Building Alaska Introduction
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Building Alaska Introduction 02:18
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Lee Raymond's Remote Challenge 03:21
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Builders Face Lumber Obstacles 02:43
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Curious Guests At Cabin Sites 02:04
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Mud Problems in Chicken, AK 03:14
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Rain and Roofing Are At Odds 03:22
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Tree Burls Become Works of Art 01:35
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Race to Beat Winter's Wrath 03:33
A Look Back at Season 1
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About The Show
Episodes
See Episode GuideChicken or Bust
The three builders each face their own forms of adversity. Lee Raymond is struggling to get back on track after losing a month to bad weather and an impassable semi-frozen Quiet Lake. At the Matanuska Glacier, Chuck Gerwig has had perfect weather, but most of his labor is due to leave once fishing season starts in less than a month. And Jim Wagner has finished, numbered and taken down his cabin in Gustavus, but now begins the arduous 500-mile transport to Chicken that will include two ferry rides, two border crossings and hopefully enough supplies to finish the rebuild before winter sets in.
Ryan's Song
While its full-steam ahead for Lee Raymond as he finally gets some much welcomed sun, Jim Wagner and his family begin the long process of starting over; building roads, leveling ground and ultimately trying to get their cabin in Chicken back up. Amidst all the fervor of the other two builds, Chuck Gerwig's site is oddly quiet. Disaster has struck. His righthand man, Ryan Beachy, has been tragically killed in a motorcycle accident. Now his build is suspended and a decision needs to be made, to continue or not.
A Long Hard Slog
After battling the tragedy of the loss of his righthand man, Ryan Beachy, Chuck Gerwig is back in the saddle and ready to finish the job that he and Ryan started months earlier. 312 miles northeast in Chicken, Alaska, Jim Wagner and crew are at a near standstill due to a nonstop rain that has turned their man-made road into an impassible swamp. And with a concrete truck due any minute, will they be able to get it fixed before they risk losing any hope of getting the foundation poured? Finally, Lee Raymond has been fighting the same weather since he started and he's still behind. Now he's losing his number one crew to college, so his final push will have to be with a brand new crew that can afford no errors.
Self-Sufficient Building
When you live this far off the grid, you need to be self-sufficient, whether it is using recycled oil, fishing for dinner, or installing hydro and wind energy systems. The insulation delays continue as Bob waits for a delinquent subcontractor.
Cast Away
It's a sprint to the finish as Bob gets the cabin completed before his first paying customers arrive. Furniture and other items are installed at the last moment. He works 16-hour days, goes over budget, but ends up with the cabin of his dreams.
The Race Is On: The Builders Set Their Course
Three men set out to build three cabins in remote areas of the Alaskan frontier. They will make preparations in the harsh Alaskan winter and race against time, the bitter cold and the wilderness to complete their builds. Using their various skills sets and techniques, the three different cabins constructed will all need to hold up in some of the most harsh conditions in the world.
Grip It and Rip It
As the summer season starts to thaw out in Alaska, the builders get underway. But their pre-planning doesn't make perfect. The Alaskan elements are stubborn at all three build sites, but a little ingenuity goes a long way.
Chicken or Bust
The three builders each face their own forms of adversity. Lee Raymond is struggling to get back on track after losing a month to bad weather and an impassable semi-frozen Quiet Lake. At the Matanuska Glacier, Chuck Gerwig has had perfect weather, but most of his labor is due to leave once fishing season starts in less than a month. And Jim Wagner has finished, numbered and taken down his cabin in Gustavus, but now begins the arduous 500-mile transport to Chicken that will include two ferry rides, two border crossings and hopefully enough supplies to finish the rebuild before winter sets in.
Ryan's Song
While its full-steam ahead for Lee Raymond as he finally gets some much welcomed sun, Jim Wagner and his family begin the long process of starting over; building roads, leveling ground and ultimately trying to get their cabin in Chicken back up. Amidst all the fervor of the other two builds, Chuck Gerwig's site is oddly quiet. Disaster has struck. His righthand man, Ryan Beachy, has been tragically killed in a motorcycle accident. Now his build is suspended and a decision needs to be made, to continue or not.
A Long Hard Slog
After battling the tragedy of the loss of his righthand man, Ryan Beachy, Chuck Gerwig is back in the saddle and ready to finish the job that he and Ryan started months earlier. 312 miles northeast in Chicken, Alaska, Jim Wagner and crew are at a near standstill due to a nonstop rain that has turned their man-made road into an impassible swamp. And with a concrete truck due any minute, will they be able to get it fixed before they risk losing any hope of getting the foundation poured? Finally, Lee Raymond has been fighting the same weather since he started and he's still behind. Now he's losing his number one crew to college, so his final push will have to be with a brand new crew that can afford no errors.
Tempers Flare
Winter is fast approaching and now all three of the builders are finding themselves with less help to finish the massive tasks at hand. In Chicken, Jim Wagner's build now relies heavily on his son Aaron. And as Aaron pushes Jim toward the finish line, both food and building supplies are running low. Chuck Gerwig has lost his remaining crew to college in Texas, so that leaves 17-year old daughter Tiffany and 10-year old son Zac to pull up the slack of finishing his 3000 square foot home. And Lee Raymond just cannot catch a break. The torrential rains have made it impossible to get ahead and now he's had to enlist a brand new crew to take over for his college workers, one of whom is his son Aaron. As the days to the end game get shorter, so do Lee's and Aaron's tempers.
