Alex Honnold Survives Deadly Ice Falls (Full Episode) | Arctic Ascent | National Geographic

0:07 (wind whistling)♪♪ (creaking) ALDO: 3, 2, 1.

0:25 Heave.

0:26 Again.

0:40 Uhh.

0:42 Quite warm, isn't it?

0:44 (crash) HEÏDI: Ice!

0:48 Hide your hands!

0:52 MIKEY: Dagger.

0:53 Look at that thing.

0:55 ALDO: This is treacherous.

0:58 (crash) HEÏDI: Oh, rock.

0:59 Head, head, head!

1:00 ALDO: Ice!

1:02 (crash) ALEX: Oww, (bleep).

1:04 ALDO: Did it hit you?

1:05 ALEX: Right on the bridge of my nose.

1:09 Mike, is that blood?

1:11 HAZEL: Yeah, you're bleeding.

1:12 ALDO: Whoa.

1:13 HEÏDI: Coming!

1:16 (ice clattering) HAZEL: It actually sliced you.

1:20 It's like a little knife wound.

1:22 ALEX: It's definitely way better to get hit by ice than rock.

1:25 If that had been a rock that size that hit me,

1:26 it for sure would have broken my nose at least.

1:30 If not put a hole straight through my face.

1:52 Did I get most of the blood off?

1:53 ALDO: Yeah.

1:54 Does it hurt?

1:55 ALEX: I'm definitely like a little sore, but.

1:59 I think the thing with the ice falls is really scary,

2:02 but there's nothing you can do about it.

2:05 You either give up on the climb entirely or you play through it.

2:11 Combat medic Aldo frickin' taking care of me.

2:16 HAZEL: Okay, I've got ya.

2:18 Go for it.

2:19 ALDO: Nice one, mate.

2:24 ALEX: Classic, we're like, "Oh, better conditions today," like,

2:27 nope, different set of bad conditions.

2:29 It's always something in Greenland.

2:34 We're 70 miles from a 4,000-foot sea cliff called Ingmikortilaq.

2:40 It's one of the highest unclimbed rock faces on the planet.

2:49 To get there, we want to be the first people ever to cross the Renland Ice Cap.

2:56 But to reach the ice cap,

2:57 we'll all have to complete a two-day climb up what we're calling the Pool Wall.

3:06 A 1,500-foot unclimbed Arctic cliff.

3:12 MIKEY: Given the complications of our team,

3:14 we've got a couple rookie big wall climbers with us.

3:18 Today's like probably one of the more complicated

3:21 big wall days of the whole trip, honestly.

3:28 HEÏDI: Whoa, this feels so scary!

3:32 Wuh!

3:35 ADAM: I don't focus on the height at all.

3:39 I'm just focused on those bits of ice.

3:43 You know, I felt a couple of pieces hit me, and I can feel the force of it,

3:48 and when they hit me,

3:50 I say some Greenlandic words that I'm not allowed to say for my mom.

3:54 (laughs) (ice falls)♪♪ I was the last one climbing up.

4:06 That's the point where I was the most scared.

4:13 It just struck me, okay, this rope is the only thing holding me.

4:18 A rock could hit the rope and just cut it.

4:26 This was serious business.

4:36 HEÏDI: Whoa, okay.

4:38 (exhales) (breathing heavily)♪♪ I'm now about 1,000 feet up.

4:54 I've made a decision not to look down.

4:58 If I do, I'm worried I'll be paralyzed by fear.

5:05 HAZEL: Yeah!

5:06 ALEX: Yeah!

5:07 (Hazel laughs) ALDO: All good, Heïdi?

5:12 HEÏDI: Horizontal ground!

5:15 (laughs) ALEX: Nice climb.

5:18 ALDO: Yeah.

5:19 ADAM: This is crazy, huh?

5:20 (Heïdi laughs) Yoooo!

5:24 HEÏDI: And the view is pretty nice, huh?

5:26 ADAM: It's, it's beautiful.

5:28 I got a bit scared actually!

5:31 HEÏDI: It's hard to imagine,

5:33 but you're gonna spend the night attached to a thin tent made

5:38 of fabric that is only secured by one bolt stuck into the rock.

6:14 MIKEY: It's a bit lonely over here on this side of the camp.

6:18 Definitely the cool kids are over there.

6:21 HAZEL: I love portaledges.

6:23 ALEX: Oh, it's so much cozier than being outside.

