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MAN: You guys ready for this?
Oww!
NARRATOR: Deep in the Alaskan wilderness...
MAN: Bear!
NARRATOR: ...one of the toughest competitions in the world
is under way.
Four teams of rugged outdoorsmen...
surviving off the land...
MAN: You got 'em.
NARRATOR: ...with just the gear in their packs.
Each leg only 60 hours to make it from start to finish...
DALLAS: Holy cow.
NARRATOR: ...or they're sent home.
Eleven legs,
four teams,
one winner.
MAN: Check it out.
NARRATOR: On this episode...
MAN: We're losing 'em.
NARRATOR: As the competition heats up....
WOMAN: Yote!
NARRATOR: Reputations are on the line.
And the teams are pushed to their limits.
Leg three.
Deep in a remote corner of Tongass National Forest,
the four teams land on Turner Lake.
DALLAS: Landed on an absolutely gorgeous southeast Alaska lake.
Don't take long to take in the scenery though.
MAN: Woo! Alright, let's go.
MAN: Alright.
DALLAS: As soon as the plane stops,
there's a stack of canoes there.
We hop out, before long, it's time to rock and roll.
TYLER: Alright, guys, let's go.
YOTE: We got a long ways to go today.
NARRATOR: After winning the last leg,
the Woodsmen are hungry for another victory.
TINA: We're feeling really great.
Coming off of the last extraction point
and winning that leg of the race, it's like game on!
Let's go!
NARRATOR: With one win each,
the Woodsmen and Military teams
are now tied for first place
in the fight for the title of
ultimate Alaskan survivor.
Still winless, the Endurance athletes are eager
to build an early lead.
DALLAS: I want to do it as fast as I can, and I want to win.
But these guys are good at what they do.
Special Ops guys are hard-core,
so we have to keep pushing harder and harder and harder,
burn every last drop of fuel until we hit that finish line.
Straight ahead. Doing good!
MAN: Good!
Nice, Dallas!
SEAN: Row, row, row.
DALLAS: A little bit right, Eddie.
Paddling across the lake,
quickly got in a heated battle with the Military team.
There we go, straight ahead.
Pull, pull!
SEAN: Good job! Ho!
GRADY: The Endurance guys,
they were ahead of us for a little bit.
RUDY: Let's go, Military team.
GRADY: But what they didn't do
was take advantage of that third person.
DALLAS: There we go. EDDIE: There we go.
JARED: Sean's getting a free ride over there.
DALLAS: You guys got three paddles going?
GRADY: That's called strategy, boys!
JARED: Trekking poles and snowshoes,
that ended up being a good formula for a third paddle.
DALLAS: Help me steer right, Eddie, help me steer right.
[yelling]
RUDY: We're losing 'em, we're losing em.
GRADY: Get out of here.
DALLAS: Gladly!
[yelling]
RUDY: Let's do this! Let's do this!
GRADY: See you later, Seavey!
MAN: Later, Seavey!
NARRATOR: Once across the lake,
the teams will battle 45 miles of thick forest,
towering waterfalls, and the rough open waters
of Steven's Passage
to hit the extraction landing zone on Admiralty Island.
JIMMY: Dig, dig, dig.
NARRATOR: The Woodsmen have fallen into third place,
but it's all part of the plan.
These veterans of the backcountry
are sticking to the slow and steady strategy
that led to their victory on the last leg.
TINA: We've got a couple of days ahead of us.
We don't want to waste all of our energy
in the first 15 minutes.
Any one of these teams could make a disastrous decision
that could put us up in front of 'em
by just going at our own pace.
Let's keep going.
NARRATOR: Up ahead,
the Military team clinging to the lead...
GRADY: Keep it up.
NARRATOR: ...encounters their first obstacle.
RUDY: That does not sound good.
JARED: No, it doesn't.
NARRATOR: A log jam...
JARED: Hey, Rudy, will you just run over there, check it out,
and let us know if we can take it in the canoe
or if we got to portage.
RUDY: For sure.
I'll do the recce.
JARED: Alright, let me know.
Let's hurry up though.
They're right on our butts.
RUDY: Let's get some eyes on.
Whoa!
JARED: How does it look?
RUDY: I don't think we can go over with the boat.
GRADY: Portage it over, portage it around?
RUDY: Yeah, we're gonna have to portage around.
RUDY: Gotcha. I gotcha.
DALLAS: This water is moving.
Let's shut down and take a look here.
Paddle me up farther in here.
