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There are 14 pigs over 1,000 m. Oh my god. And I have climbed all of them. My name is Galji Sherpa. I'm the high altitude mountain guide. My job is guiding people expedition and tracking. The most popular 8,000 pigs that I guided are Aress, Manaslo and K2. I usually guided around four to five expedition per year. I'm doing this job has been more than 17 years. When I was like 14 years, I submitted 6,200 m and from there I get like more motivate. So for the for career just I choose like mountain guy. We begin our journey in Kathmandu. When the weather is clear, we take a flight to Lupla on a single engine airplanes. This part is quite scary. Lupla is known to be the
most dangerous airport in the world because of how the roadway has been built. It is only 1,700 ft long and it is also very steep and a 3,000 m on street. Then we have a address track to reach Luchi base camp at 5,400 m. Here we come. Nice weather. At the base camp, it is my job to look after the clients, which means getting ice to boil water for cooking food. What are you going to cook for dinner? Spaghetti. and helping the clients pack the bags and get ready for their summit push.
My favorite time in my job is climbing in winter shoot very cold and fixing the lines like climbing mountains on my own. Sometime the winter season is very nice like very less people in the mountains only me and mountains it's like very dangerous you can't control there like every step we have a dangers avalanches and sometime like rock falling like creas I hear like from the radios like someone like get accident like people die like people get rescued and that's why like I had to do like so many rescues stressful part of in my job my proudest achievement in my career is when I did K2 winter first Nepali to do
and for like first like youngest guy to do like K2 winter that's like huge and big achievements and when I finished my 14 PS and this is like huge achievement. Being on the 8,000 m pigs is like nothing else in the world. Originally, it was just a job for me, but now it has become my passions. I wouldn't change this job for anything. Hi, my name is Denali. I'm a geologist. It's really inspiring to be in a field where you feel like you have a real chance of discovering something important.
I am obsessed with the ocean. It's why I got into this field to begin with. Right now, I am doing field work at the East Pacific Rise, which is a mid ocean ridge. It's located right about there. Essentially everyone on the crew, all of the scientists fly from wherever they're based out of to wherever the port location is and we meet up there. And then often a day or two later, we will actually board the vessel and head out to sea. So these are the bunks. These are where we sleep. And the room is where we all get ready for work in the morning or evening depending on whether or not you're doing night ops or day ops. Uh sometimes I do a little bit of both. and
just don't sleep very much. The boat can rock quite a bit, so the uh the railing is to make sure I don't fall off while I'm sleeping. After the first few days, you just kind of get used to it. I got up around 9:00 this morning and I've been doing work since then. I do usually sleep past breakfast, especially if I was up the night before. If I can, I always try to start my day having coffee somewhere nice on deck. It's just a really good start to the day. And you can often see uh birds flying past the boat or you can see dolphins or other animals swimming alongside the boat. A very big part of this research cruise is looking at the ocean floor which is predominantly made up of a volcanic rock
called mid ocean ridge basaltt or morb and trying to see if there is potential for another eruption at the east Pacific rise sometime soon or if perhaps one has already happened. Day-to-day work as a PhD student varies a lot. Sometimes I'm drowning in Excel spreadsheets. Sometimes I'm cutting rocks in half or hitting rocks with a laser and other times you're in the field. Uh I'm living on a boat or I'm living in a tent next to a volcano. So there's a lot of variety and that is actually one of my favorite parts of the job.
The trip to Iceland was my first uh relatively independent field season. Very rare at that station in your career to get actual field experience at a currently erupting volcano. I would not trade that experience for the world. Though I was already pretty certain of where I wanted to go with my career, that trip definitely solidified that I wanted to be a volcanologist. In order to collect samples from the bottom of the ocean, you can use a number of different methods. For this specific research cruise I'm on now, we will be using what's called a rock core, which is essentially just a drill that takes a core of the rock from the ocean floor, which we then study. While I primarily am getting samples uh using
the rock core, I am also getting samples uh from the Alvin, a remotely operated vehicle that goes to the bottom of the ocean and collects your samples. This sample here is one that our amazing Alvin team collected while they were doing one of their dives. This is probably one of the nicest, shiniest mid ocean ridge basult samples I have ever seen. It's so glassy. I think it's magical. Honestly, I would go so far as to say it's romantic. To hold a rock that's from the ocean floor, the bottom of the ocean floor. That's crazy.