6:25 HAZEL: And it's nice to get out of the wind.

6:27 ALEX: Yeah, it's so much warmer.

6:28 HAZEL: Are we taking helmets off?

6:30 ALEX: Well, I am.

6:32 HEÏDI: When I look out the window, I'm like, whoa!

6:34 (laughs) Where is the floor?

6:36 (laughs)♪♪ I'm glad that tomorrow is the second and last day.

6:45 (chuckles) Yeah.

6:47 ALEX: Yeah, nothing like 9 o'clock bedtime.

6:50 (Heïdi laughs) ADAM: I think I'm ready to sleep.

6:53 ALEX: Yeah, how do you feel?

6:54 How was the day?

6:55 ADAM: Good, I was actually a bit scared down here,

6:58 I was kind of left alone like the last man.

7:02 And you guys?

7:03 ALEX: We, we're good, we're pretty beat.

7:06 Our hands, like...

7:08 ADAM: Must have been cold.

7:08 ALEX: Yeah, the climbing today kind of took a little bit out of us, actually.

7:15 ALDO: Here we are, me and Mikey.

7:18 MIKEY: Hey there!

7:19 ALDO: But look at this for a view.

7:21 (unzips) There we go.

7:25 Sorry, Hazel.

7:26 (laughs) ALDO: I think I was filming when Hazel was having a wee.

7:34 (laughs) ALEX: What was the drama of the day?

7:36 HAZEL: The drama of the day was Alex got hit on the noggin with a piece of ice.

7:45 And at one point it looked really extreme,

7:46 because there was blood dripping all down his face.

7:48 ALEX: There was blood dripping into my mouth, I was like,

7:50 that's unusual when you get hit on the face

7:51 hard enough that it bleeds into your mouth.

7:55 ADAM: Sleep well.

7:58 ALEX: Bonne nuit!

8:15 HAZEL: The first day was kind of scary, because there was a lot of falling ice.

8:20 But today when I woke up,

8:24 I didn't even think I'd be able to get my climbing shoes on, I was so cold.

8:30 Ahhh.

8:34 HAZEL: Yeah.

8:35 ALEX: I was so impressed that she just put on her things and went.

8:38 I was like, that is, like, that's a hard woman.

8:43 Today's the day the whole team has to get to the top.

8:51 We're about 900 feet up.

8:53 To summit, we have to get through the steep top section of the wall.

9:00 We only have thin cracks to follow.

9:05 Plus the rock is constantly crumbling.

9:10 It's really difficult to get good gear.

9:22 HAZEL: Some people might think that climbers are just cut

9:24 from a different cloth and that they're just comfortable in these places,

9:29 but it really comes through practice, and I think that the biggest growth for me

9:33 has actually been learning how to manage that fear.

9:46 Ah!

9:47 Rock!

9:49 ALEX: You alright?

9:51 HAZEL: It's actually just making hand-fingerlocks big enough.

10:04 Ah, okay.

10:05 Ah, (bleep).

10:06 It's just so (bleep).

10:09 Ugh.

10:15 The crack is really narrow.

10:18 My hands are freezing, and the rock is so crumbly.

10:24 I can see one handhold above.

10:40 Ahh!

11:20 Pbbbt.

11:22 Ahhh.

11:24 Well, that's kind of the last hard pitch for sure.

11:29 Okay, safe, Alex!

11:35 Growing up it was challenging to feel like I fit in, you know,

11:41 as a climber, and as a girl who was into more of a boys' sport.

11:49 I'm just so thankful and grateful to my younger self that I stuck with it.

11:56 Because climbing's given me everything.

11:59 My whole life has this meaning that I

12:03 just wouldn't have if I didn't stick with climbing.

12:11 ALEX: Ugh!

12:12 HAZEL: Nice.

12:14 Yeah.

12:15 ALEX: Nice lead.

12:16 That was very impressive.

12:18 My fingers hurt, they're numb, they're bleeding.

12:21 That was very impressive.

12:22 HAZEL: We're losing the sun a little bit, actually.

12:24 ALEX: Yeah, at least we only have 300 feet to the summit,

12:27 and they're much easier.

12:35 ADAM: Aldo.

12:35 ALDO: Yeah.

12:36 ADAM: This thing, do I get...

12:37 ALDO: Just keep coming up.

12:39 ADAM: Before I started climbing, we saw two ravens.

12:41 In my culture that's a sign

12:43 that something is happening over there, something good.

