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.

Benedict and his team are nearing the end of the trek. When they reach the home town of his guides he will be on his own. Coming across a family of nomads and an Arctic Stonehenge in the middle of nowhere shows Benedict that people can thrive in this seemingly impossible terrain. But has he learnt enough to lead his dogs onto the shifting ice floes of the Bering Strait? On his first night alone, his dogs start howling - there is an intruder in the camp.

Alone on the frozen Bering Strait trying to cross over into Alaska, Benedict is right on the path of the annual polar bear migration, packs of Arctic wolves are patrolling about and gales come out of nowhere, plunging the temperature to -40 degrees. When the ice walls form a barrier ahead, he is forced to leave his dogs and try to find a route through. The unthinkable happens, as he loses his team, his tent and his supplies, and is left stranded 150 kilometres from help with no radio.

Originally broadcast in 2002. Show less