Okay, so we did just finish rock pouring. We did two rock core drops overnight. It is 4:30 in the morning. So this is what they look like when they come off the rock core. Uh all these black bits are pieces of volcanic glass. It might not seem like very much glass, but uh we can do the analyses we need to do with just this much from each location. Now I am going to bed. I never in a million years thought I would do this as a job. I didn't know this job even existed until suddenly it was the only job I'd actually ever wanted. I am genuinely excited to go into work every day. And I never in a
million years thought a future like that was possible for me. But with geology, it is. It's not really a job. It's a way of life. It's a lifestyle. It feels like you step back in time. You're doing what your ancestors did thousands of years ago. You're walking the same paths. I feel like I've really found my calling. You can see it's love. My name is Cla Jean and I live on a mountain in a place called Cromantana. And in Chromatana, I am a shepherd. Every morning before the kids are up and everybody else is awake, my husband and I go walking the dogs. We're not really breakfast people, so this is where we meet and talk about the day ahead. I've always enjoyed being outdoors. I've
always enjoyed animals. Otherwise, I don't think I would have accepted to go down this path with my husband when he suggested it. I feel like a day with sunshine, not outside, is definitely a day wasted for me. on the way to work and it's snowing again. So, this is going to be a fun ride. We've got to make it. There's animals depending on us. Too fate. This is winter in the Swiss mountain. I would say that becoming a shepherdess is a surprising twist in my story 100% sure. I am actually a farmer's daughter originally, but I was studying in
Switzerland and I met my husband and uh one day he said to me that he wanted to become a farmer and a shepherd. So he bought a couple of goats and a couple of sheep and the rest is history. That was over 12 years ago now. I can't actually make it to go and feed the goats um with the car because there is a tree that's fallen on the road and that needs to be cleared first. But I need to go and feed the animals and I'm going to go by foot. So, it's going to take longer, but at least uh we're safe. We now have 500 sheep, 100 goats, three cows, highland cows, and six horses and ponies. With the setup we have, it's just my husband and I, and we're doing everything um every
day. There aren't any days off. It's all consuming. Um it's physically and mentally demanding. where the snow hasn't been cleared. You can see that it's clearly above my knees. Fun times. We live very much like animals, so the year changes a lot for us, particularly in terms of seasons. In the winter, you're feeding your animals twice a day, um, and you're lamming or kidding. In the spring, you're moving them every couple of days to new pasture. And then in the summer, you're going up every day and moving with the animals uh along the alpage for new grazing. So, it is timeconuming and the jobs are never done.
Foraging skills on point. Oops. For me, I would say the hardest part is definitely being separated as a family or being separated from my teammate. where we live, we don't have enough grazing on the mountain where we are. So, he moves the beginning of June with the flock by foot to um the mountain opposite. He won't set foot in the house again until mid to end of October. So, he's away 5 months. And it doesn't get easier as the years go by. It stays the same. You have the same sinking feeling when the day arrives, but afterwards you find your way. Um, and it's been a good lesson to me in terms of being autonomous and challenging myself and knowing that I'm capable. So, my self-confidence.
This is now kidding week and um, it's snowing and it hasn't snowed for weeks. My favorite time of year is the lamming and kidding because I love to see new life. I love to see maternal instincts kicking in. There is a baby. Two babies. There's two babies. Well done, mama. I'm going to put the babies into the tunnel with the mom just cuz the weather's pretty bad. So, I'm going to make sure I've got a few already in the tunnel. It's just incredible to be around new life. It always brings a sense of hope. It's It's just incredible. It's It's indescribable. Yeah. Hi. She's happy with life. She was born yesterday. And then the two twins which were my first born. This is a boy and a girl.
