Extreme China (2018) s01e01 Episode Script

1
I'm Ben Horton.
Come on, guys, hike, hike!
A National Geographic
Explorer and Photographer.
I'm traveling across China,
exploring its unique landscapes.
This is tight.
And the people who call them home.
This is epic.
But I need help,
and I'm teaming up with China's best.
You're safe, I'm with you, buddy.
-An Alpinist.
-This is the top.
A diver
and an incredible rock climber.
Together, we'll navigate wild places.
It's a whole different world down here.
-To learn from local communities.
-Here.
To see how they survive and thrive.
That's a big drop.
Wow!
And have the adventure of a lifetime.
This whole thing is melting.
I've come to Siguniang,
a remote mountainous area of Sichuan.
It's a UNESCO world heritage site,
known as the Alps of China,
and a climber's paradise.
But I'm here to do
something more challenging.
This place is famous for hundreds
of waterfalls that freeze in winter
to form for some of the highest altitude
ice climbs in the world.
I'm going to partner up
with one of China's top adventurers
to scale one of its biggest.
I'm nervous because this will be
my biggest ice climb ever,
but I'm also extremely excited.
My guide, Liu Yong,
has climbed these mountains for 25 years,
and is my perfect partner.
An explorer and cultural heritage expert,
he's conquered 20 first ascents
all over the world,
and is the first Chinese
to scale unexplored peaks in Antarctica.
This is the top.
Yeah!
But he's always drawn back here
to Siguniang on the Tibetan Plateau.
Liu Yong. It's nice to finally
meet you in person.
Welcome to Siguniang.
Thank you. This is incredible.
I mean, these peaks are huge.
Where we are right now
is a gateway to the two highest peaks
Shuangqiao Valley, where Liu Yong
and I will be climbing a frozen waterfall,
is further west.
But first, we need to practice.
I think we can just go somewhere
tied up with rope,
warm up, then we can go
for a real adventure.
-Sounds good.
-Let's go.
When you meet a climber,
you're kind of sizing
each other up a little bit.
But I like him.
He's done routes that are
above and beyond anything
that I've ever attempted.
I'm really excited
to get to rope up with him.
We've found a rock
to test each other's climbing skills.
It's crucial, because once we hit the ice,
our lives are in each other's hands.
A lot of the times, having a partner,
it's kind of like dating.
You got to go out
and just test the water a little bit,
and eventually, once you start
to get to know each other,
you can almost communicate
without talking at all.
Liu Yong's taken a shortcut
up from the back
so he can belay me while I climb.
Belaying is a technique where
one climber puts tension on the rope
so the other can't fall far.
-On belay?
-Belay on.
Climbing.
Coming off.
You safe. I'm with you, buddy.
It's just dirt,
so I can't get my fingers in.
Come on!
Broken? Something broken?
Nope. Just popped off.
-I can't.
-Come on.
This is definitely the highest altitude
I've ever climbed at,
and I just notice that moves that might be
somewhat difficult at lower elevation,
they're really hard up here.
-That's tough.
-I know.
Twenty centimeters up, there's a big hold.
Yeah.
-Come on, buddy.
-There it is.
Yeah, that's it.
Got it.
-Thanks, buddy.
-Good job.
-Thanks for catching me.
-Yes.
Yeah, I was starting to feel
like I couldn't tell
if I was holding on to it or not.
When I first met Ben,
he doesn't look like a climber.
We practiced some rope work together.
He must have spent a lot of time
on training his climbing skill.
He's a strong climber, and I trust him.
-Climbing.
-Climb.
Nice.
You're right, man, there's no crack.
-My hand's frozen.
-I know.
Come on, I'm with you.
Come on.
Slippery.
Seeing that it wasn't quiet easy
for Liu Yong as I had expected to be,
really make me feel better about us
climbing together on something bigger
because ego has absolutely
no place in a sport like this.
-That's hard.
-Yeah.
Buddy, I don't know.
Get that highest step with the left foot.
I can't hold it.
I can't feel my hand.
Nice, that's it.
Nice.
-Thank you, buddy.
-Good job.
This is the first climbing.
Well, you caught me.
So, that makes me feel good
about climbing the icefall.
I'd like to get up without falling,
if I can.
It's time to head
to the Shuangqiao Valley.
We will base ourselves
with a family of Jiarong Tibetan
before we climb the icefall.
They are one of the oldest
Tibetan tribes to migrate here
over a thousand years ago.
They've adapted to living
in this extreme high altitude
and freezing temperatures.
So, is this his house over here?