EDDIE: The military guys are over there.
They're pulling their boat out.
DALLAS: And they're way ahead of us now.
Hustle, hustle.
GRADY: Oh, we're killing them.
JARED: Yeah, we're good.
They're not even out of the water.
RUDY: Watch out, gets real, real sticky up here.
[grunts]
Watch your footing.
With all these mossy rocks and deadfall,
it's a recipe for disaster.
For sure, it would take nothing to snap a leg.
It would take nothing to twist a knee.
It would take nothing to break a foot.
JARED: This is not the easiest thing to do.
RUDY: Here we go.
GRADY: Keep tugging.
NARRATOR: As the Military struggles through thick forest,
the Endurance team finds an easier route
and now takes command of the lead.
DALLAS: That water's moving, man.
SEAN: Yeah, it is moving. I can hear it, man.
It's like there might be waterfalls ahead.
EDDIE: I hear water.
Whoa!
NARRATOR: Getting past this pair of 70-foot waterfalls
won't be easy.
EDDIE: We just need to get down.
NARRATOR: Back on Turner Lake,
the last place Mountaineers hit the shore.
MARTY: Straight in.
Life's a beach.
THOMAS: I am super hungry.
MARTY: Oh! That was a long paddle.
THOMAS: Alright, guys, so we gonna portage here?
TYLER: Oh, yeah, we definitely got to portage,
we got to make up some time.
THOMAS: Up and through this ravine's
probably the best portage.
NARRATOR: But Marty has a different strategy.
MARTY: I got an idea.
What do you think about catching some fish?
TYLER: Dude, I think that's good race strategy,
'cause the other guys, they're beating themselves up.
NARRATOR: To survive the grueling journey ahead,
the competitors need more protein
than their meager two-pound ration of rice and beans.
TYLER: It's gonna pay off.
MARTY: Alright.
Last time we fished, we caught halibut and salmon
and almost came in first.
So if we don't put a hole in this thing, we got a chance.
[laughter]
A large aspect of our expeditions are subsistence,
and to just blast across this lake without wetting a line
doesn't make any sense.
MAN: Woo!
NARRATOR: Still maintaining the lead...
EDDIE: Alright, Dallas, be careful, bro.
NARRATOR: The Endurance team is rigging a repel system
to lower their canoe past the treacherous falls.
DALLAS: We're in a heated battle with the Military team.
The best way to move forward here is the most direct path,
which obviously the water is taking.
The only problem is it's off a cliff.
So basically, we rig up the canoe and start repelling.
Looking good, keep it coming.
It was a little bit sketchy, a little bit hairy in places,
but it's the quickest way in my mind.
Got another 25 feet.
Straight shot from here, keep it coming.
EDDIE: You got it.
DALLAS: Hold!
EDDIE: Good job, man!
SEAN: Thankfully we got the canoe down safely, no cracks.
We even bypassed the two waterfalls,
and we're feeling pretty good.
DALLAS: Alright, ready? Let's do it.
Holy cow, guys.
Check it out!
SEAN: No!
God, another waterfall, man.
EDDIE: How did we miss this one?
[groans]
Unbelievable.
SEAN: I thought we went around it.
NARRATOR: With no other way around, the team has a choice--
waste valuable time backtracking,
or risk a 70-foot descent
down the face of the thundering waterfall.
DALLAS: This one was covered by this brush, dude,
we were standing right up there.
Check it out.
Better catch those guys.
EDDIE: Watch out, man, it's slick.
Just watch your step.
EDDIE: You know, it looks kind of hairy right there.
DALLAS: It goes straight down, man.
A lot of water going down it, too.
But if I can go down it, it's not that far down,
there's a little pool at the bottom.
If I can get down it,
then you guys can send the canoe down that same line.
If it gets crazy we'll have to find another way to do it.
SEAN: Alright, let's do it, man.
Time's a-wasting, let's go.
DALLAS: Alright, get a rope, let's go.
SEAN: There's a lot of force in that water, man.
It's pounding down, bro.
NARRATOR: Determined to hang on to the lead,
Dallas prepares to take on the rushing falls.
EDDIE: Be safe!
DALLAS: Will do, man.
SEAN: One step at a time.
Repel is never fun. It's always serious business.
You think, oh, you're going through a waterfall,
but with that current there's so much force.
It's incredible unless you've experienced it yourself.
Looking good!
Take it easy, Dallas.
Whoa!
Looking good. Whoa!
You all right?
DALLAS: Woo!
