa, I got one!
DALLAS: You got a hit? EDDIE: Yeah.
DALLAS: He's on there, dude.
EDDIE: Oh, whoa!
SEAN: Yeah, Eddie, nice job, brother!
SEAN: We're just going to build a fire and gorge
until we just lay back and we can't even move.
DALLAS: Dude, we're almost done with these guys.
NARRATOR: As the clock approaches midnight,
the summer sun still lingers in the sky.
GRADY: You guys want to camp out here in this little valley?
RUDY: Sure.
NARRATOR: Exhausted, the first place Military team
finally stops to set up camp.
JARED: I can't believe it's almost midnight.
GRADY: Midnight's like noon back home.
JARED: I know, right?
We wanted to make up as much ground as possible,
and basically drive ourselves into the dirt,
and that's what we did.
And I think that's part of why we ended up going
until after midnight.
RUDY: Hey, this isn't too bad, guys.
JARED: We got to race.
RUDY: It feels good to be in camp and have some chow.
NARRATOR: Day three.
With only four hours left on the clock,
the Military team is within striking distance of the LZ.
Farther back, the second place Endurance Athletes
and third place Mountaineers have a long slog ahead of them.
DALLAS: Looking good.
NARRATOR: At dawn, the Endurance team fuels up
for their final sprint to the extraction point,
a plane wreck near Beluga Lake.
DALLAS: Oh, [bleep]. Mountaineers.
THOMAS: Hey, guys, look, look.
I think that's the Endurance team.
MARTY: Do they see us?
DALLAS: Oh, come on!
NARRATOR: Having only one win so far,
the team can't afford to let the Mountaineers slip by.
SEAN: All we're thinking about is we've got to beat them.
We've got to charge on.
DALLAS: Let's move. SEAN: Yep.
SEAN: We got up and just started running
as fast as we possibly could to the extraction point.
MARTY: Yeah! Woo!
TYLER: We got it, we got it.
The Endurance team, we got those guys.
This is our country.
And this is what we do.
THOMAS: Let's go, dude, let's go.
NARRATOR: In first place...
GRADY: Keep your eyes open for the plane wreck.
NARRATOR: ...the Military team searches for the LZ.
JARED: It's the lake right there.
GRADY: Yeah, sweet, dude, only a mile or two.
JARED: Yeah, we're getting close.
GRADY: We know we're at least in second place, if not first.
But we know the Mountaineers are close on our tail.
So we got to keep with it, and keep pushing on.
Keep your eyes open, it should be around here somewhere.
You want to risk get up high, get a better view?
RUDY: Yeah, I'll scramble up that tree.
Matter of fact, I'll pop off my rifle and glass it.
JARED: We're about midpoint through this process,
and I've seen Rudy just grow a lot
through this whole experience.
And it's awesome.
We're utilizing his strengths along with Grady and myself.
And together, it makes an unstoppable force.
Looking good, bud.
GRADY: See anything?
Rudy, he's got a lot of experience.
You good?
RUDY: Yep, I'm good.
GRADY: Being a sniper, you look for things out of place.
NARRATOR: Rudy surveys the area
using the powerful scope on his AR-15.
GRADY: What'd you see?
RUDY: I got it! I got it!
I definitely see a wing, 300 meters.
It's in this direction, gents.
JARED: Let's go, man!
RUDY: Okay, you got it. Let me sling this back here.
GRADY: Hey, we're 300 meters away from victory.
RUDY: Whoa! [bleep]
[howling]
NARRATOR: It's the final day of leg seven.
RUDY: I got it! I got it! I definitely see a wing.
GRADY: Let's go, man.
NARRATOR: With the clock ticking and the LZ in his sights,
former recon Marine Rudy Reyes rushes to lead his team
to its third victory.
JARED: Let's go, man.
RUDY: Whoa! Whoa! [bleep]
GRADY: You all right?
RUDY: Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.
GRADY: Are you good?
'Cause you hit hard.
RUDY: Give me a second.
I was in a hurry getting down. I hear a crack.
[bleep]
I'm falling, and I just hit the ground,
and I felt a crack in my leg.
Yeah, yeah, it hurts.
It hurts a little bit right there, yeah.
GRADY: Point it, point it.
RUDY: Right here and right here.
GRADY: Alright, point your toe.
RUDY: Why don't we just tape it up and keep going?
JARED: We can sit here, man.
RUDY: They could pass us at any time, bro.
GRADY: Tough man, Rudy Reyes,
saying, "No, I'm fine. I'll be fine."
RUDY: Just tape it up and let's just get going.
GRADY: But Jared and I kind of saw something else.
RUDY: Ah!
Yeah.
NARRATOR: With the Military team at a standstill...
TYLER: That's the lake right there, isn't it?
THOMAS: Yeah, it is. TYLER: You see water?
THOMAS: Yeah, that's the lake in the distance.
NARRATOR: The second place Mountaineers go all out
to clinch back-to-back wins.
MARTY: Serpentine.
THOMAS: He's trying to scare our first place win.
We choose to kind of go up and over this point,
and drop down into the lake.
THOMAS: So the LZ is down that way, huh?
MARTY: Yep.
TYLER: With that creek coming in,
yeah, just like the map said.
THOMAS: Let's get in our pack rafts and float this thing.
JARED: Hold on. If I'm hurting you, tell me.
RUDY: Okay, okay, go ahead, Grady, go ahead, Grady.