12:47 ALEX: Yeah, Adam!

12:48 Almost there.

12:50 ADAM: It gave me a boost, it gave me a "you can do this" feeling.

12:56 ALDO: Are you enjoying it?

12:57 ADAM: Not really.

12:59 (chuckling) HAZEL: Wow, that was direct.

13:04 ADAM: No, for real, not really.

13:07 (laughs) It was nice to get up to the other guys and laugh a little.

13:11 ALDO: Hugs for Adam, yeah.

13:13 ADAM: It was comforting.

13:15 ALEX: Adam, we're thinking we're gonna name the route Two Ravens.

13:19 MIKEY: Good name, huh?

13:20 ADAM: Perfect, huh?

13:21 ALEX: You saw the ravens.

13:22 ADAM: Yeah, seriously.

13:23 ALEX: For you and Heïdi.

13:24 Two ravens flying up the wall.

13:26 ADAM: Yeah.

13:26 ALEX: Pretty exciting, huh?

13:27 ADAM: Oh, yeah.

13:28 That's a good name, huh?

13:29 (chuckling) At that moment when they said they wanted to name it Two Ravens,

13:34 I felt honored, because I couldn't have done it at all without them.

13:41 HAZEL: Final pitch!

13:43 Let's get to the summit.

13:45 ALEX: Okay, Hazel.

13:47 Send it!

14:13 Great success.

14:14 HAZEL: High five.

14:15 Nice one.

14:16 ALEX: We're on top.

14:17 Yay!

14:17 HAZEL: Yay!

14:19 ALEX: That's something.

14:21 We're on top.

14:24 HAZEL: Nice, Aldo.

14:26 ALDO: What a mission.

14:28 ALEX: Yeah.

14:29 ALDO: Woo-hoo.

14:30 Not bad for a practice wall.

14:34 MIKEY: Practice run?

14:35 This is like my retirement run.

14:38 ALDO: How you feeling?

14:40 ADAM: Worked.

14:41 HAZEL: Nice one.

14:44 You did so well, hey?

14:45 ADAM: Crazy experience.

14:47 Right now, never again.

14:49 Never.

14:49 HAZEL: Yeah.

14:50 ALDO: Heïdi!

14:53 HEÏDI: Hey, guys!

14:54 ALDO: Welcome!

14:56 ADAM: Yeee!

14:58 ALEX: Yeah.

15:01 HEÏDI: We made it, huh?

15:02 ADAM: We made it.

15:04 HEÏDI: The two newbies.

15:05 ALDO: Well done.

15:06 HEÏDI: Thank you, team.

15:07 It's all thanks to you guys.

15:09 ADAM: Thank you, guys.

15:10 HEÏDI: Ahhh.

15:10 Oh, this is incredible.

15:11 ALEX: Two Ravens.

15:24 (muffled conversation) Okay, we got everything?

15:27 ALDO: That was a haul and a half.

15:28 ALEX: Oh, my gosh, that was insane.

15:36 I'm starting to think that Ingmikortilaq,

15:38 which is three times higher than the Pool Wall,

15:40 might be a bit of an undertaking.

15:44 So next up we'll have to try to find somewhere flat to camp.

15:48 We still have a long ways to go before we sleep tonight.

15:55 Finally we've made it onto the Renland Ice Cap, a 42-mile-wide reservoir of ice,

16:03 some of which has been here for tens of thousands of years.

16:07 It will be the highest and coldest part of the expedition.

16:15 This will be the first time anyone's tried to cross this ice cap on foot.

16:20 Our plan is to ski northwest 40 miles,

16:23 taking measurements for Heïdi's research as we go.

16:28 Then, we'll then descend a glacier to the fjord below.

16:40 ADAM: Aldo.

16:42 ALDO: Yeah.

16:43 Huh?

16:43 ADAM: Where we putting up the tents?

16:45 Somewhere over here?

16:46 ALDO: Yeah, where do you think?

16:47 Here's good.

16:49 Up here we're so exposed, temperatures are well below freezing.

16:55 It's quite a bit of a change from being on the wall and being

16:58 slightly protected to being out in the elements

17:01 and needing to get things done fast.

17:05 What's your thoughts with bears up here?

17:07 ADAM: We'll put up a bear fence,

17:09 make sure...we have a good night's sleep, because we need that, all of us.

17:20 ALEX: It's been a long day.

17:22 Our skin is killing us, my fingers, the skin on my fingers really hurts.