The house is built from wood and stones
that are taken from the area,
and it's the most incredible
viewpoint that you can imagine,
and it would be an ideal place to live,
except for the fact
that it gets so cold here in winter.
And we're here in December
when temperatures can drop
to minus 20 degrees.
Mr. Wang's wife, Jinlian,
invites me in to look around.
From the terrace, you can see
that they built their house
in one of the most beautiful valleys
that I've ever seen.
The mountains around it
and the waterfalls,
which are all frozen right now,
are just incredible.
To be able to wake up every day
and see this would be a dream come true.
-Beautiful, huh?
-This place is incredibly beautiful.
But it's 20 kilometers
from the nearest village.
What made his family choose
to build the home here?
So they have plenty of food for yaks.
Are the yak around? I'd love to see.
So, what they do normally is
they send the yak
to the highland up there.
They have a lot of grass,
and once a month,
he has herding his yak back here.
He ask if you're interesting
to help them to do this.
It'd be fun, a good way to start
getting used to the altitude, too.
-Let's go.
-Yeah.
Yak are one of the few
domesticated animals
that have adapted
to live at high altitude.
Their lungs and hearts
are larger than normal cattle,
enabling them to suck in lots of oxygen.
Mr. Wang is rounding them up to feed them.
Start herding right now.
It's like a scene out of
a cowboy movie, Tibetan style.
I'm exploring a remote region
of Sichuan Province, China,
known as Siguniang.
Come on, guys.
There we go, yeah, see this?
My guide, Liu Yong, and I
are helping Mr. Wang feed the yak salt.
Tongue feels weird.
Salt gives yaks an appetite,
so they eat more and grow bigger.
What are the different uses of the yak,
what do they use it for?
It's most important animal
for Tibetan people.
The yak can produce milk, meat.
It was fun herding the yak with Mr. Wang.
It's something I've never
gotten to experience before.
The yak, they're really photogenic.
They're these really, really furry
smaller version of cows,
and they are in the most
incredible landscape.
Living at altitude and working
in this extreme environment,
you burn a lot of calories.
I want to know what people eat here
to sustain them through the winter,
and Mrs. Wang is going to show me.
Is this a traditional food for them?
Bread has been a staple food
for Jiarong Tibetans for generations.
But enough of us men
just standing around watching.
-Okay.
-Push it together.
It's not very round.
Okay.
Why does she bury it in the ash
and not cook it like an oven on top?
So is this pretty typical
of a Jiarong Tibetan kitchen?
Yeah, she reaches right into the ash.
First we have to get it out.
I can get it.
-It's hot. Yeah. It's hot.
-It's hot?
-And I move the coals, right?
-Yeah, move it closer.
She's said, you're very good on cooking.
Thank you.
This momo is almost done.
So, pat it, the other side?
Blow it three times and pat it again.
That's hot.
Sitting in that smoky kitchen
with the fireplace,
there's meat hanging from the ceiling,
getting smoked,
and the light coming in
through the windows,
was a beautiful chance to take
some photographs of Ms. Wang.
She's this beautiful woman
in a very harsh environment,
that provided me the opportunity
to take photographs of a culture
that is something outside
of anything I've ever experienced.
The Siguniang Forest in Southwestern China
is a harsh but beautiful environment.
Our host, Mr. Wang's sole source of heat
to cook and keep warm is wood.
Right down the middle?
Really?
Once we have enough firewood,
Mr. Wang shows me his awesome skill
of making a backpack
from a single strand of rope.
This one's for you,
so we'll make it heavy.
Why not? Just big training day for me.
This one's for me?
All right, let's get some small ones.
This one's too small.
All right.
-Through the top?
-Yeah.
Get through.
So wrap it on your shoulder,
you have to sit down first.
This is pretty complex
how they've done this.
He's adjusting length for you.
Okay, so.
Stand up.
It's hard to get up.
This is actually not so uncomfortable.
This is the local way they carry stuff.
Sometimes they can use
one rope to carry like 50 kilos.
Going into the forest with Mr. Wang
is very interesting
because for him, this is survival,
this is how he lives up here.
Siguniang is one of the most beautiful
alpine environments I've ever been to.
These mountains are enormous,
and the amount of climbing
that I'm seeing just from the house
is absolutely incredible.
And we're just a day away
from our challenge.
Scaling a 300-meter frozen waterfall.
This will be the longest
ice climb I've ever done.
-Really?
-Yeah.
The top of the waterfall
is nearly 4,000 meters above sea level,
and Liu Yong says temperatures
could drop to minus 20 degrees Celsius.
We need to plan, and check our gear.
I got three pairs of my gloves.
I got some extra warm ones.
-You got your harness, right?
