Alaska Week

Dirty Jobs

Mike travels to Big Lake, Alaska and pays a visit to Happy Trails Kennels to discover what it takes to breed and train Alaskan Huskies for sled dog work. He starts by learning about the dogs and then helps with the newborn puppies. Next, Mike takes on the daily never-ending task of cleaning the dog living area and removes all the frozen poo and urine. Then he feeds the dogs with a special blend of ground up meat and hot water and hits the trail to learn the art of sled dog mushing.

Untamed Alaska

Alaska is known as America’s “Last Frontier.” Powerful predators like the grizzly, gray wolf and polar bear roam its 50 million acres of wilderness. Temperatures drop to 100 degrees below zero. Coastlines are battered by freezing storms and giant waves. All these factors make life extremely dangerous for many of the state's half-million residents. Using dramatic “caught-on-tape” footage, eyewitnesses, experts and CGI, Dangerous Alaska showcases this the perilous world of this great state like never before.

Arctic Roughnecks

Roads -- who needs them? Enter the CATCO: a hard-chargin’, take-no-prisoners, all-terrain vehicle that is more tank than truck. Hauling fuel, freight and equipment to the farthest reaches of the Alaskan north, these trucks and the battle-hardened men who drive them literally live on the edge of civilization in some of the harshest weather and terrain on Earth. Arctic Roughnecks will follow these Alaskan workhorses and the hardworking crew who operate them as they brave blizzards, white-out conditions and extreme temperatures. There are no roads in the remote, uninhabitable region 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle, so the men of Alaska Interstate Construction build an ice road to transport an oil rig weighing millions of pounds. Then the roughnecks of Crowley CATCO use their specialized CATCO vehicles to cross terrain so treacherous, it’s off-limits to the ice road truckers. Death is just an icy turn away, as they haul their cargo to the ends of the Alaskan frontier.

Deadliest Catch

The seas are rougher, the stakes are higher and the intensity has never been stronger when the 2008 king crab season opens.  Before the crews even cast off, skippers Keith and Phil could be sidelined by life-threatening illnesses and
all the boats are in debt from summer repairs. Storms -- personal, natural and financial -- are brewing. Nerves are raw, as the two men await medical test results and their doctors' clearance to fish.  As the fleet launches into the icy Bering Sea, the captains are under huge financial pressure from costly summer boat repairs.  If they want to recoup their money, they’ll need to crab fast and big.

Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment

Nine ordinary Americans have volunteered to participate in an incredibly unique experiment. They will be flown in, dropped off and stranded deep in the heart of central Alaska.

Their goal is to make it back to civilization ... alive. Left with only the barest of essentials, they will travel 60 of the harshest miles on the planet while battling hunger, fatigue and an unforgiving winter that will make surviving nearly impossible. These nine strangers must work together to hunt, fish and trap their own food. The group has no idea how long it will take or how far they must travel, to get Out of the Wild.

Mythbusters

The MythBusters pack up their sleds, brass monkeys and explosives, as the whole team heads north to test some Alaskan myths.   Can it get so cold that your urine freezes before it hits the ground?  Will a golf ball go farther if you tee off on a frozen lake?  And is the Pycrete, a mythical Alaskan boat, actually real? 

Next, Kari, Tory and Grant “split up” to test a spectacular myth about the mother of all head-on collisions. A car crashes headlong into a V-shaped snowplough. But instead of becoming a mangled mess, the car splits completely in two from bumper to fender. Is this possible? The team puts this myth to the ultimate test.

Alaska: Most Extreme

Everything is extreme in Alaska: the weather and climate that make each day a new and often menacing adventure; the ways in which many Alaskans earn a living; and the basic skills that everyone must learn and know simply to survive in this harsh environment. Alaska is bigger, badder, stronger and more dangerously unpredictable than any other place in the nation. Home to America’s highest mountains, most powerful earthquakes, fiercest wildlife, biggest waves and cruelest winters, the last frontier state is a place of raw, unbridled natural forces.

Bear Attack! 

Over a harrowing six weeks, three people are viciously mauled by a bear in the Anchorage, Alaska, area and many more have dangerously close bear encounters. Could one aggressive bear be responsible for all these attacks? And what is causing bears and humans to face off in more urban encounters than usual? Researchers launch an investigation, using forensics, technology and even DNA analysis, while the mauling victims relive their lucky escapes.