AMEN: In the 25 years we'’ve been doing Oregon Field Guide, this is the biggest geologic story that we have ever done.

MAN: We now have found the largest glacier cave system in the lower United States.

JAHN:Fifty miles from Portland, you have this gem.

I look at Mt.

Hood completely differently now.

In fact, I'’ve probably almost run off the road a couple of times this week, because I keep looking over at Mt.

Hood, going, "There'’s this world that exists on the side of that mountain that nobody knows is there."

I would say this is the biggest story I'’ve ever worked on.

This was OPB all over it, and there was never a question about whether we should do this, there was only the question of how do you pull it off.

Ever since I was a kid and I wanted to do television, I wanted to do something like this.

This is it.

This is it for me.

JAHN: The A team is all here.

Does everyone know each other?

Andy, have you met Amelia?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- I don'’t know who this guy is.

- Hey, I'’m Sean.

JAHN:Amelia said, "I met this guy who was talking about this new glacier cave system on Mt.

Hood that he had just discovered and started exploring.

Do you think it'’ll be agood Field Guide story?"

And I don'’t know if I got past "new" and "glacier caves," and I was like, "Yeah, yeah, that'’s definitelya story."

How do you get a TV crew up there?

What kind of TV crew do you get up there?

Who'’s qualified to do it?

Because it'’s not by the road.

This is way up on the mountain.

This is by far the biggest logistical project we'’ve ever done for Field Guide.

JAHN:What'’s the least number of people we can bring up there?

What do we want to bring gear-wise?

How do we trim that down to the bare minimum?

It just became this huge logistical nightmare.

MAN: Andy, do you have a GoPro... JAHN: My hopes are that we get everyone on the trail and we don'’t say, "Oh, crap, we forgot X."

Yeah, see you soon.

- Have fun.

- All right, thanks.

Basically, we'’re running a little bit late.

Okay, let'’s pack up and get.

MAN: Amelia!

We'’re heading out.

I'’m going to let you guys go ahead of me.

Our cameras are on you now.

JAHN:It was just absolute chaos at the trailhead.

Gear everywhere, different groups moving at different speeds, and our packs are loaded down way more than I had hoped anyone would have to carry.

We go to close up the car, and there'’s two full backpacks.

Like, how did this happen?

It was our first insurmountable problem.

I just did not have a solution.

And I just remember standing there at the edge of the truck just feeling pale.

One of my lowest moments producing, ever.

Can you grab this pack?

We'’ve got to go.

We'’re going to have to resort.

Everyone just stepped up.

Almost like overcompensating, because no one wanted the other person to carry more than they were carrying.

You'’re fine.

Take that one and put it on the top.

JAHN: Whenever you do something like this, it'’s not no-risk, it'’s managed risk.

MAN: 80.5 pounds on the mark.

MAN: Let me take some of that weight.

JAHN: On a story like this, there'’s more potential than otherwise.

I want everyone to get back and not get hurt.

Pace yourself.

Stop every time you need to stop.

Stop every time you need to take a drink.

Several hours later that day, we were on the trail with all of our stuff on our packs.

Somehow we figured it out.

And that set the tone for the rest of the shoot, because something would happen, it would feel terrible, and yet something glorious would follow right behind it.

- Smells incredible.

- It does.

SONFLIETH: We forgot a critical piece of equipment back home at the shop.

The battery charger for this camera is sitting on the shelf charging a battery.

JAHN:My next question was, how many hours do we have left before the camera'’s basically dead weight?

And it was something on the order of three hours.

I suddenly lost my appetite.

Going super well story-wise, and it'’s going not so well as far as some of the logistics and where things are.

I'’m going to go downhill.

I'’m just not...

I'’m not...

I'’m not feeling that great about it right now, honestly.

But it'’s all going to come together.

It always works out.

Bob McGowan is hiking in to Kamp Tenacious this evening.

Please arrange for him to bring us the charger.

JAHN: Anything that could go wrong was going wrong on the shoot.

Again, everyone just stepped up and said, "What can I do?"

No one was going to have it fail on us.

Andy took the lead on some stuff that Todd might have, and Todd stayed back and he actually dealt with two problems,a charger and some other technical problems we were having in our media management station that involved sparks and smoke and all kinds of other stuff.

And there'’s something going on in the background of this whole story while we'’re up there, is that it'’s an uncomfortable place to be.

It'’s either really cold or really hot.

It'’s snowy, it'’s rocky, there'’s not a flat surface anywhere we'’re working.