-Yeah. I got my harness.
Personal anchor. Locking carabiner.
-Do I see some ice screws?
-Yeah, man.
This is my treasure. Worth save your life.
So this is very important.
We have to make sure
everything is safety, you know.
-Our lives literally depend on this.
-Yeah, exactly.
Living at this altitude,
there is one other thing
that Mr. Wang and his family
need to survive.
I just found out that Mr. Wang's
going to be slaughtering a yak.
And though it's not something
that I want to be a part of or watch,
it's important to photograph this because,
up here, in the wintertime,
there's no way they can grow food.
They can't just go
down to the local store.
So this is a big part of their culture.
This is something they have to do
to survive in a place like this.
Once I step inside the pen,
it occurs to me that slaughtering the yak
is an intense moment for Mr. Wang
and his friends, as well as me.
Mr. Wang has chosen one of
the biggest and oldest of the herd.
Mr. Wang has gotten four guys
to come help him hold down the yak.
He takes a really sharp knife
and cuts it into the yak's throat.
I'm having a really hard time
watching the yak get killed
because it's not something
that I've been around a lot.
I find the best way to photograph this
is to stand back a bit
and focus more on the people.
What I want to photograph is
that this is something that these people
have had to do their whole lives.
This is their normal.
I'm witnessing Mr. Wang
and his friends butcher a yak
in a remote part of Sichuan, China.
-Hi.
-Hey.
The different parts of the meat,
how he's going to prepare it?
Because I saw inside, some was hanging.
Really?
Okay.
I think, basically,
they use all parts of this yak.
This yak is something that's
going to last them through the winter.
And it's something
that we need to get more used to
if we're going to be eating animals.
We need to know where our meat comes from.
Tomorrow it's time for us to tackle
the 300-meter waterfall.
So the Wangs and their friends
want to send us off
with a Jiarong Tibetan Feast.
It's very good.
It's sweet but has that kind of
sour flavor from the berries.
-Yeah, I do, yeah.
-Chagumo.
-Cheers.
-In Tibetan you say "Chagumo."
Chagumo.
-Do you like it?
-It's very rich. Yeah, I like it.
It has a lot richer flavor than cow.
It's much gamier.
So what do they think of us
climbing the icefall?
They must think we are crazy, right?
No, not at all.
Bottoms up.
It's been an adventure
staying with the Wangs,
and not just because
of the place we were in,
but because of things like
the food and the tea that they drink,
it's all a unique experience for me.
Our journey to the icefall starts from
a creek across from the Wangs' house.
The first obstacle is crossing
the near-zero degrees Celsius water
without falling in.
You see the dead tree up there?
Yeah, if that's strong enough,
we can get across there.
It's shaky. What do you think?
It's going to be like slack lining,
bouncing across that.
-You want try?
-Yeah, all right.
I'll go first on the log,
you go first on the ice.
This is sketchy.
That part just broke in my hand.
-Be careful.
-Watch out here.
We can't afford to get wet now,
or we risk hypothermia
and frostbite on our climb.
-Slippery, huh?
-Yeah. Really slippery.
-All right, buddy. Be careful.
-Okay.
Slippery, you're right.
All right.
Second up is a 700-meter hike
to the base of the waterfall.
I'm totally blown away
by the landscape in the forest.
I was expecting kind of a dry pine forest.
But everything is covered
in this thick layer of moss.
It's super green, even though it's winter.
It's been an hour since we left Mr. Wang.
-Oh, man, this altitude is killing me.
-Yeah.
We're at 3,600 meters above sea level.
At this height, our bodies lose
twice as much water than normal.
Liu Yong and I need to drink an extra
one and a half liters of water a day,
or we are in danger of dehydration.
What's the toughest thing
you ever climbed?
I got frostbite really bad one time.
When I was younger
I made a lot of mistakes,
but learned a lot how to stay warm
in cold environments,
how to dress correctly.
Yeah.
These mountains are stunning,
and I'm really enjoying Lui Yong's company
but soon we will reach
the base of the falls,
where we definitely can't afford
to make any mistakes.
Liu Yong and I are on an expedition
to climb a 300-meter frozen waterfall
in Siguniang, Southwestern China.
Wow.
There it is.
-You like it?
-Yeah, I'm excited.
It's beautiful to look at,
but to climb it
is full of potential danger.
Most of the part of ice, blue,
so it should be very solid.
But when you check out
the left side of the ice,
you'll see a lot of the white.
-It looks white.
-It looks a bit weak.
I think a lot of air under it.
White ice means it's not dense,
and can be dangerous for us to climb.
Blue-colored ice should be strong
and able to hold our weight.