SEAN: Whoa, whoa!
SEAN: What happened?
SEAN: Alright!
Bring the rope back up.
He's got to try to get this canoe down, alright?
DALLAS: Woo!
SEAN: Dallas, he had something wrong with his loop
where he took a slip and took a bad fall.
Lucky enough he took a fall near the bottom,
and he was all right.
NARRATOR: Back on Turner Lake...
MARTY: This is good, this was a good call,
even though it's a little bit crazy.
NARRATOR: The last place Mountaineers
are taking a huge risk.
They've stopped to fish,
believing the extra protein will give them an edge
over their starving competition.
MARTY: People that came here 100 years ago to these mountains
and fished this very lake
did whatever they could figure out to catch something.
In this case I'm using a water bottle.
I'll grab the water bottle, put the line on my reel.
There we go.
Very simple.
A fishing pole in 30 seconds.
TYLER: We're covering a lot of distance.
You got to eat well.
We're team Alaska, and we fish a lot up here.
We have the advantage over the other teams.
It really comes down to picking a perfect spot to fish.
MARTY: There it is, there it is, there it is.
THOMAS: He got a fish?
MARTY: Yeah, right there, look.
TYLER: Nice, nice!
Shoot it, shoot it!
[laughs]
Scent this rock.
MARTY: Please don't make--whoa, please don't make fun of me.
It worked perfectly.
You got any more where that came from?
TYLER: Heck, yeah, man.
NARRATOR: Up ahead in third place,
the Woodsmen are keeping their slow and steady pace.
JIMMY: Alright.
YOTE: Watch yourself on them trees.
TINA: I got it.
NARRATOR: Avoiding the waterfalls
by cutting deep into the woods,
the team looks for an alternate route down to Taku Inlet.
YOTE: You got a rope handy, Jimmy?
JIMMY: We got a rope in the canoe.
JIMMY: We just decided to cut a few miles off the lake.
Even though we're gonna deal with thick brush,
I think it will save a lot of time.
[grunting]
TINA: We got to get...
YOTE: Slow through here.
[grunts]
TINA: Oh, my God! Yote! [bleep]
Yote!
YOTE: I'm all right, I'm all right. Give me a hand.
TINA: Are you all right? YOTE: I'm okay.
TINA: Crap, that's slippery.
YOTE: Even as tough as this is getting through all this brush,
we've got to continue.
TINA: Is your backpack all right?
YOTE: Hopefully, come on, we got to go.
TINA: Alright.
We got to get to the water.
GRADY: Bit of a drop about ten feet behind you.
NARRATOR: In second place,
the Military team is blazing past the gushing waterfalls.
GRADY: You're halfway?
NARRATOR: But they discover their biggest challenge
is yet to come.
GRADY: Son of a ***.
JARED: Oh!
GRADY: We're gonna have to manage the canoe again.
JARED: It's only about 60 feet.
JARED: I think it'll be fine.
GRADY: For sake of time,
we're contemplating throwing the canoe down.
I'm half and half on it, because if we lose this canoe, I mean,
we're gonna be, we're probably gonna be losing.
NARRATOR: Desperate to regain the lead,
the team risks the total destruction of their vessel.
JARED: It takes a long time to repel a canoe down anything.
We don't have that kind of time.
In order for this to work, it has to land perfectly flat,
and it has to clear the actual waterfall.
JARED: Alright. GRADY: Yep.
BOTH: One, two, three.
[howling]
GRADY: Perfect, dude. JARED: Yeah!
GRADY: Perfect.
Nailed it, nailed it.
It just floated down like a leaf.
This was perfect.
100% perfect.
RUDY: You guys ready?
NARRATOR: Farther behind...
MARTY: Dude, dude. TYLER: What do you got?
TYLER: Nice, nice, nice!
NARRATOR: The Mountaineers gamble to stay and fish
on Turner Lake has paid off.
TYLER: That's a little mini, little fathead, dude.
[laughs]
[thunder]
THOMAS: Here comes the rain, guys.
MARTY: Here it comes.
This is southeast Alaska, boys.
We're gonna be struck by lightning, man.
NARRATOR: The team will fill their bellies tonight,
but now their attention shifts to a more urgent concern.
MARTY: Frick, we're gonna get...
That lightning is coming down real [bleep]...
TYLER: Dude, it's not a metal canoe.
It's plastic. Don't worry.
MARTY: I'll remind you that when I get struck by lightning.