Think about all the things that are horrible for technical gear: wet, cold, snow, rocks coming down off the mountain, no power supply.

All the bad conditions in the world were all existingkind of in this environment.

I'’ve been incredibly surprised none of the cameras have gone down.

When we'’re in the caves filming, you'’re just getting absolutely poured on the entire time.

And so the camera is literally, it'’s drenched, lens just constantly getting stuff all over it.

JAHN: The dynamic of the seven of us kind of working as a unit, we filled gaps for each other, we solved problems for each other.

We had one day that was 20 hours.

MAN: It'’s, uh, Monday, July 15.

The entrance climb and glaciologist collections, that'’s today, and then tonight'’s the big moulin survey shoot.

JAHN:I had some moments where I just looked around and was just satisfied, like, wow, this is all coming together.

And one of those moments was on top of the moulin in the middle of the night.

MASER: They rigged all these lines and we set up all these lights and spent a couple of hours dangling on ropes as they surveyed this incredible hole.

MAN: You guys brought your very powerful lights for your camera crew that lit this thing up.

It was lit up in a way that is indescribable.

JAHN:And I got to sit up on that rim, watch this glowing abyss casting cool shadows on the wall.

Like a machine that works, everyone was just doing what needed to get done.

I was just loving where we were.

We'’re also all dealing with the fact that, yeah, they'’re not stable; they'’re going to change and grow and probably disappear.

Eventually it'’ll just degrade into some sort of deep, incised slot canyon or something.

We brought that element of the story in by inviting a scientist to say, "Look at this discovery.

What do you think?"

And that opened up a whole new realm of magic.

These giant caverns are a sign the glacier'’s dying?

I think so, yeah.

JAHN: That weighed heavily on my mind, like I really wanted to nail this to get kind of a singular document of what these caves are.

We knew what a chance this was.

We wanted to be the ones to document it.

TEMPLETON: I think it'’s Tuesday.

A couple of us stayed behind and got all cozy and warm in the tents and got a little sleep, myself included, so we would be fresh to get everything done today.

JAHN:I don'’t normally work with another producer.

Who does what?It was never really set in stone before we went out.

Again, it was just this, I do this story, and she'’s going to take this aspect.

And because of that, we were able to flow at the flow of the expedition that was running full-bore kind of 24 hours a day.

When you see people climb Mt.

Everest and they'’recoming up towards the top of the peak, well, the cameraman got therefirst.

MASER: Brent and Eddy are -- those guys are goats.

Keeping up with them to be able to shoot them has been a huge challenge just because I'’ve got to get ahead of them and then lag behind and let them pass me and then get ahead of them.

So I'’m just sprinting up the trail, up and down the whole time.

JAHN: Keeping that rhythm put the people we were following at ease.

Yeah, we had to stop a couple of times, say something over again or maybe change the angles, but you were really just kind of an eye in the sky following us, and we got everything done and more that we needed to do, so I was -- I was really, really happy.

Personally, I just felt like I could work with you guys a lot more than the other networks.

For one, I think that you are more interested in the environment.

I'’ve watched you for almost 30 years.

Because I'’ve watched you for so many years, I know how you do things.

Because of that trust, you owe it back to them to document it in the right way.

That'’s what I'’m most proud of, is that everyone just saw what an opportunity this was and stepped up way above and beyond and did what was necessary to come back with this fantastic, fantastic -- not just fantastic video, but a fantastic story with real science and real adventure and real exploration.

Big fracture when I did that!

[ ♪♪] TEMPLETON: It'’s the last day of the shoot.

The burden of the packs has made me shorter than Amelia.

[ laughing ] We woke up this morning, we'’re pretty much done.

And my first thought was, there'’s nothing left to shoot, and, God, I love these people.

Everyone on this shoot: Katie and Amelia and Andy and Todd.

The rock fall.

- Oh!

- Holy smokes!

JAHN: Enough of that happens, and you figure, when you'’re done shooting, it'’s time to leave.

It wasn'’t until we finally hit the trail again and everyone came through that I finally got to take a breath, like, okay, we'’ve done it.

We were done, and everyone was safe.

Even though it was painful and it hurt, and we'’re all sunburned and dirty and stinky, we still wanted to do more.

And I think what drove everyone to do that is that you didn'’t have to do more than turn your head to look at where you were.

And when you saw where you were and the opportunity that this was for us to get this story, you don'’t get this chance all the time.

And so we had it, and I think everyonejust seized it.