We are gearing up to get on the ropes.
I am nervous because it's so long,
but I am also excited
now that I see the ice.
Liu Yong and I tie on to the same ropes,
which we can use to belay each other.
All right.
Okay, Ben.
-On belay.
-Climbing.
Liu Yong leads the first pitch
using just his ice axes and crampons.
At certain points,
he puts screws into the ice
and clips them to the rope
to protect against falls.
He's done the first section quickly,
and now it's my turn.
Off belay!
-Okay, I'm on.
-Okay.
Climbing.
I need to clear all the ice screws.
The first pitch is low angle,
and the easiest way to climb it, he says,
is to move quickly.
To kick your toes in and keep moving.
Otherwise, it's hard to keep your balance.
-You want leading this one?
-Yeah.
If you don't mind me
being careful and slow.
No problem, man.
I've never climbed slab ice before.
My ice axes don't want to go in
as easily as it would on vertical ice.
It ends up making my legs really burn
because I have to stay on my toes.
I think a lot of it's from the altitude,
just not being able to get
the amount of oxygen that I need.
Try to catch my breath.
Take your time.
I manage to make it about 50 meters
before I decide
that I'm going to make a belay anchor
right where I am.
I'm off belay.
-My legs are tired.
-Okay.
-Are you on belay?
-Climbing.
Climb.
Ice, to me, is so much scarier,
like so much less confidence.
I was gonna keep going from here,
but my calves are burning.
Okay.
I really felt bad stopping,
but I was breathing so hard.
That's all right.
In the morning, the ice is very hard.
Yeah.
But climb in the afternoon,
it become soft and much easier.
I'll try to finish this vertical one.
-You're on belay.
-Okay.
Liu Yong is leading the next
120 meters of the climb,
and most of it is vertical.
If he falls, he will drop lower
than the last screw
that he placed in the ice,
and that could be really dangerous.
But then, Liu Yong runs into something
we weren't expecting.
-Water?
-Yeah.
the water.
it. Lots of water.
the water.
The ice is melting.
Liu Yong is in danger.
Oh, man.
Holy
This whole thing is melting.
Chinese explorer, Lui Yong, and I
are climbing
the frozen waterfalls of Siguniang.
But we're in danger from the melting ice.
Okay.
-Ten meters!
-Okay.
Okay.
-Okay!
-Climbing.
The water flowing over the ice
soaks our hands.
My hands, absolutely frozen.
To a point where I can't even bend them.
I think the altitude is probably
the most difficult thing for me
to deal with on this climb.
My legs are burning,
my arms are burning and cramping up.
Yeah.
We're just below 300 meters.
As Liu Yong leads
the final 60-meter pitch,
the altitude is really
taking its toll on us.
I can tell that Liu Yong
is getting really tired.
There's just little sections
where he's struggling more than before.
But this is where a climber like Liu Yong
really stands out.
He just lets out a yell and swings
his ice axe deep into the ice
and starts pulling and screaming
till he's at the top.
Almost there, 10 meters.
Liu Yong's climbed
up to 300 icefalls in his time.
He's extremely capable,
and that extra tank of energy that he has
to get him through
tough situations at altitude,
it makes him like a superhero
and makes me feel like a sidekick.
On belay!
Okay.
Climbing.
And with every movement,
my body just wants to give up.
Come on, man!
I'm so close to the top
and I can see Liu Yong,
and he's encouraging me to keep moving
because we've almost accomplished
this huge feat that we've undertaken.
Nice.
Okay.
We've made it.
Good job.
Now you are ice climber.
I'm absolutely exhausted,
but I'm so happy.
Standing on a frozen icefall
overlooking this beautiful valley,
it's really humbling.
You're in this amazing position
that there's no other way
you could possibly experience
in a place like nowhere else on Earth.
I just feel like I've accomplished
the greatest ice climb I've ever done.
Ben is very strong climber.
When you have a good partner,
you always can go very fast,
and we have this job done
and now we are going to celebrate.
Throughout my journey in Siguniang,
I've explored its beautiful landscape,
and learned how local people
have adapted to live alongside nature
in this extreme environment.
Climbing the icefall
with my new buddy, Liu Yong,
has given me a real sense of achievement,
and a respect for the people
that live at altitude
in these incredible mountains.
On my next amazing adventure in China
This is beautiful.
I team up with Dou Dou,
a Chinese adventurer
and Internet sensation
Wow, pufferfish for dinner.
to explore unique maritime culture
We also call them, "gypsies of the sea."
This is tiny.
I don't think I can lay flat in here.
and reveal Hainan's hidden
underwater paradise.