NARRATOR: Thunderstorms in southeast Alaska often strike
with just a few minutes' warning.
TYLER: Wind's picking up.
You don't want to lose it.
Oh, man, coming down.
THOMAS: Big winds are what we're most worried about right now.
Big winds come up and blow this thing off the island,
you catch it like a sail and be up [bleep] creek.
TYLER: In situations like this, you're just surviving.
[thunder]
[bleep]
MARTY: That's too close!
The voice of God...
Hang on!
...echoing and rumbling.
Fear-inspiring.
ALL: Whoa!
MARTY: Hang on, hang on, hang on!
TYLER: Woo!
NARRATOR: Three miles ahead of the storm,
the third place Woodsmen are setting up camp
in a buggy marsh near Taku Inlet.
Desperate to warm up,
the team calls upon Jimmy's survival expertise.
JIMMY: My matches are wet.
I'm gonna have to try to use a shotgun shell to light a fire.
So, I'm taking a shot out.
I'm gonna take some of the powder out, too.
I just want enough powder to get my wax cotton burning.
I take cotton balls with petroleum jelly on 'em.
They're very flammable, and you pack it in the barrel.
Ready, Yote?
YOTE: I'm ready, Jimmy.
JIMMY: I shoot it up in the air.
[gunshot]
And it has a spark in it.
TINA: Good catch!
JIMMY: And that's how you get a fire going in a real emergency,
and it's a lifesaver to know that.
TINA: Woo-hoo!
Boom. We have fire.
That was pretty crazy.
YOTE: Good looking fire, Jimmy.
JIMMY: Oh, yeah.
NARRATOR: Thanks to Jimmy's Alaskan ingenuity,
the Woodsmen chow down on a hot meal.
Up ahead, the Endurance team retains their lead
as they settle in for the night.
EDDIE: We're lucky with how dry it is right now.
NARRATOR: In second place, the Military team sets up camp.
While back on Turner Lake,
the Mountaineers refuel on the day's catch.
TYLER: Let's kick some butt.
MARTY: Even though this is a race, you get tired, get hungry,
get sore, it's all a part of it.
So you need a good night's rest.
That's paramount.
Let's get a good night's rest,
get up early and hit the trail running, man.
NARRATOR: Day two.
On the Taku Inlet, the Endurance team leads the pack,
followed closely by the Military team.
In third place, the Woodsmen are ready to hit the water.
While in last place,
the Mountaineers face an uphill battle.
In the marsh, the Woodsmen are up early
and hatching a strategy to cross open water.
TINA: What's the plan?
YOTE: Well, we've gotta go out this to Taku Inlet.
JIMMY: Well, wait a minute, the water's too dangerous.
We're overloaded.
Three of us, all our gear in a canoe?
I've built canoes and I'd go on river trips all summer.
Canoes are not made for open ocean.
If we dump in a ocean, you have 15 minutes to half hour to live.
We've got to build some kind of outriggers.
We have to.
TINA: I've gotten kind of curious
on how that's gonna work, making a...
JIMMY: It will work fine.
We'll find some long poles and lash 'em to the pack raft.
NARRATOR: Jimmy draws from his years of experience
as a canoe builder to construct the outrigger.
JIMMY: Yote, that's just what the doctor ordered.
Give me that burled end right here.
Let me see something.
TINA: Cool. Good job, Jimmy.
JIMMY: Okay.
But I think we ought to cut this off.
I'm afraid of this poking the raft.
[grunts]
TINA: I need one log coming off each side.
JIMMY: Alright.
NARRATOR: Digging into their gear,
the team uses their inflatable pack rafts to provide stability.
JIMMY: That ain't gonna go anyplace.
My Hawaiian outrigger is awesome.
You couldn't tip that canoe if you wanted to
with the outrigger.
Hey! It's working.
TINA: That feels great, Jimmy. Good job.
JIMMY: You can't rock this at all.
NARRATOR: Two miles ahead, in second,
the Military team searches for a place
to scout their route to Steven's Passage.
RUDY: Hey, there's some cliffs up ahead there, Grady.
GRADY: Yeah, you guys want to dock up, get a better view?
JARED: Yeah?
You ready to get your climb on, Grady?
RUDY: You'll definitely get some good eyes on that high up, bud.
Be careful.
Alright.
GRADY: We're gonna get about 20 feet standoff.
RUDY: Get after it, buddy.
JARED: Hey, be careful up there.
RUDY: Good handholds, footholds, bud.