JARED: You got to bend him there.
RUDY: Go ahead, Grady.
GRADY: This is not going to feel good, bud.
RUDY: Had a stress fracture there at jump school.
GRADY: Sorry, brother, sorry, sorry, sorry.
RUDY: Oh, man, it hurts like a, it hurts like the dickens.
Alright, we'll tape it, and we'll get to extract,
and we'll be all right.
It would be adding insult to injury that because I'm hurt,
that another team circumvents us and gets to the objective.
We've come this close,
I don't want us to freaking lose our lead.
We still got 300 meters to move.
GRADY: We're gonna get there.
RUDY: Yeah, alright, ready, one, two, three.
Alright.
GRADY: You got to lead the way because I didn't see it.
JARED: Let me know if you need another, uh...
RUDY: Okay, okay, go this way, this way, it was this way.
GRADY: Alright.
NARRATOR: Closing in quickly on the LZ...
SEAN: Beautiful, beautiful!
DALLAS: Alright, ready? Move, move, move.
NARRATOR: The Endurance Athletes claw through thick brush.
DALLAS: Ready to go, guys? Let's go!
EDDIE: Yep!
SEAN: Oh, man, look, there's the Mountaineers!
Let's go, pick it up!
THOMAS: Look, it's the Endurance team!
TYLER: Yep!
THOMAS: Off to the right, we see the Endurance team.
SEAN: Yep, they're right there!
THOMAS: We thought we had them. And so the race is on.
EDDIE: We got them.
SEAN: Let's go, let's go, let's go!
Here we go. Straight ahead.
EDDIE: Yep.
RUDY: Yeah, so far, so good, so far, so good.
We're close.
Wait, wait, wait.
Okay.
TYLER: Ooh, come on.
JARED: Rudy is one of the toughest guys I know.
RUDY: Yeah, sorry.
It's all right, we're very close.
JARED: He was hurting. I know he was hurting.
But, you know, he's, he just wanted to power through.
We got 300 yards to go. It's pretty impressive.
RUDY: Steady as she goes.
We just keep just like this, alright?
GRADY: Oh, don't rush it, dude.
There's nobody here. There's nobody here.
There's nobody here.
You broke your ankle and we're still here first!
We got here first.
We won again.
Now you plop down on this wing.
RUDY: Sure, and maybe put my pack down
and I can put my leg up on it.
GRADY: But, bittersweet doesn't even describe this.
I'm worried about Rudy.
How's it feeling?
RUDY: Oh, it hurts bad.
GRADY: Dude, that's pretty swollen.
RUDY: Yeah, it hurts bad.
NARRATOR: For coming in first,
the Military receives its bear barrel reward.
JARED: Nice. Fresh fruit, man.
NARRATOR: But this is no time for celebration.
RUDY: Ah, ah, ah!
GRADY: Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
RUDY: Some water, I'll be okay.
GRADY: That's not good, dude.
JARED: We think your ankle's broke.
GRADY: We think you had a break, dude.
RUDY: The reality starts sinking in
that maybe I wasn't going to be able to continue.
And I'm a guy that likes to finish what he starts.
SEAN: Oh!
Whoa, whoa, oh!
DALLAS: You guys again, huh?
SEAN: What's going on?
JARED: Rudy took a fall and snapped his ankle.
SEAN: What? DALLAS: He broke it?
JARED: Yeah, we think it's broken.
It's swollen, I mean, it's that big around.
EDDIE: Is he all right?
GRADY: Yeah, he finally fell asleep.
So could you guys just do us a favor
and give him a little space so he can, you know, stay asleep?
DALLAS: If Rudy can be taken out,
with all his experience, all the things he's done,
all the things he's survived,
well, it can happen to absolutely anybody here.
Alaska doesn't really care.
And it really is at the end of the day, you versus Alaska.
THOMAS: What?
How did you guys get in front of us?
MARTY: You guys have made it.
What happened?
DALLAS: The Military had a little accident
and Rudy's bust up bad.
MARTY: Oh, man.
DALLAS: He fell out of a tree or something and broke his ankle.
MARTY: For real? DALLAS: Yeah.
TYLER: Oh, man, that sucks.
MARTY: That's the toughest freakin' guy out here.
You know, seeing Rudy sitting over there wounded,
I'm thinking that, what if that happened to our team?
What would we be doing right now?
And can somebody else get hurt between now and the end?
Huh, absolutely.
Hey, guys.
Right there.
A plane.
DALLAS: Things go down fast out here.
I mean, for us seeing somebody like Rudy get hurt
is a good reminder for our team
that we're all going to race each other,
but at the end of the day,
you have to make it through Alaska first.
And then secondly, race the other teams.
And in this one, truth be told,
Alaska won this leg of the expedition.
NARRATOR: With three wins,
the Military surges
into first place,
and is well on their way
to the title of
Ultimate Alaskan Survivor.
Because all three men made it to the LZ,
the team remains in the competition.
But Jared and Grady will have to go it alone.
With a broken ankle, Rudy's journey has come to an end.
RUDY: The most important thing that I will take away
from this experience is the wonderful friendship
that my teammates gave me.
Their joy and happiness when we accomplish something together.
And I want to keep going forward,
and keep inspiring others, and keep inspiring myself.
MARTY: That's a game changer.
NARRATOR: Next up...
Coal Creek Valley.
Perilous swamps,
savage forests,
deadly rapids.