All language subtitles for Mountain Life at the Extreme 3of3 Andes 1080p HDTV x264 AAC MVGroup org

High above the clouds...

..there are lost worlds.

Unexplored...

..unforgiving...

..wildly unpredictable.

But here on the great
mountain ranges of our planet,

life does exist.

Against all odds,

a few extraordinary animals
and remarkable people...

..make their home
in the highest places on Earth.

Soaring over the Andes Mountains...

..a South American condor.

It's on an endless search
for food...

..covering 100 miles every day

on wings that span three metres.

Below, strange worlds appear.

Cloud forests, home to tens
of thousands of species.

The planet's largest salt flats,
two miles up.

Ice fields stretching 200 miles.

The Andes is our planet's
longest mountain range,

made up of a huge number of
astonishing hidden worlds.

The condor has to keep flying,

but for those below, each must
adapt to their own world...

..every one an extraordinary island
in the sky.

The Andes form the spine of
South America,

stretching 5,000 miles,

three times the length
of the Himalaya.

They begin at the continent's
southernmost tip, Cape Horn.

The Andes rise out of the sea, 600
miles to the north of Antarctica.

Down here, ferocious winds
hit the land at over 100mph.

The weather changes faster
than anywhere in South America.

One moment, a storm is brewing.

The next...

..total calm.

To live in the Southern Andes,

animals must adapt to the constantly
changing environment.

PURR

A puma.

She has three cubs
and must raise them on her own.

Just four months old,
they're always hungry.

She must make a kill
every four days...

..whatever the weather.

Clear skies deliver a sudden,
sharp frost.

The pumas have lost their camouflage
in this white world.

Hunting will have to wait.

The cubs use the time playing.

Practice for when they hunt
for real in a few months' time.

The winter sun
soon burns off the frost.

And that changes everything.

A guanaco.

A relative of the llama,
and at two metres tall,

the Andes' largest animal.

Now, camouflaged again,
the pumas go unnoticed.

There's no wind
to carry their scent.

But when it's this calm,

the slightest rustle
could give her away.

Once a guanaco gets going,
there's no catching it.

A wind from the coast brings
yet another change in the weather.

Fog blows in and is trapped
by the mountains.

Visibility drops to a few metres.

Sound has become muffled.

For an ambush hunter, it's perfect.

When the fog lifts,

it reveals the puma's prize.

The family can eat 15 kilos of meat
in a single sitting.

Their lives depend on making
the most of every opportunity

in the ever-changing Southern Andes.

This landscape stretches
for over 1,000 miles,

up through Chile and Argentina.

To the north are different
mountain worlds,

each with their own challenges.

And at the very top of Chile

is the strangest place
in the whole of the Andes.

Surrounded by a wall
of high mountains,

rain clouds can't reach
the Atacama Desert.

40,000 square miles...

..the driest place on Earth...

..yet one remarkable creature
is so well suited to life here,

it's found nowhere else
on the planet.

A salt flat lizard.

His whole life revolves around water
and trying to find it.

In this sun-warped world, mirages
make lakes appear out of thin air.

This time,

the water is for real.

Meltwater from distant mountaintops
flows underground

until it wells up here.

It seems like an oasis...

..except this water is saturated
with salt leached from the rocks.

There's a secret
to surviving in this world.

It's right in front of him.

Brine flies,

salt specialists.

They pass the salt
out of their bodies,

leaving them sweet and juicy.

All the lizard needs to do...

..is catch them.

To get the equivalent
of a teaspoon of fresh water,

he has to eat 400 flies.

This fly-ridden shoreline
is a paradise...

..and that's the problem.

There's a new guy in town...

..and this territory isn't
big enough for the both of them.

The defender puffs himself up.

Perhaps looking larger than life
will make the intruder back down.

Owning a stake in this shoreline

is the difference
between life and death.

Bad news for the intruder.

For the victor, the prize
is an endless supply of flies.