Working with any animals and machinery is obviously dangerous cuz you never know what's going to happen. That's just part of the job. But we do have some added extras being on the mountains. This is Alicia. She's a livestock guardian dog and I have her here with the goats because we've got links that have been spotted just over the hill over here just beyond our barrier. So Alicia is keeping an eye out making sure that uh no potential predators enter the domain. Wherever I am she knows exactly where I am. I think as soon as an animal reciprocates the love and the trust that you show to them, they've got my heart.
They become part of the family in many ways. This is Caramel. She's one of my favorite goats. In fact, she's a family favorite. All of our children have grown up with her. So, she's one of the animals that have taught them how to interact with animals cuz she's been so patient and so kind. So, she's definitely a family favorite. What working with animals or being with animals and living in nature and so in tune with nature gives to me is uncomparable to doing anything else. And being able to do that with our children and offer that lifestyle to our children which is so rare these days and becoming more and more rare. And how I've seen our children grow up and who they are becoming. I know that this has been the right choice.
Despite the hardships and the sacrifices, it completes me as a person and I wouldn't change it for the world. My name is Connor Gordon. I'm a carpenter and I'm currently living and working at Casey Station, Antarctica. I tend to go with the flow with my life and so this was a bit of a surprising twist for me and I've always been interested in Antarctica but um it's not always been a definite plan to come down here. Starting to feel real. Very real. Thought, yeah, that's it. I'm doing this. And that was my focus from that point. About to land. This is our new home.
I've always lived in the city. So being here in a community of 100 people living and working with the same people every day is it's it's very different experience. No two days are the same here. Today we had to head up to Wilkins Aerad Drrome to complete some improvement works. After brekie and more importantly coffee, it was time to gear up and head to work. It's got a beautiful sunny day today. Bit too bright actually. So, we're going to be doing a bunch of repairs out there. The airfield 70ks inland from here. So, we got to take all our gear with us. So, my contract work here is for 12 months and I've been
down here for 3. So, I've got 9 months to go. I'll spend 12 months in Antarctica and then I you know I could afford to take 12 months off. I don't have any expenses. So, it's it's a brilliant opportunity to save money as well. So, we're heading up the hill towards Wilkins today. I just got the hag started, all loaded up, ready to go. Getting it nice and warm at the moment before we start driving. Got the sled on. Ben and Josh are keen. And so are these little guys. It's pretty cool being able to see penguins all the time. You know, sometimes we'll be sitting at the bar or relaxing and penguins will just walk past. You don't even need to leave your
seat to see them. So, we're heading up to Wilkins to do a bunch of maintenance jobs up there. There's a couple different tasks to do. Wilkins is about 70 km inland from Casey, which takes about 3 and 1/2 hours in the Hagland. It's it's slow going. You're going 20 to 30 km an hour the whole way. So, I just got to the Antarctic Circle. About another hour till we get to Wilkins and we're at our job site. One of the big challenges we'll face down here is obviously the weather. You know, extreme cold climate, huge winds, windiest and dest continent on the planet. Being a carpenter, you want to do a lot of fiddly little jobs
and wearing thick gloves like we have to down here makes even just little menial tasks quite challenging sometimes. So, we just dropped the sled off and parked up at our accommodation here. And that's the little bed, drop down bed they've got for us. This is the kitchen, our sort of dining area, coffee machines. This is another door we got to fix. We focused on the door repairs and the joinery repairs and some of the smaller jobs. New handles all on. Overall, it was it was successful. Good result in the end. It's bloody cracker of a day now. Have a look at that. At the moment, we're 24-hour daylight, and that'll last for a couple of months of 24-hour daylight or close to it.