17:30 Hard to believe that Ingmikortilaq is supposed to be at least two,

17:34 maybe three times bigger.

17:35 I just don't know if we can do three times more.

17:40 Hopefully we'll recover a bit before then.

17:43 (wind blowing) ALEX: This is my first expedition as a father.

17:54 And I do miss my daughter.

17:57 It's a pretty long trip to be away from family.

18:00 And it's certainly gonna be hard on my wife,

18:03 to have to be a single parent for six weeks.

18:08 I really hope that June will grow up on a healthy planet.

18:14 We're in the midst of a crisis,

18:15 and we need to actually help change the world as quickly as possible.

18:20 The first year that I started earning more income than I needed,

18:25 I started donating a third of my income

18:27 to help fund solar projects around the world.

18:34 I think expeditions should be about more than just climbing.

18:39 Yeah, it's cool to make first ascents, but it's great that we're also collecting

18:45 data from the front line of climate change.

18:51 (wind whistling) ALDO: Morning.

18:58 You guys sleep well?

19:00 MIKEY: Good thing we got skis, huh?

19:03 ALEX: Today we head out across the ice cap.

19:06 It should take around four days,

19:08 but we don't really know, since no one's ever done it.

19:12 To lighten the load, we're gonna leave a lot of our climbing gear behind.

19:17 Our support team will pick it up later.

19:21 It's time to shift into science mode.

19:25 Heïdi's going to be gathering important data as we cross the ice.

19:29 HEÏDI: So we have here two different radars.

19:32 This will help us to measure ice thickness,

19:35 and the way it works is that the transmitter here will send pulses of radio

19:41 waves into the ground and it will give us information on how thick the ice is.

19:47 It works almost like a sonar.

19:49 It enables us to see what's underneath our feet.

19:54 ALEX: Okay, we're all ready?

19:55 HEÏDI: Yeah.

19:56 ALEX: Okay, walking.

20:13 HEÏDI: Measuring the thickness of the ice will help

20:15 us calculate how much water the Renland Ice Cap holds.

20:21 We want to understand how sea levels might rise

20:24 if temperatures keep going up and all of this melts.

20:33 ALEX: It's not as if I've ever wanted to be a polar explorer, you know,

20:35 I'm a rock climber for a reason, but in this case, to spend, you know,

20:39 between four days and a week going somewhere

20:41 that no one's ever been to help Heïdi for science,

20:43 I mean, it's rare to have that kind of opportunity in life.

20:52 HEÏDI: Stay a bit more on your right if you can.

20:55 ADAM: How's this speed?

20:56 HEÏDI: Yeah, that's good, yeah.

20:58 ADAM: Okay?

21:03 ALDO: So difficult to get any bearings in this light.

21:13 MIKEY: Want to stop, Alex?

21:14 ALEX: Yeah, can we stop for a sec?

21:16 MIKEY: Sure.

21:21 HEÏDI: You have collected loads of files.

21:22 That's good, Adam.

21:23 ADAM: Yeah, that's what I do normally when I cross ice caps.

21:28 ALEX: Are we taking a look at your numbers?

21:31 HEÏDI: I mean these files are gigantic, actually.

21:34 So when we left camp, I mean, have a guess,

21:36 how thick was the ice when we left camp this morning?

21:40 ALDO: 900 feet.

21:42 MIKEY: No, I'd say 300 feet.

21:43 HEÏDI: So it was about 200 meters, so.

21:46 ALEX: 600, yeah, 700 feet.

21:49 HEÏDI: And now we are walking or skiing on ice that is 120,000 years old.

21:55 This ice has seen the last ice age and even the period before that.

22:03 ALEX: The deepest ice here is over 2,000 feet down.

22:08 I mean, it's crazy.

22:10 This ice cap holds more than 350 billion tons of fresh water,

22:14 enough to submerge the entire island

22:16 of Manhattan under almost four miles of water.

22:30 (wind whistling) (wind whistling) ALDO:

22:41 So we're just skiing in on, on the bearing now because it's kind of whiteout,

22:45 but you can see the relief of that crevasse there.

22:52 Crevasses are the biggest hazard on the ice cap.

22:56 They're deep cracks in the ice, some going hundreds of feet.

23:01 In this flat light, they're tough to spot until you're actually on top of them.

23:07 And if you fall in one whilst you're pulling a sled,

23:10 then you're in deep trouble.