200 miles to the north,

the remnant of a vast prehistoric
lake scars the barren landscape.

Trapped by the Andes,
the lake slowly evaporated,

leaving behind
an extraordinary legacy.

3,500 metres up,
hidden in the Bolivian Andes,

is our planet's flattest place.

The Salar de Uyuni.

The world's biggest salt flat.

4,000 square miles of nothing.

Except for 50 billion
tonnes of salt.

The salt flat is the most hostile
Andean world.

Nothing grows here.

The salt is five metres thick,

studded with countless polygons
formed as the Salar dried out.

The scenery seems unchanging...

..but sometimes in late summer

a miraculous transformation
takes place.

Sudden rains leave a layer
of dead calm water

just a centimetre deep.

The Salar becomes a natural wonder.

The world's largest mirror.

80 miles across.

At night, the Salar
is transformed again...

..into a 360-degree star scape.

This dazzling show is only possible

because the landscape
is so perfectly flat.

Yet only 200 miles to the north,
the Andes are staggeringly vertical.

Here, 160 peaks rise
to over 5,500 metres.

This is the Central Andes.

A series of rugged worlds.

Once the heart
of the largest civilisation

the Andes has ever known.

The Inca Empire.

Only 500 years ago, it was
the greatest empire on Earth.

Machu Picchu
was its finest royal estate.

The Incas ruled 10 million people
scattered across the Andes.

They were masters of engineering.

Their granite blocks fit together
perfectly.

Some weigh 14 tonnes, each hewn
by hand and hauled into position.

Today, the Inca Empire is long gone.

But its challenging,
rugged world remains.

The Apurimac River
carves a 200-metre gorge

through the Peruvian highlands.

At Quehue, it splits communities in
half.

But the locals are direct
descendants of the Incas.

They've inherited the same language,
the same amazing engineering skills.

In June every year,

they come together to harvest
the hardy mountain plant,

Coya ichu grass.

Strong and flexible to cope with
harsh mountain winds.

Perfect for construction.

Acalina Ruiz is 77.

Right now, every local household
is busy making 70 metres of rope.

It's a real community effort.

Soon, entire villages
gather inside the gorge.

The grass is about to play
centre stage in a mountain festival
passed down from the Incas.

THEY CHANT

All this work has one purpose.

A bridge has stood here since Inca
times, linking the community.

Acalina has been using it
since childhood.

But in the mountains,
the bridge wears out fast.

Fresh Coya ichu grass will make
all the difference.

THEY SHOUT

But first, they must cut free
the old, worn-out bridge.

Now, a new bridge can take shape.

After three days of hauling
and weaving, it's ready...

..and Acalina can visit the other
side in safety...

..all thanks to a bridge
made without tools.

Just two tonnes of mountain grass

and Inca ingenuity.

The Central Andes aren't
just an obstacle for people.

700 miles to the north,
in western Peru,

the mountains are so high
they stop clouds from drifting past.

It creates a scorched world of dry
forests where rain rarely falls.

It's 40 degrees.

Even in the shade.

This parched landscape is home to
the Andes' most elusive animal.

Spectacled bear.

He can go five months
without a sip of water,

just surviving on succulent plants.

Strong, long legs and curved claws
are perfect for climbing.

And he has the secret to mastering
this near-vertical desert.

On a far hillside,
there's the telltale sign.

A single fig tree.

A spring wells up here.

It's created a refuge
where mountain animals find shade...

..and life-saving water.

Little bears have to be wary -

this sanctuary is a magnet
for other bears.

Best not to risk a fight
with a big male.

Young bears move between oases,
seeking a place to call their own.

There's only a handful of springs

in 200 square miles
of high-altitude desert.

In time, bears make a mental map
of every spring in their territory.

Some are nothing more
than a cooling mudslide.

Others have magnificent
bathing facilities.

Thanks to his amazing memory,

this bear can even enjoy
a swim in a desert.

The remote worlds
of the spectacled bear

may not be isolated for much longer.