NARRATOR: With the clock ticking,
former Green Beret Grady Powell
cautiously inches up the sheer stone.
RUDY: You're looking good, bro.
How's it looking up there, Grady?
GRADY: Yeah, there it is.
RUDY: Alright.
JARED: That's right where we want it to be.
GRADY: Son of a ***, dude.
Look.
RUDY: Hey, it's Marty.
Get down, buddy!
JARED: Hurry up!
THOMAS: Oh, wait, wait, wait.
There's somebody up on the cliff there.
Can you see him moving?
Let's go, let's go, let's go.
JARED: Dude, get down.
RUDY: Be careful.
GRADY: I don't have time.
Coming in hot, bud.
JARED: Let's get him, let's get him, let's get him.
Okay, okay, stop!
[grunts]
GRADY: Ah, brother!
MARTY: Pour the coals to it, hit it!
RUDY: Nice and easy.
Staying low.
JARED: There you go.
MARTY: Let's go! JARED: Let's go!
RUDY: Man, that was dicey, Grady.
MARTY: Hey, they're trying to catch us.
Go, hit it!
RUDY: Your effort will not be wasted, let's go.
NARRATOR: On the coast of Steven's Passage
after 10 hours of paddling,
the first place Endurance athletes face a serious problem.
DALLAS: Did not find any fresh water out there.
There is nothing.
NARRATOR: No fresh water.
DALLAS: But I got an idea.
Doing what we're doing,
we need to drink a lot of water every single day.
So we're gonna have to find a way
to use the plentiful salt water and turn it into drinking water.
I think we can just distill it.
Boil the heck out of this stuff
and set up a collection system with the pot lid.
Basically evaporate the salt water,
get the vapors coming up that's just pure water,
run it down the lid, drip it into a another lid for a pan,
hopefully that will give us fresh drinking water.
NARRATOR: A dehydration level of just 2%
increases heart rate and decreases stamina and strength.
It's essential that the team rehydrate immediately.
DALLAS: Looking pretty nice.
EDDIE: It's looking real nice.
DALLAS: It's actually working. Look at this.
We got drips.
EDDIE: Nice.
SEAN: Alright!
EDDIE: Good job, Dallas.
DALLAS: Thanks, man.
Good work, guys.
SEAN: Nice.
NARRATOR: As night falls, all four teams settle in and fuel up
for their final push to the LZ.
TYLER: Ow, look at that.
Not bad for 10 minutes of work.
MARTY: Hey, let's go cook 'em up.
THOMAS: Dinnertime.
GRADY: Do you guys want to get started pretty early tomorrow?
It looks like we've got a long ways to go around.
RUDY: Yes.
GRADY: Cool, alright, so we're in agreement.
YOTE: So now it will drain off both sides,
kind of like the roof of a house.
TINA: Got plenty of place for a clothesline, too, in here.
NARRATOR: Day three.
To reach the extraction point on Admiralty Island,
the first place Endurance athletes
and second place Mountaineers will head for Oliver Inlet,
a longer but faster water route to the LZ.
Just behind, the third place Military
and fourth place Woodsmen will take the most direct path
through a dense forest.
With only eight hours to reach extraction,
the first place Endurance team gets an early start.
DALLAS: Get this sucker packed up.
SEAN: Yo, with one paddle.
DALLAS: What's that?
SEAN: One paddle.
DALLAS: Where's the other one?
EDDIE: I'm not seeing it.
DALLAS: Was it in the boat?
SEAN: No!
EDDIE: The tide took it.
DALLAS: Dude, it's not here.
We cannot work with one paddle.
We'll get nowhere.
SEAN: Let's go searching around,
try to find some sticks that we think might work for a paddle,
and just line 'em up and then we'll talk about it.
DALLAS: Yeah.
SEAN: This might work, you know?
DALLAS: That guy looks pretty good.
SEAN: It's light.
DALLAS: Oh, wow. SEAN: Yeah.
DALLAS: I'd be shocked if you found something
better than that.
SEAN: Is it ideal?
Absolutely not, but we have to move forward.
Time is of the essence.
I like it.
DALLAS: Alright, let's get moving.
NARRATOR: Thanks to Jimmy's outrigger...
YOTE: This is freakin' awesome.
NARRATOR: The Woodsmen are surging into the lead
as they take the shortest route to the LZ.
YOTE: This boat is not that pretty but it works great.
Hopefully it will get us to the extraction quicker.
TINA: Come on, Yote! Good job!
Paddle!