23:16 ALDO: So, crevasse is that way, so we'll basically head that direction.

23:21 ALEX: Yeah, looks like it.

23:22 MIKEY: Yeah, I was like, I think we really want to get out of here, huh?

23:25 ALDO: Yeah.

23:26 ALEX: Yeah.

23:33 ALDO: You go out in front, Mikey, I'll keep you on track.

23:35 MIKEY: Yeah, I'll be the crevasse poodle, I'm the lightest.

23:47 ALDO: Alright, you're bang on course there, Mikey.

23:53 Navigating in whiteout is never fun.

24:01 MIKEY: A landmark would be great.

24:04 ALDO: So difficult when there's absolutely nothing to focus on.

24:08 MIKEY: I just close my eyes.

24:09 ALDO: Yeah.

24:10 MIKEY: I feel it, Aldo, I just feel it.

24:13 ALDO: 10 degrees right.

24:14 MIKEY: Oh, that's not working, is it?

24:26 HAZEL: What's the plan?

24:27 ALEX: I mean, my goal for the day is to get all the way across the ice cap.

24:32 MIKEY: Okay, I think we should stop.

24:36 ALEX: Are you kidding?

24:38 ALDO: Basically we need to make a decision about whether we push on or not.

24:44 ALEX: We've only been skiing for an hour and a half.

24:47 I don't like stopping if I don't have to; I'd much rather keep moving.

24:52 ALDO: The fact from my point of view is that Mikey and I looked

24:55 at a map and we're heading straight into the center of that crevasse field.

24:58 I know that it's probably pretty dangerous.

25:01 Is it safe to push on?

25:02 Or is it better to stop and put up camp, and maybe we get better vis later on.

25:06 We do have 24-hour daylight, when the vis is good, we crack on again.

25:11 ALEX: We could also rope up and just keep going through.

25:15 ADAM: I don't think, roping up doesn't make it much safer, because we can't see.

25:20 ALEX: But you're less likely to die.

25:21 ADAM: The hazard is already there.

25:22 I'm, I'm in on camping here.

25:25 HEÏDI: Absolutely, same for me, I think it's totally unsafe to continue.

25:30 MIKEY: With Alex, it's, you know, it's a little different,

25:33 because he has so much self confidence and so much ability.

25:37 It's a little harder for me to blindly sort of trust what he says to do.

25:44 ALEX: What's the group vote?

25:46 MIKEY: I don't think we should move right now.

25:47 HEÏDI: Yeah.

25:48 ALDO: We'll go and probe an area for camp and then we'll whack

25:50 up some tents and then we'll just ride it out for a bit.

25:55 MIKEY: Where's your tent, Heïdi?

25:57 HEÏDI: Just here.

26:09 ALEX: Uh.

26:11 Whoa!

26:14 Kind of like, has this been probed?

26:16 'Cause I just punched through like to my, like, past my thigh.

26:19 Like I punched through that corner,

26:20 and then I punched through the other corner, I was like, man.

26:22 My whole tent is like a minefield over here.

26:24 ALDO: The dry glacier underneath feels fairly solid at 115, 120.

26:31 The story of this trip is basically don't fight the weather,

26:34 get the tents up, get dinner on, and wait it out.

26:42 HEÏDI: How are your feet?

26:43 HAZEL: Should probably check my blisters.

26:44 HEÏDI: Ah, this looks good.

26:46 HAZEL: Yeah.

26:46 This is coming away a little bit there, but.

26:48 HEÏDI: And you have the same on the other side?

26:49 HAZEL: Yeah, exactly the same place, yeah, this one's slightly worse, but.

26:52 HEÏDI: It doesn't look infected at all, so that's great.

26:54 HAZEL: No.

27:01 ALDO: Come on in.

27:01 ALEX: Oh, it's so cozy in here.

27:02 ALDO: It's nice, eh?

27:06 ALEX: Sanni said that June's been waking up four times a night again.

27:09 ALDO: Yeah.

27:10 ALEX: Oh, jeez.

27:11 I think I'm missing the worst part right now, honestly.

27:12 ALDO: Yeah.

27:13 ALEX: How disrupted has your sleep been?

27:15 ALDO: It's kind of funny going from being a new dad and no sleep,

27:19 to then coming on expedition where you get in theory full sleeps.

27:23 I've been craving those for months.

27:26 (chuckles) ALEX: It is quite the change.