Roads are gradually connecting
the Central Andes.

Northern Peru is a maze
of steep slopes,

deep canyons and rough tracks.

They're only for the bold.

In Vilcabamba,
villagers rely on one man.

Some here call him a hero.

Glorioso has one of the
world's most dangerous jobs.

He's the bus driver.

And this is the 12.58 to Lima.

Glorioso has been behind the wheel
for over 50 years.

He started aged 14,
driving trucks across the Andes.

It starts off easy enough,

dropping 1,000 metres in a series of
switchbacks called the horse killer.

Every year, over 1,000 lives
are lost on Peru's mountain roads.

For Glorioso,

it's just a normal day.

He's been driving this route
for 12 years.

Mountain roads are so abrasive,
his tyres last only ten weeks.

But the really hard part
is further down the valley.

Not the place
to meet oncoming traffic.

For the passengers,
it's just the usual commute.

Nobody's in a rush.

As the local saying goes,

it's better to arrive
a little late in this world

than early in the next.

And that's the secret to a long
career as a Peruvian bus driver -

taking the mountains
at their own pace.

Roads like this wind their way
through the remotest corners

of the Central Andes, but some peaks
will always be off-limits.

The Andes are the youngest
of the great mountain ranges.

Deep underground, two colossal
tectonic plates are colliding.

As the land buckles,
the Andes are formed.

Mud boils where it overlies
vast underground magma chambers.

As the chambers swell,
the land above rises further...

..in places, by over
two metres a decade.

Sometimes, magma pushes
all the way to the surface.

There are over 200 active volcanoes
spread across the Andes -

more than anywhere else on Earth.

An eruption can blast
a billion tonnes of ash

13 miles into the atmosphere.

Tectonic activity
has left a remarkable legacy

across the Central Andes.

The solidified remains
of an ancient magma chamber

dominate Peru's Paron Valley.

A granite tower is a rarity
in the Andes.

It draws pilgrims from all over.

When I came to the mountain
it's like when other people
go to the church and pray.

I feel the same connection with God.

All his life,
Ivan Calderon's passion

has been for climbing in the Andes.

But today is his first attempt
at scaling this tower.

La Esfinge, 1,000 metres tall.

When this route was first climbed
30 years ago, it took ten days.

Ivan and his partner Foucault
are attempting it in just one.

This is big wall climbing

in the extreme.

Falling from the top,

it would take 22 long seconds
to hit the ground.

Because this granite solidified
so slowly

over tens of thousands of years,

it's packed with large
quartz crystals...

..and that's the key
to the climbers' success.

As coarse as sandpaper, quartz is
good for grip, but skin-shredding.

Three hours in, Ivan's at an
altitude of almost 5,000 metres.

There's only half the oxygen
as at sea level.

His muscles are screaming.

And now he faces the toughest part
of the climb.

Next, a sheer face polished
smooth by ice and wind.

Oooh!

Ooh!

Ooooh!

Ooh!

Oooh!

Oooh.

I'm exhausted.

The air is so thin

and it's hard to breathe
at this altitude.

Six relentless hours into the climb,

and Foucault takes his turn
in front.

After ten hours, the summit.

All day for...just for this moment,
you know, just to enjoy this view.

Wow.

Amazing.

Ivan and Foucault have climbed
above the clouds to 5,300 metres.

Beyond them stretches a whole new
world of extreme high altitude.

Peru's Cordillera Blanca,
the white range.

Here, clouds roll in from the Amazon
basin 200 miles to the east.

Because they are so laden
with rainforest moisture,

they generate wet, sticky snow,

creating a world
of colossal snow sculptures.

Cornices, made by snow
blown over mountain crests,

thousands of tonnes
teetering on the ridgeline.

The sticky snow clings to cliffs.

Flutings form where
avalanches have gouged channels...

..and most mysterious of all -
and a speciality of the Andes -

penitentes,

blades of ice,

each up to six metres tall,

formed by the sun carving troughs
in the snow.