Current time, 8:30 p.m. Sun's still high in the sky. I love the remoteness. It could be very peaceful out here sometimes. Very easy to wind down after work. It's so silent out here. I can just hear ringing in my ears. This is crazy. The most dangerous thing down here is definitely the weather and the remoteness. Sometimes the weather can change in an instant and what starts off as a beautiful sunny day can turn into blizzard or white out conditions. This is an example of how easy you can get lost.
I'm just trying to walk straight in a straight line here. You can see our foot sort of footsteps are starting to trail off. This guy's way off over here. So that's why you stay where you are if you get caught in a white out or a blizzard. We stayed at Wilkins for another 2 days to complete this section at work. Then it was time to take the long trip back to station. So just departing Wilkins now. hook the sled back up. I don't have a partner or any dependent, no children or pets, so it made it quite easy for me to be able to drop what I was doing and come down to Antarctica.
Working in Antarctica is such a unique experience. I'm so grateful to have been given the opportunity to work down here. Yeah, buddy. Look at the view. Hi, my name is Mina. I'm 29 years old and I work as a tower crane operator. I'm definitely not scared of heights. It's never really been an issue for me. Do you want to know how early it is? Too early. I sleep as much as I can and I just I get up and I go. I think it's like minus5 degrees C. So, got to get dressed. I started doing this job about
three years ago, and it's actually very random. I didn't do anything like it before. This was definitely not something I imagined doing as a child. Let's go. I have a commute to work, which is about 1 hour. I walk to the train station. I get the train to the city center and when I'm at the city center I get the metro the last bit until I get to the construction site. I have to wear steel toe shoes and visibility gear on my upper body and then I have a helmet and gloves. This crane where I work right now is 60 m high and there's 11 ladders.
Halfway there. And it takes me about maybe 8 or 9 minutes to climb up those ladders. I love heights and I love maybe like the unusual kinds of jobs. My favorite part about this job is probably the view. Like I never get tired of them. They're always nice. There's something called pale sh or I think in English it's called like polar stratospheric clouds. The first time I saw it, I was actually in the crane and it was amazing. It was so beautiful. Ah, okay. So, my plan now is just waiting for someone to call for me, asking for lifts. Um, maybe I'll get some breakfast and maybe I'll make a cup
of coffee. And if you're wondering if it's like cold up here, it's really nice and toasty warm. You can see I'm sitting in my t-shirt, so it's not cold at all. So now it's 11:00 and I have my lunch break. I actually stay up in the crane my whole workday. So I actually eat up there, but it is recommended to climb down in your lunch break so you get some movement or socialize. This is the size of the cabin. It's actually quite large compared to other cabins. I have a water kettle. I always have I have some cocoa and coffee up here and tea. This is the chair that I sit in and steer everything. So when I sit like this, I have two steering sticks. On my left side, I have one stick that swings to the side and goes out and in. So that's
what this does. And then on this side, I have um a stick which uh goes up and down. Here's some information that I use when I drive. For instance, I can see how far out I am on the jib and then how far up and down I am. If I have something on the hook, this is how much it weighs and this is how much it's the max I can have. And also, I have this great tool here, which is a camera. And not all cranes have this. I think it should be mandatory for all cranes to have a camera because it's it's for the safety. There's actually a lot of responsibility on the crane operator and it's a dangerous job. Not really for me. Um up here I feel very safe but I have a lot of responsibility for the people on the ground.
pull that window on there like a floor on the discussion there. So luckily I am a person that uh don't mind being alone uh all day because uh this job it is uh yeah it's a solitary nature of the job. So uh I do sit here alone all day and yeah I'm okay with it. So, I work from 7 to 3:30 and there was no extra work today. So, I'm done. So, a lot of people have written to me uh saying that they want to become a tower crane operator. So, especially many women. So, I have recruited a lot of women into the industry in my country. As of now, I see myself doing this for a while.
