Browse all episodes of Explorers: Adventures of the Century

BASE jumper Karina Hollekim risks an extreme 600m jump from Hand of Fatima in the Malian desert.

Fatima's Hand

South African kayaker and adventurer Steve Fisher plans one of the riskiest projects of his career: navigating the narrow canyons of the Zambezi river below the Victoria Falls during one of the most extreme high-water periods in history.

Zambezi Deluge

The Oceans Seven are the seven most treacherous ocean channels in the world to swim across. No human has ever done it, but Irish marathon swimmer Stephen Redmond has conquered six. Now he hopes Tsugaru Channel in Japan will be his grand finale.

Oceans Seven

In search of a new challenge, Swiss mountain climber Ueli Steck gets into peak condition to break the speed-climbing record for the three most notorious northward faces in the Alps: the Eiger, the Grandes Jorasses and the Matterhorn.

The North Face Trilogy

In 2011, Thomas and Alexander Huber with Mario Walder were the first climbers to attempt a redpoint team free ascent of Mount Asgard on Baffin Island, Canada. After 28 pitches, the three climbers stood atop its South Tower.

The Huber Brothers at Mt. Asgard

On every new and full moon, an enormous tidal wave occurs along the lower Amazon. It's a tempting target for surfers despite the wave power, water hazards and isolation that make it dangerous, but a team of pro big-wave surfers accept the challenge.

Big Wave Surfers at Pororoca

Annelie Pompe embarks on a mission to both scale the heights of Mount Everest and freedive to the lowest recorded depth of the ocean, an achievement that would make her the record-holder for a woman who has reached the greatest height and depth.

Deep Everest

Nearly 60 years to the day after the first ascent up Mount Everest, Russian mountaineer Valery Rozov attempts to fly off the north face of Mount Everest and achieve the world's highest BASE jump ever at 7,220m above sea level.

Flying High

Survivalist Joe Vogel dares the crossing of the most unforgiving desert on earth: 240km across Bolivia's vast salt lake known as the Salar de Uyuni. After an aborted attempt with a partner a year ago, Vogel makes the perilous journey solo.

Crossing the White Void

Sebastian Copeland and partner Eric McNair-Landry cross 2,300km of the Greenland ice sheet. Braving a week-long blizzard in a small tent, the duo set a world record for the longest distance travelled on skis and kites in 24 hours.

Across the Ice

Australian hang-glider Jonny Durand sets out to perform loop-the-loop aerobatics on the leading edge of the so-called sky tsunami, Morning Glory, a rare, 2km-high tube-cloud phenomenon that clings precariously low to the ground.

The Mysterious Cloud

Eighty metres of mystery lies between two giant cave systems deep beneath the New Zealand wilderness. If Troy Watson and Kieran McKay can connect the Nettlebed and Stormy Pot systems, the find will be the biggest cave in the southern hemisphere.

Expedition to the Bottom of the World

Ten skiers, filmmakers, writers, photographers, and sailors set off on a journey to ski the Antarctic Peninsula. Chris Davenport, Stian Hagen and Andrea Binning hike and ski new peaks in one of the world’s last, largely unexplored regions.

Skiing Antarctica

Ice climber, Will Gadd, pushes the boundaries of the sport by climbing the frozen 140m-high cave behind Helmcken Falls, BC, Canada. He faces freezing temperatures, exhaustion, and an ever-changing landscape.

Frozen Titans

The Inga Rapids of the Congo River are the holy grail of kayaking, with bigger and more dangerous waters than anywhere else on earth. Steve Fisher and his team set out be the first to run this 50-mile, churning behemoth of white water.

Braving the Inga Rapids

Attempting the first ascent on the face of Mount Roraima, located deep in the jungles of Guyana, is an insatiable draw for climbing legend Stefan Glowacz and his team. But a tragic accident changes the drive to conquer this massive, majestic, mesa.

Roraima Mysteries

Majlis al Jinn, a huge subterranean chamber in Oman, is big enough to house the Great Pyramid of Giza. Climbers Chris Sharma and Stefan Glowacz attempt an ascent from the bottom of the cave, up the massive arch, back to the light of the surface.

Into the Light

Rafa Ortiz and a group of kayakers who specialise in big waterfall drops attempt to run a section of the Mexican Rio Santo Domingo that is the steepest navigable whitewater on Earth. It's a feat that nearly killed Rafa just four years prior.

The Angel Wings Experience

Zeb Walsh has dreamed of paddleboarding the channel between Australia and Tasmania since he was 15 years old. In his death-defying attempt, he enlists two friends to brave the choppy, shark-infested waters of the Bass Strait and make history.

A Date With the Strait

Combining the fastest elements of both skiing and paragliding, speed riding is one of the most exciting winter sports in the world. Jon Devore and some of the most accomplished athletes in the sport want to tackle the 'unrideable' giants of Alaska.