One of the great natural wonders
of our planet,

four miles up and almost never seen.

One creature, though, makes a home

in the Central Andes'
ultimate ice world.

Peru's Quelccaya glacier
covers 15 square miles.

It's the largest expanse of ice
in the tropics.

And yet, white-winged
Diuca finches thrive here,

5,500 metres up.

Also known as glacier birds,

they come to Quelccaya
to avoid predators.

And they've discovered
the perfect place to raise a family.

The glacier itself.

CHIRPING

Two chicks are hidden safely inside.

The world's only
glacier-nesting birds.

And this is the very first time

anybody's seen inside
one of their nests.

At night,

it drops to -10.

But insulated in their nest,

it's not the cold
that threatens them up here.

It's the sun.

The chicks don't have long.

In less than a month, their home
will melt out of the ice cliff.

It's a race against time.

In places, Quelccaya is receding
over ten metres a year.

Other nests have already fallen.

Finally, one chick is bold enough

to follow its parent
into the outside world,

leaving its sibling all alone.

Now, the nest is beginning
to collapse.

As a last resort, the parents
cut back on feeding.

Perhaps a more hungry chick
can be coaxed out.

Safe at last.

But the future for its species
is less certain.

The air temperature up here
is rising,

and Quelccaya's retreat
is accelerating.

At current rates, Quelccaya will
be 30% smaller in just 20 years.

The home of the glacier bird
is slowly disappearing.

Each extraordinary Andean world
has its own unique challenges.

It's a long journey from the
fast-changing world of the puma...

..through the sterile salt flats...

..and across the rugged peaks
of the Central Andes.

But on the journey from south
to north, there's one final,

very different Andean world.

900 miles north of the Central
Andes, on the Equator, in Ecuador.

BIRDSONG

Cloud forest.

Even 2,000 metres up,
it's 15 degrees,

with lots of sunshine...

..and more rain than anywhere else
in the Andes -

six metres a year.

THUNDER RUMBLES

It's the perfect recipe for life.

Tens of thousands of species
jostle for space.

Almost 800 kinds of bird,

a sixth of all plant species...

..but intense competition
makes living here tough.

It seems everything
wants to eat everything else.

One way to survive is to blend in.

Stick insects mimic
thorny cloud-forest plants.

Glass frogs go a step further...

..with translucent skin

..to soften their silhouette.

But there's one frog here that takes
blending in to a whole new level.

A newly discovered rain frog,

only two centimetres long.

On the face of it,

he looks quite ordinary...

..but he has a trick up his sleeve
that baffles biologists.

A trick to escape predators...

..like this eyelash viper.

Large eyes lock onto the prey.

He leaps for cover...

..and now his masterstroke.

He's growing three-dimensional
camouflage.

His new shape, colour and texture
blend perfectly with the moss.

The shape-shifting rain frog
was discovered in 2014.

It's only known
from 11 individual trees

in the whole of the cloud forest.

It's just one of many new species
being found here every year.

There's so much hidden in this world
that we're yet to discover.

In the Andes, our planet's
longest and richest mountain range,

the cloud forest is surely
the ultimate place for life

above the clouds.

The highest shoot in the Andes
was to Quelccaya glacier in Peru,

at 5,700 metres.

The crew are hoping to capture

the first images of birds
nesting inside a glacier.

We are packing up to go to
the ice cap at last.

We're heading up to Quelccaya

after a week of acclimatising
to the altitude,

and we've got to hike about five
hours, then we should be there.

So it's exciting, and slightly scary
at the same time because we don't

quite know what we're going to find
when we get there.

Ahead of the crew,

a team of scientists is already
at the glacier, looking for nests.

I'm out of breath already.

At this altitude, there's only half
the oxygen compared to sea level.

I think I left my lungs down there.

We're checking our pulses
quite often

and our oxygen levels, just to
make sure we're not clinically dead.

193. 215.

That can't be right.

