On Day 1, MrBeast and five companions were dropped in the Arctic with nothing beyond what each person physically wore, landing in two feet of snow as temperatures prepared to plunge below zero overnight. The mission was immediate and unambiguous: build a snow shelter and start a fire before darkness turned the environment lethal.
Chandler’s Frostnip, a Snow Fort, and a Jacket on Fire
The group excavated a snow fort by hand and with shovels, racing against sunlight. Cameraman Darius was among those who could not fit inside the initial structure — the space comfortably held only two or three people, yet six needed to sleep. The team worked past midnight into Day 2 to expand the cavity. Despite the effort, the overnight cold was so severe that Chandler lost circulation in his toes, with the skin turning white — a condition Hase identified as frostnip, requiring immediate warming in an armpit to prevent full frostbite. Meanwhile, MrBeast leaned too close to the campfire while melting snow for drinking water and set both his jacket and pants alight, extinguishing them before serious injury occurred. The group noted that ten minutes of wind exposure at night was sufficient to freeze a limb.
The group had packed only three to four days’ worth of food for a seven-day stay, meaning fishing was not optional — it was a matter of survival. On Day 3, MrBeast and Hase trekked to a frozen lake and attempted to drill through the ice with an auger, only to find the sheet was deeper than the drill’s reach — nearly two and a half feet of solid ice, stopping the bit entirely. They returned to camp with nothing.
Seven Hours of Ice Fishing, Two Fish, and a Dog Sled Exit
By Day 5, the group was down to its final meal. A blizzard grounded the evacuation plane, burying the camp kitchen in snow and destroying Nolan and Chandler’s fire-starting supply. Hase located dry interior wood from a dead tree, which Chandler and Nolan shaved into tinder to produce a small flame. Meanwhile, MrBeast, Hase, and Darius cross-country skied across a frozen lake toward a large river the crew had scouted using Darius’s drone — the moving water beneath meaning thinner ice. MrBeast fell into a snowbank and filled a boot with snow, turning his toes purple, and Darius warmed his feet in his armpit for several minutes during a rest. After drilling six feet into the ice at a river confluence — where turbulence had reduced the sheet to just eight inches — the team dropped hooks. A fish bit mid-monologue. Hase grabbed it barehanded as it came through the hole. A second fish followed. After seven total hours at the river across two days, the group returned to camp with two fish, which Chandler and Nolan grilled over a fire they had managed to start from the salvaged dry tinder. The group ate together in the shelter for the first time in days.
Arctic survival experts note that caloric intake is as essential as shelter in sub-zero environments because the human body burns dramatically more energy generating heat in extreme cold — up to twice the resting metabolic rate — meaning food deprivation and hypothermia become a compounding crisis within 48 to 72 hours. The group’s successful pivot to ice fishing at a river confluence, guided by aerial drone reconnaissance, demonstrated a practical application of the principle that moving water inhibits ice formation, a technique used by indigenous Arctic communities for thousands of years.
On the morning of Day 7, a team of Arctic sled dogs arrived to carry the group out of camp — the surprise MrBeast had promised the night before over s’mores around the fire. Before departure, the entire camp was cleaned of every piece of trash. Hase had held the s’mores in reserve through all seven days. MrBeast documented the full expedition and reflected: ‘I just wanted to give a shout out to those guys, because they’re the reason why a video like this… has a lot of really great moments.’ The seven-day completion marked a direct redemption of a prior survival challenge the crew had failed to finish — a goal MrBeast had stated plainly before the first night was even over.