Alaskan Unrideables

The Bahamas are home to some of the world‘s most stunning and extensive underwater cave systems. Diving legend Brian Kakuk believes that two of the biggest systems there are actually one massive one and he is determined to prove it.

The Crystal Labyrinth

Two veteran paragliders, Will Gadd and Gavin McClurg, attempt to complete the first paragliding traverse of the Rocky Mountains, North America‘s most iconic and wildest region. The 1200km trek will be a world record flight if they make it.

Rocky Mountain Traverse

Antarctica's Mount Erebus, the most southern active volcano, has one of only five permanent lava lakes in the world. British geologist Clive Oppenheimer sets out to measure the temperature of the volcano’s lava, but faces random eruptions as he does.

The Erebus Enigma

An adventure that's also part scientific exploration, a group of climbers attempt to descend into an active volcano to get as close as possible to the spitting lava lake. They brave poisonous gasses and 1,093°C (2,000°F) heat climbing into the earth.

Spitting Distance

Mitu Monteiro, a former world champion kite surfer, attempts to ride to the 12 volcanic islands of his homeland completely solo. It's a challenge he hopes will help unite the people of Cape Verde, but he's never tried anything like this.

Cape Verdean Kite Crossing

Charlie Head attempts to stand up paddle board the Rio Marañón, the Amazon River's main source, a feat that has never been done. It may be his only chance to try, however, as the river is set to be dammed soon. Failure is not an option.

Paddle SUP: Mission Amazon

Ben Stookesberry and a group of professional kayakers journey to the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea to attempt a first descent of the Beriman River, a 40km beast lined with sheer limestone walls, with no way out but to ride it to the ocean.

Locked In

After seeing the magnificent Andean condor ride thermal winds from the sea to the peaks of the Andes, paragliders Hernán Pitocco and Horacio Llorens try to follow the birds on their 3,000km ascent. However, sometimes flying high means falling hard.

Dare to Soar: Flying With Condors

Onekotan, a Pacific island with a collapsed volcano at its centre, is one of the most isolated places on earth. The weather is unpredictable, the conditions uninhabitable, and for Matthias Haunholder the draw to ski the foreboding volcano is intense.

Onekotan: The Lost Island

The Citadel is a 3,000m peak in the Alaska Range that alpinists Matt Helliker and Jon Bracey are determined to be the first to conquer. But being pioneers means the two must be prepared to face the unknown in their quest to make history.

Citadel

Cerro Torre, the Patagonian peak that is surrounded by controversy, changed David Lama's life from the moment he tried to climb it. After summiting the peak with assistance, David wants to be the first person to ever free climb the infamous mountain.

Cerro Torre

An attempt to break the world record for the highest free fall will take Felix Baumgartner 36,500m above the earth and to his absolute mental limit. His team is made up of the best minds in the world, but in the end it's Felix who must take the leap.

Mission to the Edge of Space

Gavin McClurg and Dave Turner take on the challenge of paragliding across the nearly 700km of the Alaska Range. Facing harsh weather, freezing temperatures and even starvation, it's the most extreme vol-biv expedition ever attempted.

North of Known

The story of an Inuit man who paddled 1,930km between Greenland and Scotland inspires adventurers Olly Hicks and George Bullard to duplicate the journey in a sea kayak. The duo brave extreme oceanic conditions in their quest to test history.

Voyage of the Finnmen

Elizabeth Rogers is an award-winning cave dive photographer who doesn't follow anyone's trail. Raised by trailblazers in the sport, she's hungry to make her mark in history by finding her own unexplored caves in West Timor, Indonesia.

Calm in the Dark

Torres Strait and Bass Strait are two huge sunken land-bridges off the Australian continent. These dangerous passages haven't been crossed without modern technology in over 6,000 years, but a group of friends will attempt it using only wooden canoes.

One and a Half Canoes

Explorer Ness Knight attempts to ride her fat bike 1,000km through Namibia’s remote and arid northern region. She faces extreme heat, arduous terrain, and Namibia's deadly wildlife, leaving no room for error on her most ambitious adventure yet.

Open Space

Three National Geographic Adventurers of the Year embark on an unreal ski and kayak mission across Greenland. Using kite skis, they tow their whitewater kayaks over 1,000km of the Greenland ice sheet to reach the most northern river ever paddled.

Into Twin Galaxies

Follow the world's most accomplished athletes across perilous deserts, through racing rapids, to the highest peaks and deepest oceans to capture eye-popping footage of human skill in ultimate, extreme adventure scenarios.

All Episodes of Explorers: Adventures of the Century

Browse all episodes of Explorers: Adventures of the Century

Season 1

Fatima's Hand

Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 2/22/2013

Zambezi Deluge

Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 2/22/2013

Oceans Seven

Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 2/23/2013

The North Face Trilogy

Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 2/23/2013

The Huber Brothers at Mt. Asgard

Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 2/24/2013

Big Wave Surfers at Pororoca

Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 2/24/2013