27:42 HEÏDI: Being on the Renland Ice Cap is such a rare opportunity for a scientist

27:47 that I felt a lot of pressure to collect as much data as I could.

27:56 ALEX: I've never met anybody who likes the snow or ice as much as Heïdi.

28:00 This is like, this is insane.

28:02 Here, I brought you dinner, too.

28:03 HEÏDI: It's getting so deep.

28:04 Oh, you have!

28:04 Oh, that's so nice.

28:05 ALEX: Though now it's probably a little bit cold, but.

28:12 HEÏDI: My biggest passion is ice.

28:17 When I was a kid, someone told me that actually there are some people,

28:21 these glaciologists who spend all of their time

28:25 exploring remote areas of the world,

28:26 and I thought, hey, that sounds like the coolest job in the world.

28:31 ALEX: Are you proud of your hole?

28:33 HEÏDI: Yeah, but I really want to dig another one here, uh.

28:37 ALEX: I could start, but.

28:39 HEÏDI: Yeah, if you're keen.

28:41 ALEX: Here, actually, let me start while you eat.

28:42 HEÏDI: Are you sure?

28:44 ALEX: Yeah, yeah, just so you can relax for a minute.

28:46 HEÏDI: I can't even get out now.

28:47 (chuckles) ALEX: Do you need a hand?

28:51 Is that why you didn't come out for dinner because

28:52 you didn't know how to get out of the hole?

28:54 HEÏDI: (laughs) I was just stuck, yeah.

29:05 I want to see what the snowpack is like up here.

29:10 ALEX: I don't think this will take me that long,

29:11 actually, you see I'm making pretty good progress.

29:16 HEÏDI: This far north, and this high up,

29:19 I'm expecting the snow to be more or less pristine.

29:27 This is like the ultimate snow pit.

29:30 And in between the two holes is a very fine wall of snow,

29:36 that will kind of reveal itself when the light is shining through it.

29:42 ALEX: Okay, cover me in!

29:44 HAZEL: That could be your bed tonight!

29:46 ALEX: This could be my bed!

29:50 Oh, it's pretty cool, actually.

29:53 You can just really see the layers.

29:55 HEÏDI: Nice.

29:56 ALEX: It's like very clear lines.

30:03 HEÏDI: Thanks, Adam.

30:04 ADAM: Okay?

30:05 HEÏDI: Alright, let's do it, Ahh.

30:07 Oh, this is great.

30:08 I mean, what I'm seeing here is a very clear picture of the snowpack.

30:13 The depth of this snow pit spans a period of about 12 months.

30:18 And every time we have one of these layers,

30:20 it means that the Renland Ice Cap was melting.

30:25 I was hoping just to find beautiful snow without any melt,

30:30 but actually melt is happening all the time throughout the year up here.

30:36 The entire snowpack is crippled by these ice lenses.

30:42 This is really concerning.

30:47 I think there's a good chance that the Renland Ice Cap is

30:49 melting faster and making more of a contribution to sea level rise.

30:55 And that contribution is only going to increase in the future.

31:07 ALDO: Morning.

31:10 ALEX: It's been two days, but the weather's finally clear.

31:17 Now we can get a good look at where we are.

31:19 (drone buzzing) HEÏDI: I'm actually just going straight up from camp.

31:33 HAZEL: Kind of scary that there's one right there.

31:38 HEÏDI: Yeah, I'm glad we stopped eventually.

31:51 ALEX: Big holes, big holes, little bit of death.

31:56 HEÏDI: We are literally surrounded by crevasses.

32:00 I mean, these are insane.

32:12 ALDO: Yeah, I think based on that, Mikey, you and I should be roped up at least.

32:15 MIKEY: Yeah, seems reasonable.

32:21 ALDO: We're slowly dropping altitude.

32:24 MIKEY: Yeah.

32:26 No, I think it's all downhill now.

32:27 ALDO: Yeah.

32:31 ALEX: Now that we've gotten our bearings,

32:32 it's easier to scout the route and avoid crevasses.

32:43 HAZEL: My load feels pretty light today, so I'm pretty psyched.

32:48 Yeah.

32:53 ALDO: We've got weather on our side, the wind has died down,

32:57 we're heading in the right direction, and we can see the fjord.

33:03 ALEX: That'll be the end of our ice cap crossing,

33:07 and where we hope that our support boats are waiting for us.

33:12 We knew that we were still something like 15 miles away from the ocean,

33:15 even though it looked super close.

