(pulsating music) - [Narrator] Mankind and the elements. For some, it's an uncomfortable bond. - We could just be taken out at any time, no doubt about it. - [Narrator] For others,
when weather strikes inspiration begins. - Dude this is it, this is it, right here. If they get a wave. - [Narrator] These are the
people who challenge nature, seek out its limits, reveal its secrets, and embrace its awesome power. In this episode, we'll meet
an explorer scaling peaks in the most remote edges of the world to go where no one has gone before. - [Man] If I make a mistake on this climb or on this expedition, I die. - [Narrator] An artist
who created the world's first underwater museum to give struggling marine life a new home. - [Man] You can't get a better
co-collaborator than nature. - [Narrator] And a surf
photographer who battled violent conditions and
near constant darkness in search of the perfect image. These pioneers of the great outdoors ahead on "That's Amazing." Adventure photographer Chris Burkhard is an expert in photographing surfers riding the coldest, most
punishing waves on the planet. He's accustomed to battling
the elements in his work. But one storm in Iceland nearly broke him. - It was like Armageddon. We had basically just been, you know, totally beaten to shreds. I mean, it was total darkness. - [Narrator] The storm
canceled Burkhard's expedition, but the decision to stay in Iceland resulted in a once-in-a-lifetime
photographic opportunity that he never expected. - Dude, this is it, this is it, right here. - [Narrator] He managed to
capture an epic adventure under the greatest light show on Earth. - If you look at the
Northern Lights and you don't question your place in the world, then there's something dead inside you. I can't believe that is heaven! I grew up kind of frolicking
along the coast here in Central California. I would drive up the coast and
try to surf with my friends in these remote little beaches and stuff. And to be honest, like, that really set the precedent for me that like, I wanted to just go explore. I first picked up a camera right around the age I think of 18, 19. I realized that this was it, this was like the perfect medium for expression. Like this was as good as it could get. When I grew up I didn't have a passport, never traveled internationally. And as I realized that
photography could be this tool to see the world, I was like, oh my gosh, like this is it, this could be my ticket. - [Narrator] After years of photographing in stunning beach towns around the world, Burkhard decided to shift
his focus to colder climates. - I had the dream job,
and then I realized that I want to document places that
might not be around forever and I wanna share the experience of the importance of seeing these places. Because I want people to know that these places are out there. There's been a lot of zero-degree days. A lot of days where you're
standing on the beach or shooting somewhere on a mountain side and you're just, your organs are hurting cuz it's so cold. And you're touching metal equipment and your hands are just
getting brittle and cracked. It's type two fun, you know, you look back and you chuckle but in the
moment it's pretty brutal, you want to be somewhere else. My work has taken me
to some of the harshest environments on the planet. And I seek out some of
the last places on Earth where you can really find
these raw environments. - [Narrator] Of all the places he's been, one trip to Iceland pushed him closest to his breaking point. What started off as a trip
to photograph epic waves became an epic battle with the elements. - This last winter during the darkest and coldest time of year,
we set out to Iceland. And I didn't really have
any idea of how it would go. There was this one location in this remote national park that
I wanted to go access. All I knew is that
there was a boat captain that was willing to take us there. We finally made it to that
remote bay, this national park. We're sitting there in the boat and we're looking at this, this wave. It was everything we had hoped for. The captain came out and said that the largest storm in 25 years
was coming right now, and we literally had to turn
and high tail out of there back to the harbor. The weather changed like
that (snaps finger). and it was like Armageddon. People were just like getting food storage and stocking up. And all the flights were
grounded so we made this decision that we were gonna drive