NARRATOR: A mile behind,
now in second place,
the Endurance athletes struggle to keep pace
with their makeshift paddle.
SEAN: Ah!
It's very hard to grip,
your forearms are aching within about three or four strokes.
This is a huge setback for us.
DALLAS: Completely messed up.
NARRATOR: Meanwhile...
[singing]
NARRATOR: The Military team
launches an offensive to catch their rivals,
the Endurance team.
RUDY: The Endurance team are my ultimate nemesis out here.
And I have a feeling when everything's said
and everything's done,
it's gonna be Endurance team, Military team,
a fight to the finish.
TINA: That's it.
That's Admiralty Island right there.
NARRATOR: Arriving first on Admiralty Island,
the Woodsmen head to shore with a gutsy plan.
TINA: So we've plotted our route out,
and we're gonna take this shortcut.
But we have no idea what we're going to encounter.
But in order for us to make it to the extraction point first,
we have to take this risk.
NARRATOR: Since they're not required to finish
with the canoe, they'll leave it on the beach
and forge ahead on foot.
YOTE: As soon as we come off the beach today,
we headed into this, it's basically temperate rain forest.
TINA: This is thick, Yote.
Hmm.
YOTE: It's just nasty.
It doesn't matter what shape you're in,
doesn't matter who you are, the stuff's gonna slow you down.
TINA: This stuff is thick.
Holy crap.
Coming, Jimmy?
JIMMY: Pretty hard going through here.
YOTE: We're making good time.
TINA: He's an old master.
YOTE: Oh, yeah.
There's some real boggy stuff in here, guys, watch out.
TINA: Wow, this is thick.
This is deep muck.
YOTE: Yeah, that's freakin' nasty stuff.
JIMMY: Whoa!
[grunts]
TINA: Jimmy!
YOTE: Jimmy, are you all right?
JIMMY: Oh.
Oh, I just twisted my knee.
[bleep]
Oh!
JIMMY: Okay, hold on.
YOTE: Let me help you up and see if you can put any weight on it.
[grunts]
JIMMY: Oh!
Let me try to take a few steps. Come on.
[bleep]
Ow! [bleep]
YOTE: It ain't gonna work, Jimmy.
Come on, let's try to sit back down.
JIMMY: Oh! Son of a gun!
Ah, [bleep]!
YOTE: Just let me look at it.
JIMMY: Oh, it's hurting, hurting like a...
It's hurting.
Oh, yeah, it's all swollen, look it.
YOTE: Holy [bleep], man, it's all swelled up.
JIMMY: Look at that sucker.
YOTE: Oh, God.
What are we gonna do here?
JIMMY: Oh!
NARRATOR: In second place...
GRADY: Looking good, bud.
NARRATOR: The Military hits the shores of Admiralty Island.
RUDY: Let's pick a good route and let's keep pushing forward.
NARRATOR: Like the Woodsmen,
they'll bushwhack through dense forest to reach the LZ.
GRADY: Oh, dude, this will be a long way around.
JARED: Yeah, a straight shot between these two mountains,
all the way across, it's gonna be bad.
GRADY: If you want to win, you got to go fast.
But with that you got to be smart.
So we decided we're gonna go ahead and go overland.
And that meant leaving our boat.
RUDY: Alright.
JARED: Let's do it. Off to the races.
NARRATOR: In third place, the Endurance team gambles on
an inlet leading into the heart of Admiralty Island.
SEAN: Yeah! Hoo-hoo!
NARRATOR: The team's headed for a hot spot they saw on the map,
the Oliver Inlet Tram,
an old pushcart left behind from mining days.
DALLAS: Alright, heading to the end of this inlet.
As soon as you get up into the trees,
there is a pushcart on rails.
I think this is gonna give us a home field advantage.
MARTY: Dude, Seavey's right there, hit it!
NARRATOR: But they're not the only competitors
with this in mind.
DALLAS: It's Marty right behind us.
Let's go.
Go, go, go.
Big cowboy hat.
Here comes Marty.
The race is on now.
MARTY: Hit it, hit it, hit it.
DALLAS: Go, go, go, go!
[yelling]
MARTY: We got it!
[laughs]
We pass them.
We pass the Seavey team.
We pass the Endurance team.
DALLAS: Come on, let's head 'em off!
SEAN: Yep!
DALLAS: That's a horrible, horrible sight.
And it's pretty obvious that our makeshift paddle
is not helping us a whole lot here.
SEAN: We got to catch them!
