Building Alaska Season 5, Episode 2: Alaska's Frozen Highway

Family Legacies

The three teams kick off their builds in remote Alaskan settings. The projects include a family legacy cabin in the Wrangell Mountains, a guest cabin in Eagle Song and an island getaway near Juneau.

Bumps Outs and Burls

One Alaskan builder's team loses hands to volunteer firefighter duties and another faces a big change in temperature that changes his focus. Rough seas and some bad math put one build team behind schedule.

Hello Hoonah

One builder encounters record-breaking spring temps at the build site while another looks the other way when it comes to code on his guest cabin. One team is almost stranded by tides at their island getaway.

Location, Location, Location

Mike and his crew scramble to save the peonies in Eagle Song, Dave and Hans's 50,000 lbs of material make it to shore unharmed on Shelter Island and Adam does some precision work on his cabin in the Wrangell Mountains.

60 min

Whackin' and Stackin'

Mike's plans to catch up backfire in Eagle Song, Dave and Hans start laying the floor while having fun at their client's expense on Shelter Island and Adam battles 100 years of brush for his family cabin in the Wrangell Mountains.

Plywood Don't Lie

Mike gains ground, but can he keep it by only laying plywood over the cabin's foundation? Dave and Hans revisit their build and realize they've got a lot of work, but not much time. And Adam faces his biggest fear about the build.

Cody Saves The Day

Builder Mike Williams' son Cody comes up with a fix for their pressure washer problem in order to peel the logs for their cabin build in Eagle Song. Dave and Hans work through extreme weather fluctuations and muscle heavy beams in place for the second floor on their cabin build on Shelter Island. Builder Adam Tschappat is a bag short of cement to complete the foundation for his cabin and his team worries as he is nowhere to be found in the Wrangell Mountains.

60 min

Lofty Goals

Builder Mike Williams gets all 45 of his logs peeled and starts to stack and insulate his cabin in Eagle Song. Builders Dave and Hans deal with dangerous heavy fog on their boat journey to Shelter island and struggle to lift heavy logs with limited help. Builder Adam Tschappat saves the day with an extra bag of cement and his team prepare the location and materials needed for the cabin's outhouse in the Wrangell Mountains.

60 min

Alaskan Mobile Home

Builder Mike Williams falls further behind schedule due to wet weather and unforseen obstacles in Eagle Song. On Shelter Island, builders Dave Bartlett and Hans Moser get a surprise visit and much needed help to finish the cabin, but they still need to make a trip to town in order to complete the build. Builder Adam Tschappat disassembles his cabin at the log yard and begins transporting it to his build site in the Wrangell Mountains.

60 min

The Big Lift

Builder Mike Williams and his team get the rafters and roofing underway on his cabin but with no lack of challenges in Eagle Song. On Shelter Island, builders Dave Bartlett and Hans Moser are on their own with setting the extremely heavy ridge beam until help arrives. Builder Adam Tschappat successfully transports all of his logs to his build site in the Wrangell Mountains and gets the massive floor to the cabin laid out.

60 min

Lost in Logs

On Shelter Island, Dave Bartlett and Hans Moser have not one, but two 700-hundred pound ridgepoles to set. Over at EagleSong, running out of weatherproofing, and a last minute design change, forces Mike Williams to forge ahead in dodgy weather. For builder Adam Tschappat, a faster pace comes to a screeching halt when two crucial logs go missing at his build site in McCarthy.

60 min

Bush Alaska Approved

It's do or die time for all of the builders. The tides become the ultimate decider for Dave, Hans, and Steve, and send Steve to the workshop. For builder Adam and his family, the weather can't dampen their excitement as they finish their legacy cabin build. Over at EagleSong, Mike is racing the first snowfall, can the family that builds together, stay together?

60 min