11 hours to the next safe town so we don't all
come home empty handed. We were all just defeated but still knew there was like something
else out there for us. And we just knew that we
wanted to play it out. That was probably not the smartest call. And we weren't where
we originally planned. We were like forced to
stay a little bit longer. And after that storm
subsided we realized that with that storm brought incredible surf. And not only that but the
Northern Lights were out. If the weather could just hold off for that much longer, this
would be something that would be in the history books. I convinced one of the guys to go out. The hardest thing was
just keeping my focus. What I was seeing, you know, was these amazing patterns of blue
and orange and red and green you know, trickling in the sky. This is maybe one of
the most insane things I've ever seen in my life. So every so often I'd get
lost just staring at the sky. And somebody would holler
and I would look and see, and I'd be like okay, okay, here it is. There we go, Ben, someone's going. You're shivering, you're sitting there and you're kind of like,
basically going through all of the emotions. But for me, anything
worth pursuing is gonna require you to suffer a little bit. (men laugh)
Oh, we did it! I can't believe that I actually
got you to go out there. Through all that we came
away with this experience that was actually far better than anything we could have ever planned for. It changed everything I thought
about what was possible. I aim nothing more than to simply just document the beauty of the world. If a photograph that somebody
sees is powerful enough to make them go somewhere
they've never been, be outside of their comfort
zone, spend their time. That's what I speak to is
like, how we can do that more. I guess we wanna just
inspire future generations to be willing to thrust themselves into situations like that, be willing to go when everything else says not to. Even when all the odds
are stacked against you, you can still create something beautiful. - [Ramona] Every day,
whenever I hear that buzzer, it just gets your blood
flowing, your heart pumping. And you just take off with a sprint. You really don't know
what you're getting into until you can see the fire. You're jumping out of a plane, that's always gonna induce
a little bit of adrenaline. - [Narrator] There are few
professions that captivate us like smoke jumping. And this is a woman who's been doing it for over a decade. My name is Ramona Beyuka and
I am a McCall smokejumper in McCall, Idaho. - [Narrator] The job of a
firefighter is dangerous. But jumping out of a
plane to contain a blaze takes this job to a whole new level. - [Ramona] There's always a possibility that something could go wrong so they definitely still get nervous. We fly in a Twin Otter with the door off. And we're all wearing ear plugs, and everyone's kind of in their
own world at that point. - [Narrator] And this flight
can take up to a few hours, but it becomes clear
when the danger is close. - [Ramona] Usually you smell that smoke. It's that piney,
wood-burning smell, you know that it's go time. You get in the door and
your heart is pounding and I don't even really think about it, I just go out of the plane. I try not to look at the ground
or the fire at that point. If you're just super focused. - [Narrator] Now they fight the fire. And despite the risks, it's
a job Ramona loves doing. - [Ramona] I've been
to so many forest fires and every jump is different. It is extremely dynamic out there. That adrenaline is something that, that's a big part of
keeping me coming back. I do stop and think, wow, I am really lucky to be in this job. - [Narrator] High in the
mountains of Ecuador, one man is continuing the
500-year-old tradition of harvesting glacial ice. Reaching the top of
Mount Chimborazo by foot is a treacherous all-day journey. It is not for the faint of heart. And although the demand for
glacial ice is dwindling, 73-year-old Baltazar Ushca Tenesaca refuses to call it quits. (Baltazar speaks Spanish) - [Rodrigo] Chimborazo is a
dormant volcano in Ecuador. It's higher than Mt. Everest if measured from the center of the Earth. The traditional harvesting
the ice in this region began with the Spanish
during the colonial times. They would send the native
people to retrieve the ice, to use it to make ice
cream, to cool the drinks, and even to keep meat fresh. (Baltazar speaks Spanish) Twenty, thirty years ago, there