33:19 I mean, the distances and the scale in Greenland is just

33:22 beyond anything that you experience in most other parts of the world.

33:28 The snow's gotten so much softer.

33:32 Like really punching in.

33:35 ALDO: Yeah, it's quite annoying.

33:43 HAZEL: Ah.

33:44 It's so horrible.

33:45 ALDO: This is not fun.

33:48 Wait!

33:48 Whoa!

33:54 Does that look like a bridge down there we could cross straight in your front?

33:57 MIKEY: Yeah, I think we'll go through these flats and then, like, arc around.

34:01 ALDO: Yeah.

34:04 ALEX: It's wild to think that we've almost

34:05 completed the first crossing of the Renland Ice Cap.

34:13 Heïdi has a ton of important data.

34:16 Now we just need to get off the ice.

34:24 Basically the glacier just gets more and more broken

34:26 and difficult to navigate as you descend down to the fjord.

34:31 HAZEL: Ah!

34:33 Danger.

34:34 That was sketchy.

34:37 ALDO: If you go in there, you're in a bad way.

34:40 ADAM: Keep moving, that's the main thing.

34:46 MIKEY: I'm going around.

34:50 HAZEL: Someone's gonna get dragged into a crevasse,

34:52 because they've got a heavy pulka.

34:53 ALEX: No, I know, I think this is kind of crazy.

35:03 Uh, here, watch out, watch out.

35:07 HEÏDI: Wait a sec, wait, wait, wait.

35:10 ALEX: Somebody pull.

35:16 ALDO: Whoa.

35:21 That was close.

35:25 ALEX: You alright?

35:26 HEÏDI: That's it, one, two, three.

35:28 ALEX: Awesome.

35:29 ALDO: You still good, yeah?

35:30 HEÏDI: Yeah, I'm good.

35:31 Wait, wait, wait, slowly.

35:33 ALEX: Whoa, whoa, don't push it.

35:36 Here, if you go up and over.

35:37 ALDO: Yeah.

35:38 ALEX: Yeah, and now, like, walk to your left.

35:40 HEÏDI: But take it very slow.

35:42 ALEX: And then hard right and just go fast.

35:49 ALDO: Woo hoo hoo.

35:51 MIKEY: He said go fast.

35:52 ALDO: Yeah.

35:53 ALEX: I know, but I didn't mean right up our skis.

35:55 MIKEY: Oh, god, yeah.

35:56 Finally, Alex was like, "Oh, that was a little too much." ALEX:

35:59 Well, it just started to look a little quick at the bottom there.

36:05 (creaking) The difficulty in getting off a glacier

36:11 is that there's never gonna be an easy way.

36:14 There's always going to be a river along the side of the glacier, or just,

36:19 you know, calving face of the glacier at the end falling into the ocean.

36:23 There's never like an off-ramp.

36:27 HAZEL: It's just so complex, this terrain.

36:30 You think it's going to go, and then you get down there,

36:32 and there can just be this big, gaping crevasse.

36:36 ALEX: So far, so good, give me another minute.

36:38 HAZEL: It's a bit like a maze finding your way through.

36:42 Is it good, Alex?

36:45 ALEX: It's good, we're good, guys.

36:50 MIKEY: Did you guys come this way?

36:51 ALEX: Yeah, this is the way.

36:57 I think we did a good job of finding a decent way off the glacier.

37:01 And as we were descending you can hear big chunks falling off and things moving,

37:04 and it's all pretty dramatic, very living area.

37:09 But it definitely just reminds you how alive the glaciers are,

37:13 like things are constantly moving.

37:15 MIKEY: Hey, Alex, don't you think we should get going?

37:17 ALEX: Yeah, let's go.

37:19 Okay, we're going.

37:24 It's such a relief to see our support team.

37:26 (Adam speaking Greenlandic)♪♪♪♪♪♪ We made it!

37:48 HAZEL: Yeah.

37:49 ALDO: Oh, there's a dog in here.

37:50 HAZEL: Yeah.

37:51 ALDO: There's a dog.

37:53 Hello, mate.

37:56 ALEX: You're right.

37:57 This is cool.

37:57 So nice to be moving not under our own power.

38:00 HAZEL: Oh, my god, yes!

38:02 ALEX: This.

38:03 This is pure joy.

38:10 Ingmikortilaq is still almost 30 miles from here.

38:14 And the only way to get there is up a long, deep fjord.