TYLER: We got--let's pull. Packs out!
MARTY: This is like full-on panic.
They're right behind us.
This is called the Endurance team for a reason.
Hit it, hit it, hit it.
TYLER: They're coming up fast.
MARTY: They're racers, they're runners.
They hold world records for getting to the top of mountains
like Kilimanjaro.
Check this cart out, it's awesome.
DALLAS: Mountaineers right now, they're the ones to beat.
We can beat them, we will beat them,
and we can beat them fairly.
MARTY: Go!
Boom, take off pushing this thing,
just like Dallas Seavey would push a dog sled.
Unfortunately, Dallas Seavey is behind me.
SEAN: Up and over.
MARTY: Without a cart.
DALLAS: They took it.
MARTY: Woo!
I learned this kick step from Dallas.
Yeah, buddy.
[laughter]
SEAN: I'll run up ahead and I'll bring it back, alright?
DALLAS: Yeah.
Sean's gonna get that cart, bring it back to us,
and wherever we meet
we'll be able to cruise from there to the end of the portage.
SEAN: I'll meet you back here.
NARRATOR: Farther inland...
RUDY: We're making alright time.
NARRATOR: The Military team surges into first
as they plow through the forest.
GRADY: Holy cow.
RUDY: Looks like a, yeah, a layup spot for a big bear.
JARED: Big track right there.
RUDY: By the size of the tracks, it looks like a huge animal.
JARED: So there's a bear here. Let's keep going away from here.
GRADY: Hey-oh!
RUDY: It's thick.
This is a tough route.
We just keep pushing through to the objective,
that's the thing about Special Operations forces.
We take our environment and we utilize every opportunity
to improve our position.
GRADY: We're almost there.
NARRATOR: Now in last place,
Jimmy's injury has brought the Woodsmen to their knees.
JIMMY: Oh!
YOTE: I don't know, Jimmy, this isn't looking good, man.
TINA: He can't walk.
YOTE: No, he can't walk.
I don't know what...
I don't know what the [bleep] to do.
NARRATOR: Panicked, Yote and Tina turn to the crew for help.
YOTE: Can we get some help here, please?
TYLER: Mush, Marty, mush!
NARRATOR: With the help of a pushcart,
the Mountaineers are speeding toward the LZ.
SEAN: The Mountaineers have found the railroad cart,
and there's only one.
So I'm gonna run down there,
get the cart and then meet Dallas and Eddie
somewhere in the middle so we can try to make up some time.
But this is a huge setback.
MARTY: Woo! Woo, woo, woo!
What's that sign say?
TYLER: Danger! Steep hill!
MARTY: Danger! Steep hill!
[yelling]
Oh, [bleep]! No brakes!
TYLER: Big corner, big corner.
MARTY: Lean!
Holy [bleep].
[yelling]
Woo!
[bleep]
We survived dead man's curve!
Arrgh!
TYLER: It's right there, man.
MARTY: We made the portage,
we are now on the other side of the mountains at the ocean.
Hey, check it out, guys.
I got an idea.
This is a race, right?
And we did get to the cart first.
Let's go, man!
One little last bit of competitive edge would be...
SEAN: Ah!
Marty!
[Marty laughs]
SEAN: Ah!
There it is.
Oh, man!
They tried to hide it from me.
And that's just like the Mountaineers.
I've got to meet Ed and Dallas somewhere in between,
and hopefully we can get through this.
Giddy up.
In the end, it'll come back.
It all comes back around.
NARRATOR: Meanwhile...
JIMMY: Oh, yeah, it's all swelled up.
NARRATOR: The crew medic examines Jimmy's injured knee.
JIMMY: Oh!
[grunts]
JIMMY: Yeah, yeah!
Ooh! Right here, right here, both spots here.
NARRATOR: After taking a challenging but direct route
overland, the Military are rapidly approaching the LZ.
GRADY: Made it, boys.
RUDY: Oh, great push, gentlemen.
JARED: And we got to move fast
'cause I think the tide's coming up.
YOTE: Yeah, just down through there.
JIMMY: I can't bend my legs.
YOTE: Almost there.
NARRATOR: With the clock ticking,
the Woodsmen face the harsh reality
that their journey has come to an end.
Jimmy's injury is too severe to continue,
and he must be evacuated.
YOTE: Hey, it looks like there's a clearing up ahead.
NARRATOR: Rules state that all three teammates
must reach the extraction LZ before the cutoff,
or the team is eliminated.