Downward Slide
As the days get shorter and colder, and snow is visible on the highest peaks, the builders frantically race to get their homes sealed in. Chuck Gerwig suffered a huge blow earlier in the summer with the loss of his righthand man, and now his 10-hour days are up to 12 and its starting to show. Barely keeping in front of his subcontractors, one small mistake could mean not finishing. In Chicken, Jim Wagner's organizational luck has just run out. His flooring is four bundles short. So, with everything shutting down for the winter in a week, he has to decide whether or not to make the half day journey to the lumberyard, which is no guarantee, or finish the roof before snow flies. Finally, at remote Quiet Lake, Lee Raymond's son "high speed, no grease" Aaron, is scrambling to get the roofing on before the snow. But the constant rain mixed with Aaron's speed has created a very slick situation and Aaron just can't hold on.
The End Game
Winter has arrived and the race is over. It's time for each of our builders to come to terms with their end games as they pack up and head home for the season. To say this year has been a challenge would be an understatement. From lakes, to glaciers, to areas savaged by fire, nothing was immune from Alaska's hostile nature. Whether that came in the form of brutal weather, extreme fatigue, or even death, it had to be endured and overcome. And although the men, their homes and the sites were vastly different, they all can lay claim to the same victory in surviving Alaska's wrath. Now is the time to shutter in, rest, and take stock in what matters for in just a few short months the season will change again and usher in a new chapter of Building Alaska.
Panic Button
Lee's crew must push through waves of mosquitoes and fatigue to finish the deck of their Bulchitna Lake build before the floatplane arrives to take them home for a day of rest. In Haines, Tony and his crew wrestle the largest and heaviest pieces of the build into place without any kind of machinery, and Derek pushes the panic button after more bad weather and mechanical problems delay his build once again.
Game Day
Just as Derek and his band of buddies are about to give up on their dream of a cliffside ski hut, Alaska hands them a miracle that turns a down day into game day. Lee loses one of his hardest working crew members out at Bulchitna Lake just as they have to lift an 800 pound truss into place, and Tony's hideaway cabin is in good enough shape to take a break and fish for halibut on the Lynn Canal.
Heads Up
The drama at Derek's cliffside build near Valdez escalates after rain saturates the region and an accident on the roof almost takes out a crew member. Tony leaves his build in Bobby's hands to tend to another job and returns to find an injury has occurred. Lee discovers the culprit behind a messy footprint while the crew faces sketchy conditions to install the custom windows on their 2500 square foot Bulchitna Lake build.
The Finest Moment
Lee and his crew install a new woodstove to dry out the drywall mud and tape, and while he's waiting, Lee takes time to enjoy everything Alaska has to offer. Derek and his band of ski buddies race to protect the cabin from bears and construct homegrown countertops from materials on the site. And Tony finally makes it to the roofing stage of his Porcupine Creek build while his build partner Bob takes a new gig felling trees for a local homeowner.
The Final Push
Lee is down to just a crew of three as he races to finish the interior of the cabin before the lake freezes over and prevents their floatplane from landing. Tony's crew discovers a serious miscalculation that will force them to miss their deadline unless a miracle occurs, and Derek and his crew push through the endless rainfall, dangerous conditions and dwindling materials to complete the project.
We're Back
Extreme building is back in Alaska. Three men risk it all to build a remote hunting cabin, an off the grid bear lodge and an island retreat.
The Beast is Dead
Engine issues stall Tom's build, a welder battles the wind on the boardwalk at Rich's island retreat and Creig brings the heat to his bear lodge.
Rock Around the Build
Rich's island build is literally between a rock and a hard place, Tom gets a lesson in logging and Creig feels the sting of remote building and shoddy materials.
Bear Attack
Creig's camp is stunned after a bear attack, high winds wreak havoc and cause delays at Tom's build and Rich goes underwater to save his dock.
Piece of the Pie
Bruce Chambers and his crew run out of supplies, putting their cabin build at a standstill. Mark Sams and his crew are challenged to make their foundation level and square, and Dave Poppert and his family deal with a non-functional milling machine while working on their family home.
Keeping Morale Up
A new season of builders brave the Alaskan elements to construct off-the-grid cabins. Jeff Erickson takes on a challenging cliffside build, Chappie Cook's team struggles to get materials to the site without roads and first-time builder Chris Sewell faces some harsh realities about his foundation.
The Wrong Stuff
The three build teams continue their builds in unique, remote Alaskan settings. At Bruce Chambers' build site on LaTouche Island, their worst nightmare becomes a reality when their backup generator dies. On Mark Sams' build in Freshwater Bay, near Hoonah, one of his crew is missing, and Mark hopes for the best. Dave Poppert is rolling solo despite the risks of building alone off the grid at Point MacKenzie, near Wasilla.
Stormy Weather
The three build teams continue their builds in unique, remote Alaskan settings. At Bruce Chambers' build on LaTouche Island, getting the log walls up continues to be a nightmare, but Bruce finds the perfect way to let off some steam. On Chichagof Island, Mark Sams and his crew endure pounding rain that makes the build miserable. At Dave Poppert's build, he and his team race against Mother Nature to get the roof up before the snow falls in Point MacKenzie.
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