In the harshest winter in Siberian memory, Benedict Allen is in Siberia's remotest and most secretive province of Chukotka to learn from native hunters how to use a team of husky dogs to travel 1,500 kilometres into the Arctic and attempt to cross the Bering Strait into Alaska.

On his first day's training he gets frostbite and is only saved from being dragged into the icy sea by one of his guides. Soon after there is a break in the weather, and in a place where clear blue skies are far rarer than frostbite they start on their epic trek. After his disastrous first outing, this doesn't seem such a good idea.

Having successfully crossed a frozen bay, Benedict and his team go over a cliff before getting lost in the deadly Arctic night. On a hunt with a local official into the trackless tundra, they become disorientated and totally lost. Night falls and their snowmobile breaks down in the heart of polar bear country and the territory of the Arctic wolf, the largest in the world.

Originally broadcast in 2002. Show less