YOTE: We were probably three-quarters of the way there,
I mean, not that far.
I think we could have made it.
But, you know, I mean, he took that spill.
There's not much we can do about it.
Go ahead and sit down if you can.
[groans]
But we needed to get him evacuated out of there
as soon as we could,
so we abandoned the expedition.
JIMMY: Thank you.
Thanks, folks, for getting me up here.
YOTE: Yeah. How are you doing?
JIMMY: Not too good.
YOTE: No man left behind, buddy.
They're gonna help us get a chopper in here or something
for you, get you to town.
SEAN: Beautiful, beautiful.
EDDIE: Guys, let's go.
NARRATOR: With the clock ticking fast...
RUDY: Let's push, gents.
MARTY: Straight ahead, boys.
TYLER: Almost there!
NARRATOR: The three remaining teams sprint toward the finish.
MARTY: We're gonna win this one, I know it!
RUDY: I think we ought to do a little map check.
JARED: Well, we know this is the peninsula.
We should be...
RUDY: Right there!
I don't see anyone around.
GRADY: This the point. Let's go. Let's do this.
JARED: Bringing it home.
Going overland got us exactly where we needed to go.
It got us there faster than anyone else.
I couldn't be more proud of the team.
NARRATOR: As always, the winning team is rewarded
with a bear barrel stocked with protein-filled snacks.
JARED: What do we got, man?
RUDY: Man, we got-- let's find out.
Salmon.
Mmm-mm-mm-mm!
MARTY: Well, well, well, if it isn't the Military.
[laughter]
JARED: What's up?
TYLER: Mountaineers reporting for duty, man.
MARTY: You hit the dusty trail.
THOMAS: Alright, I like it.
MARTY: Little bit farther.
THOMAS: This is a competition.
And nobody wants to lose.
We obviously want to get in first place.
But realistically this isn't a sprint.
It's a marathon.
We have the capabilities.
And I guarantee you we're gonna make it to the end.
JARED: I see movement.
Is that Seavey?
GRADY: That's them.
NARRATOR: With just minutes to spare,
the Endurance team hits the LZ in third place.
DALLAS: There we go.
Take it on in.
Well, we get to the beach, and unfortunately not just Marty.
GRADY: What's up, guys?
RUDY: Good effort, good effort!
SEAN: Ah! Military.
DALLAS: Special Ops guys standing there
with freakin' [bleep] grins ear to ear.
Again, they're waiting here.
And this is starting to get old.
MAN: Good job, bro.
SEAN: The winning aspect is there, it's always there.
But the first and foremost goal
is to get our team to the extraction point safely
and out alive to the next expedition.
DALLAS: We got what, 15 minutes till plane time?
When's the last time anybody's seen the Woodsmen?
GRADY: When we were all in the open water.
MARTY: So we're all there at the LZ except the Woodsmen team.
Not good.
DALLAS: They're on time.
SEAN: The Woodsmen aren't here.
GRADY: They probably got about two or three minutes.
MAN: Hope they're all right.
TINA: I hear it right now, Yote.
NARRATOR: Just three miles from the LZ,
an emergency helicopter arrives
to take Jimmy to the nearest hospital.
WOMAN: Alright, Jimmy, come with me.
TINA: Bye, Jimmy.
YOTE: I don't think they make people like Jimmy anymore.
Old sourdoughs like him are kind of fading out into the past.
This expedition was pretty important to him.
I feel real bad for the guy.
I really do.
MARTY: Hey, everyone knows that's the deal.
If you don't make it, you're left behind.
SEAN: Yeah, I don't see 'em at all.
MARTY: Let's get our gear and get on that plane.
This is Alaska, it's unforgiving.
It's a hard place.
It's an extreme place.
These teams are going from point A to point B
across the most arduous, diverse, dangerous terrain
on planet Earth.
Does it surprise me that one of these teams didn't make it?
No.
It's a humble reminder.
NARRATOR: With their victory,
the Military team leads the pack
with two wins.
The Woodsmen, now disqualified,
drop off the board,
leaving the field wide open
in the competition
for the title of
ultimate Alaskan survivor.
As Jimmy's evacuated,
the rest of his team prepares to head home.
YOTE: I never figured that my expedition would end this way.
I figured I'd have to be beat up or broken,
but the friendships we've made here
is probably just the beginning.
NARRATOR: Up next...
With only three teams remaining,
the competitors tackle jagged peaks,
snow-covered glaciers and deadly canyon crossings.