were still many people who were going up every day of the week, bringing the ice to the lowlands. Now Baltazar is the last one because people make their own
ice or they buy the ice from the ice factories. - [Narrator] But Baltazar
continues to work because glacial ice is unique. (Baltazar speaks Spanish) - [Rodrigo] I knew when I met Baltazar that this was something very, very special. It was something that you
don't see in any other place. To do physical work at
that altitude, uh, is amazing. It's amazing, that makes
all of Baltazar's work, I think, one of the hardest
works in Earth, really. (Baltazar speaks Spanish) We call Chimborazo "Taita Chimborazo," which is Father Chimborazo. And being the highest volcano in Ecuador, you know we have a lot of
respect and love for Chimborazo. - [Narrator] In the nearly 60 years Baltazar has been harvesting ice, conditions in the region
have changed dramatically due to climate change. (Baltazar speaks Spanish) - [Rodrigo] It has become warmer. The glaciers are receding at the rate of 20 to 30 meters a year. The conditions around the
ice mine are very harsh. He works right under the big rocks. With the melting of the
ice those rocks get loose and they roll down. So yeah, there are danger of avalanches. As he grows older, I
worry for Baltazar, yeah. - [Narrator] But Baltazar does not worry. His only concern is delivering ice to his remaining few vendors
in the Riobamba market. (Baltazar speaks Spanish) During the annual crab migration, all of Christmas Island is seeing red. Christmas Island, located
in the Pacific Ocean near Australia, is known for
its warm, tropical climate. Throughout most of the
year it's endemic red crabs can be found on the rainforest floor. But each year in late
October, the adult crabs begin a spectacular mass migration from the rainforest to the coast to breed and release eggs into the sea. This synchronized breeding
of about 40-million crabs takes over the tiny island. They take their cues from
a unique combination of weather and the movement of the moon. As the rains of the
monsoon wet season return they begin their journey. The crabs arrive at the coast where they dig burrows for mating. And then the females release
their eggs into the sea just as the high tide from
the new moon hits the shore. These crabs are so reliant
on these seasonal cues that if the wet season
doesn't arrive on time the crabs will not spawn
until the next lunar month. They make their migrations
without much care for road rules or
streets, which results in incredible and slightly
startling waves of red crabs moving across the island. In some of the world's coldest climates, teams of men and women don
helmets, eye protection, and warm clothes, and head
out into the snowy terrain to prepare for a battle
against the elements and each other. What is this form of frigid
weather fighting, you ask? They call it Yukigassen. Established in 1988 as a
way to encourage tourism to Japan in the winter months, what was once a kid's game
is now a hard core sport played in eight countries. - And we can go and play Yukigassen every day or every weekend. - [Narrator] Kemijarvi
is famous for holding the European Yukigassen tournament each year. It is here that three Japanese players have flown in for a scrimmage against three local
Finnish Yukigassen players. Yukigassen is a best of three rounds game. Players who are hit by a single snowball are out of the round. To win, players must either steal the flag from the opposing team, or eliminate all their players with snowballs. Teams play with
regulation-approved snowballs made by machines. The perfect playing condition
is just below freezing, so the snowballs have enough
moisture to hold their form. The sport is not without its hazards. The Finnish team might have won this game, but win or lose, the
battlefields of Yukigassen have the power to unite, not divide. With seven billion people on Earth, it's a wonder that there are
still corners of this planet that remain untouched. But one man has made it
his life's work to see them no matter what danger
the journey may bring. Mike Libecki has never been one to shy away from a challenge. The former National Geographic
Explorer of the Year has completed major expeditions
on all seven continents. He is a modern day explorer who puts his life on the
line to challenge the idea of what humans are capable of enduring. His goal?