38:30 ALEX: This landscape is one of the more beautiful things I've ever seen,

38:33 it's pretty incredible.

38:38 MIKEY: Wow.

38:40 This fjord is like just absolutely magical.

38:47 HEÏDI: Yeah, honestly, I can't believe the amount of ice there is here.

38:52 Makes me sick when I see this, yeah.

38:56 ALEX: We're all looking at this landscape and thinking it's amazing.

39:00 But where we see beauty, Heïdi sees something completely different.

39:04 HEÏDI: This is all ice that is of course being lost by the glaciers.

39:07 And it's not a good sign when you see so many icebergs floating around.

39:11 Yeah, no, it's quite scary, actually, yeah.

39:17 I mean, when I see what's around me today, my heart shrinks.

39:26 The Greenland Ice Sheet contains enough ice

39:29 to increase sea levels globally by about 24 feet.

39:38 This is our future and it's also our demise.

39:44 If we save the Arctic, we will save ourselves.

39:59 These are the GPS coordinates for the launch.

40:04 So is it okay if we give it to the captain?

40:06 ADAM: Yeah, go in there and give it to the captain.

40:07 HEÏDI: Okay.

40:09 ALEX: When it comes to science,

40:10 I've never met anyone as committed to the mission as Heïdi.

40:15 She just never quits.

40:19 Before Ingmikortilaq, she's got something special to do on behalf

40:24 of her friends at one of the coolest agencies on Earth.

40:28 HEÏDI: Hi, is it NASA?

40:31 Hi, Beth!

40:32 (laughs) ALEX: Heïdi is launching a probe for NASA that will

40:35 help monitor how the ocean is melting Greenland's glaciers from below.

40:39 HEÏDI: Ah, fantastic news.

40:41 Okay.

40:41 Beth has just received the package from the float, and everything looks well.

40:49 We have barely any information about

40:52 the interaction between the ice and the fjords.

40:56 And NASA very quickly understood that this is

41:00 a key factor in global sea level rise.

41:04 ALEX: Known as the Oceans Melting Greenland project, or OMG,

41:07 more than 1,600 probes have been launched around Greenland.

41:16 HEÏDI: It's a robot, and what it does is measures salinity,

41:21 temperature and depth of the fjord here.

41:26 And it will keep going up and down the fjord,

41:28 from the surface to the bottom for more than a year.

41:32 ALEX: Our probe, number 9317, will send daily readings via satellite,

41:37 and record thousands of measurements over its lifetime.

41:44 HEÏDI: So we have the green light, we can launch the probe.

41:47 Really happy, yeah, all systems go.

41:51 MAN: Alright, let's go.

41:52 HEÏDI: Let's do this.

41:56 Okay, ready, everyone?

41:57 ALL: Yeah.

41:58 HEÏDI: Okay, it's going in.

42:01 Woo.

42:03 Do you see it?

42:04 HAZEL: Fly away, little robot.

42:06 ALEX: There it goes.

42:08 Goodbye.

42:20 We've spent a whole month getting to this big wall.

42:28 You could see Ingmikortilaq in the distance as this big spire,

42:33 tooth sticking out that just steadily got bigger and bigger.

42:39 ALDO: There's a lot of ice in there!

42:43 ALEX: There are icebergs everywhere.

42:44 It's not that easy to get in with the boat.

42:46 Like, everything about it seemed more intimidating

42:48 and more difficult than we hoped for.

42:53 MIKEY: It became very evident very quickly,

42:55 I mean, the thing is absolutely massive.

43:04 HAZEL: This is like the craziest wall.

43:07 ALEX: I know, it looks, it looks evil.

43:11 HAZEL: Ingmikortilaq is growing in front of us,

43:15 but it's also I think growing in our minds.

43:22 HEÏDI: They are the best climbers in the world,

43:23 and I feel that they are totally unstoppable.

43:27 But actually when they were on the boat looking

43:30 at the face for the first time, they felt human.

43:45 ALEX: That's so big.

43:49 HAZEL: Oh, my god, guys!

43:51 MIKEY: Sweet.

43:52 What did we sign up for?

43:58 ALEX: Ultimately what's at stake with climbing is always your life.

44:03 You could die in a lot of different ways on a wall.

44:07 The fact that Ingmikortilaq is so remote

44:10 and big makes it more intimidating for sure.

44:15 It looks insane.

44:18 It looks impossible.

44:25 Captioned by Side Door Media Services