Visit extreme locales — from the highest mountain to the greatest canyon — and learn how these places test their inhabitants to the limit. On Mount Everest, a Sherpa has to rope a route across the notorious Khumbu Icefall in time for the hundreds of foreign mountaineers who will arrive for climbing season. In the Grand Canyon, conservationists desperately try to ensure the survival of one of America’s few surviving condor chicks. And, on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, farmers fight pitched battles with elephants in the dead of night.
Across our planet, there are a handful of places that truly astonish, like Mount Everest, the Grand Canyon and Victoria Falls. These wonders seem to have little in common other than - literally - taking your breath away. But they share one other thing: they pose extraordinary challenges for their inhabitants. This landmark series combines stunning photography and compelling human drama as it reveals 12 remarkable places, and uncovers the stories of people fighting to survive - and even triumph - in Earth's natural wonders.
Witness wonders created by the force that makes our planet unique — life itself. In the Amazon Rainforest, two 9-year old boys must prepare themselves for a terrifying rite of passage involving the insect with the most painful sting on Earth: the bullet ant. In Borneo, a father must provide for his family by climbing to the roof of a vast cave to collect birds’ nests. And, in Bangladesh’s Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world, a father and son must brave killer bees and man-eating tigers to find honey.