To seek out the Earth's last truly untouched places. - [Mike] I grew up in California, about 30 miles from
Yosemite National Park, the center of the universe for climbing. My friend's older brother's friend happened to take us out
rock climbing one day. Totally random, I didn't even know what rock climbing was. And it changed my life that day. As soon as I came home from
my first day of climbing I was buying a climbing rope,
climbing shoes, harness. Climb, climb, climb, that's
all I could think about. And that basically evolved
into living in Yosemite, climbing El Capitan and
Half Dome and I think oh my gosh, I could take this
climbing all over the world. - [Narrator] Libecki's
passion for adventure has taken him around the
planet to nearly 100 countries. But he is not content with
following traditional routes. His specialty is bagging first ascents. - [Mike] First ascent is
basically climbing a route, or going to the top of a mountain, no one's climbed before. So truly going into parts of the planet that no human has been to before. It really takes every
single thing that you have. I mean these aren't just first ascents. These are the most remote,
most demanding first ascents and climbs on the planet. There is no rescue possibility, we're 100 percent self-reliant. And I'm not seeking danger or death. I'm seeking the ultimate challenge and the ultimate mystery
of what's out there. - [Narrator] From the
blistering heat of Afghanistan. - Sure got hot quick. - [Narrator] To the
extreme cold of Canada. - The weather is getting
worse and it is cold up here. - [Narrator] The
climber-turned-explorer's trips have taken him through every climate. But in his expeditions,
Libecki has learned to love conditions like these. - Did this incredible
trip to a place called Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. The most remote big wall climbing place there is on the planet. And I think it's technically one of the windiest places on the planet. Heavy, crazy winds that
are 100, 120 miles an hour. That is some very real
deal environment to be in. You will freeze quick. And so there are these winds
called katabatic winds. There is just hammering
and hammering at all times. And they come from the South Pole and they're pushed out towards the north through different channels
around Antarctica. And we happened to be in this sort of fjord-like valley where
the winds were just you know, channeling down and it was the most challenging
environment I've ever been in. The cool thing about being
in an environment like that with the right equipment,
is you start to acclimate into these conditions,
you start to get used to and you start to understand
how it's working. Up here just near the summit
in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica on a beautiful, sweet wall. You sort of make a friendship
with this environment. I have thousands of maps downstairs and it's just constant planning
and constant research. You know there is an incredible
amount of physical demand. I'm carrying a hundred-pound
loads for 80 miles. You know, climbing these big walls. Enduring all of the weather
and the environments. Looks like a storm is upon us. We're a little bit
delirious, cold, dehydrated. You know one of the things
I have to do is train. I have to be physically
fit to have this lifestyle. And one of my favorite ways
is to train with my dogs. I have a mother and daughter
dog, Scree and Glacier. And they're my favorite training partners. And we get out in the mountains literally every single day that I'm home. And you really have to work hard or you will suffer out there. Being an explorer has a
lot of responsibilities. It's not just going out
and climbing and exploring. It's getting people excited
to care more about the planet and being able to share these stories about the remote places
or these remote cultures. - [Narrator] With 23
more trips in the works, Libecki is likely to reach his goal of 100 expeditions before long. - I'm self-diagnosed with OECD, and that's obsessive expedition climbing disorder. It's my fuel of life. And I've often thought
about when will I stop going on these expeditions? And it's basically when
will the passion stop? I hope it never does
because this is a passion. This is what I love,
this is what drives me. You've gotta live a sweet life. Right on, brother! First ascent, first time
on the summit, loving life! - [Narrator] This is the story of a plant. But not just any plant. It is the story of a
plant that long, long ago once ruled the world. A plant that today is the
very last of its kind. - It's this plant behind
me, Encephalartos woodii. E. Woodii for short, and
I've been looking after it for over 20 years. It was named for a British botanist, John Medley Wood, who
in 1895 discovered it growing on a hillside on
the coast of South Africa. A strange handsome plant caught his eye and he carefully removed
a small portion of it and had it shipped all the way to London to here, Kew Gardens, where it has been for the last 117 years. But its history goes
much, much further back. You see, Encephalartos Woodii
is what is known as a Cycad. And Cycads have been around
for 300 million years. As the millennium rolled
on, Cycads flourished, providing shade for Triceratops, a perch for Pterodactyls, and a tasty snack for Brontosauruses. And at one point during the Jurassic, Cycads made up 20 percent