With blood oxygen levels
dangerously low,

glacier camp is a welcome sight.

This trip has been nine months
in the planning,

and the crew still don't know if the
science team has found any nests.

Good to have everybody together.

Yeah. So I've got to ask,
what's the news?

We found fledglings,
we found one nest building.

Yeah!

I don't know about you, but my heart
rate has just gone up a bit more.

It's very exciting.

With the promise
of something to film,

the crew settle into camp

and prepare to spend
their first oxygen-starved night

in temperatures down to -10.

It's half past seven,

I'm freezing cold,

trying to brush my teeth
before the water freezes,

trying not to spit in the vicinity
of Pete's strange tent contraption.

Good night. Night, Pete.

Sweet dreams.

It's about half five, six.
I've just woken up

after a night
of not really sleeping at all -

you're kind of out of breath
the whole night,

as if you've just been doing
loads of exercises.

But the real effort
is just beginning,

as the team hike to Quelccaya.

The parent birds aren't around.

This ice climber

has less than an hour
to install a nest camera

before they return
from feeding in the valley below.

It's quite hard to watch.

It just looks so precarious.

The glacier's melting fast
and is unstable underfoot.

I'll be pleased when he's down,
put it that way.

Back on the ground,
wires from the camera
are connected to a filming hide.

So this is the moment of truth.

Everything should be plugged in,
ready to go.

Oh!

And there we have a view

into the glacier bird's nest.

Look at that!

So you can see here, you can see

the little bit of fluff
on the two chicks.

Brilliant - we've got a window into
their little intimate lives

when their parents come in to feed
them, see how the chicks grow.

What a privileged little view
we've got.

This is the first-ever footage
of a glacier bird nest.

But there is a chance the adults
won't accept the camera.

If they're too wary
to enter the nest,

the mission will have
to be abandoned.

They just flew up, so they're 20, 25
metres but they're getting closer.

OK, so I can see the bird,

about three or four metres
up to the right of the nest.

She's checking it out. It's
a new feature in her environment.

Come on, be brave.

Yes, she's in there, she's in there.

Now she's in? Yeah!

Flying out. Right past the camera.

With the birds accepting the camera,
the hope is that the team will now

discover exactly what goes on
in the hidden nest.

Before this visit,

all that was known about the nesting
of this species was from two nests

found the end of April in 2014.

This activity
was previously undocumented

and will help to build a story

of why and when the birds
are nesting on the ice.

Spencer was part of
the original team that discovered
the birds' unique behaviour.

His search for new nests even
takes him underneath the glacier.

It's a little nerve-racking
being under here.

A lot of ice over me and I know
it's melting and actively moving.

If it starts to creak, run!

Science runs in Spencer's family.

His father Doug has been studying
Quelccaya for years.

Since 1980, the glacier
has shrunk by around a third.

Whether Quelccaya's here in 20
years, 50 years or 100 years,

it's pretty difficult to speculate,

especially given the increasing rate

at which we're changing
the atmosphere.

It's a little bit of a race
against time trying to salvage
and understand

what's going on in these ice caps
while they're still here.

Back in the hide,
there is some good news.

So, after a week of waiting,
we've finally seen one of the chicks
fledge,

which is very exciting.

And now there's one chick left,
looking a bit sad.

He's all alone for the first time
in his life -

probably doesn't
know what's going on.

We're hoping the parents
can encourage it to fledge soon.

The chick's home will not last
much longer.

Come on, little fellow.

It's not really quite ready
to take the plunge.

Coming up, coming up to you,
Matthew. Ready.

Oh, he's popped back in his nest.

He's just not up for it.

Ooh - chick's flying,
chick's flying.

So we've been watching them
and we've seen the snow melting away

little by little around the nest.

One day, the nest is going fall
and slide down this cliff face.

Luckily they've managed to fledge
before that happened so, yeah,
good luck to them.

In this really harsh environment.

Which is too harsh for me.

I'm going to go down the mountain
and get some oxygen.