of all the plants on Earth and covered every corner of the globe. But the good times couldn't last forever. The dinosaurs went extinct. Ice ages came and went. New modern plants like
conifers and fruit trees started pushing Cycads out. And the once-proud population
of E. Woodiis were reduced, and reduced, and reduced, until there was possibly only one left. One single solitary E. Woodii growing quietly on a hillside. Which brings us right
back to John Medley Wood. At the time he had no way of knowing just how rare his discovery was. But expedition after expedition, in search of more E. Woodii,
have proved fruitless. You see, Cycads are dioecious, meaning you need separate
male and female plants to create a new one. And this one happens to be a
male, a true lonely bachelor. If a female mate cannot be found, it really will be the last of its kind. To this day researchers are still looking. After all, it's a big world,
and might just be a chance. In the meantime, he'll have
me to keep him company. - [Narrator] The oceans
occupy over two-thirds of our planet, but they're in trouble. Coral reefs are dying at an alarming rate and the fish species that rely on these aquatic environments are suffering. So what if the solution was art? - I think what's really interesting about having a museum under water, no, it's not just about its artistic value, it's also about biology and it's science, the
living breathing entities. - [Narrator] By putting
his sculptures under water, artist Jason DeCaries Taylor has become the ocean's unlikely hero. His installations are providing
new homes for marine life and his art is giving the ocean
a fighting chance to thrive. - I consider myself first
and foremost a sculptor, an artist, that's my
background and training. And I've done a lot of
snorkeling and diving. When I was young we moved
around the world as a family. We lived in Malaysia and
Thailand and we used to explore all the coral reefs along there. For me, being under
water has always been like a kind of religious experience. I was very much fascinated
in working with the sea, using my work for not just
for artistic purposes, but also as a tool for conservation. - [Narrator] His big idea? Place his eccentric sculptures under water so that coral and other sea
creatures can make them home. - I started with small projects and I realized that,
you know, as soon as you immerse your works into
this new environment everything completely changes. They are transformed;
they really take on the characteristics of the environment. I call it a museum for sort
of many different reasons. I think when we put something in a museum we have a different relationship with it, we want to protect it and
we want to cherish it. We want to conserve it. - [Narrator] Over the last 10 years, Jason has opened three other museums throughout the Caribbean. In 2016 he turned his attention
to the Atlantic Ocean. - We are currently here in my studio, which is in Lanzarote,
part of the Canary Islands. I'm always looking for
the sort of new challenge, the new adventure, a new
environment for my work. There's no corals here. When I first came here, you know, I dived the sites we were looking at and it really was really
desolate, you know? Just swimming over sand
for quite some time. - [Narrator] Jason will
create 300 sculptures as part of Museo Atlantico,
his new underwater museum. And while his art has the ability to regenerate marine life, his
process is far from simple. - Finding the site is
the most important thing. We're always looking for areas where we're not inflicting any damage
on the existing marine life. We try to work with areas
that are completely desolate. My sculptures are based on life models. And so people come to the studio, we actually cover them
in a dental solution, make an impression of their bodies and then with that we
actually fill the molds with a special type of marine cement. And this cement is pH neutral, it doesn't damage the environment any way, and it actually provides
the perfect habitat for marine life to attach and to grow. I'll make certain ledges, substrates that will actually attract sponges, little holes and nooks
and crannies that will attract different species
of fish and crustacean. We then have to transport
them to the site. They're pieces that we
worked hard at in the studio for many months, they have
become very personal to you. And then it's kind of this process of letting go, saying goodbye, they're about to start a new journey. So the sculptures change rapidly
once they're under water. Here in Lanzaroti we've seen
some really incredible results. Just after two weeks there were
significant transformations. We've seen a lot of
different types of algae, we've seen some sponges adhere to them. Marine life is actually
changing the surfaces, adding patinas, morphing the forms. And they make the whole, sort
of, sculpture come alive. But I wasn't quite expecting how dramatic they would change and how beautiful a colonization
would actually look. You can't get a better
co-collaborator than nature. - [Narrator] Jason's art
doesn't just support marine life and promote ocean health. It attracts tourists, which
can be a very powerful tool for raising awareness. - [Jason] I kind of
really like the idea of instead of us always being
apart from natural environments, it's kind of we are nature, we are all part of the same system. By putting my work into these
difficult-to-access places, I hope people will have
a better understanding and really realize what
an incredible resource our oceans are and how
desperately urgent it is to try and protect them. - [Narrator] Wayne
Adams and Catherine King don't live in your typical house, but this is their dream
home, Freedom Cove. A floating island,
completely off the grid. It's nearly an hour to the nearest town, Tofino, British Columbia, an area known for its mild summers and wicked winters. But this married couple doesn't mind the elemental extreme, they embrace it. - [Wayne] We live in a secluded cove. The only options we have
to get here is by water, there are no road accesses. The water is our highway. - 24 years ago we both
knew that we wanted to live out in nature. We have carved a piece of
the world out for ourselves. We can live uniquely, differently than anyone else on the planet. If we had to survive on just exactly what we have here, we could. We have our main living
house, we have our wood shed. We have four greenhouses, I am
able to grow all year round. This is a temperate rainforest climate, so we do get snow, it will freeze, but it never lasts for long so all
the plants can tolerate that. Everything that you see here
in our home is floating. We are tied to shore with
lines, we are not anchored. The way Wayne has the ropes arranged is what slows down the impact of the wind. We get hurricane-force
winds in here in big storms. It's a narrow entrance into this cove. The wind rockets in and whips
around and changes direction. So it can be pretty fierce. - Everything's done with
a handsaw and hammer. No power tools. I know every board and nail by name. It's about 500 tons that I'm floating. I don't get sea sick, when I
go to town I get land sick. The thing about living in Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island is it's the richest biomass on Earth. So the opportunity to
fish for dinner is big. And I just can get in my
canoe and I can paddle out, in ten minutes I can catch a fish. But when it's windy
and too rough out there I can just lay on the couch
and fish out of the house. - [Catherine] There's no
quick fix living out here. You have to do the work
to get what you want if you want it. - [Wayne] It was a great
opportunity to actually move away from the city, to see if we could prosper out here. Now 24 years later, we're still doing it. - I can't imagine living any other way. I feel completely fulfilled. - Well that's good, honey. (Catherine laughs) That's really nice, I'm working on it. - [Narrator] Roman Lacombe
is a man on a mission. - Air pollution is an
environmental issue, but most of all, it's a health crisis. - [Narrator] More than five
million people die every year from pollution-related illnesses. Roman wants to change that. He has designed a system to help humans learn more about the air they breathe. And he did it in the most
unconventional way imaginable. Using pigeons wearing tiny backpacks. - I will never look at
pigeons, ever again, like I did before. - [Narrator] London, like
many cities, has a problem. Pollution. It's so bad here it kills
nearly 10,000 citizens a year. - The problem about the
weather and pollution is they interact together
and sometimes create episodes of very high pollution. - [Narrator] London weather
is notoriously fickle and pollution levels
change with the weather. Rains wash up pollutants,
and winds sweep them away. Roman wanted to make
the invisible, visible. To do that he found a
way for people to know when the air is particularly toxic. Enter the Pigeon Air Patrol. - [Rome] The Pigeon Air Patrol
was this brilliant crazy idea to fly a flock of pigeons
over the city of London with tiny little backpacks
to measure air pollution. - [Narrator] Roman outfitted
a flock of 10 birds to fly around London to monitor
air quality in real time. They wore special backpacks
equipped with sensors to measure pollutants like
ozone and nitrogen dioxide. And they weren't just ordinary birds. They were highly-trained racing pigeons. - [Roman] Well we worked with Brian, expert pigeon fancier who's been very widely recognized in that field. These are professional pigeons, they race, they know how to always home
back to their home base. We have an entire patrol of
pigeons, Coco, Norbert, Julius. - [Narrator] When the
pigeons took to the sky, the data they collected
was instantly accessible to anyone on the ground. Citizens could tweet the Pigeon Air Patrol and the nearest backpack
sensor would respond with readings from low to extreme. - Thanks to this, people tuned in to know when's a good
time to go running and when you can bike without
worrying about pollution, or when you should really take extra care about the air you breathe. The Pigeon Air Patrol was
just a starting point. So of course the Pigeon Air Patrol was not fixing pollution in London. But by bringing attention from
everyone about this topic, we make it easier for
citizens to demand change. And so we make it easier
for everyone involved to say there's an issue there, we should recognize it,
we should address it, and then we can fix it. If we could only make more people care about what they breathe, then
of course it becomes easier to collectively address the issue. And that's why the pigeons
are the heroes of the story and are so important. They really carry this message, that if we can hear more
about our environments then we'll make our health
better for everyone.
So this is how you quietly make someone disappear.