The ninth season of Discovery’s Alaska: The Last Frontier premieres this Sunday in a special two-hour episode, and we have a sneak peek preview exclusive that will show you what the Kilchers are up against this time around.
We have Eivin and August rigging up a special cannon that will allow them to get more goods to the remote areas where they live. The two brothers are testing a homestead grappling cannon in our special preview clip for Alaska: The Last Frontier.
If you have been keeping up on the news, Alaska’s weather is going bonkers.
The changing weather patterns and climate shifts are throwing the Kilcher clan for a loop. In our first look at the new season, we see the two Kilcher brothers testing a grappling cannon. This device will allow a lead rope to traverse the river and serve as an anchor of sorts to get goods from one side to the other with efficiency.
In the clip, we are at the head of the bay as Eivin and August are on the “banks of the 100-foot wide Fox River preparing to test their homestead grappling cannon.”
Studiously, Eivin Kilcher carefully examines the crazy cannon and questions August’s enthused outlook on the experiment.
But August is pretty confident and he says: “If this river crossing goes well, Eivin and I can look forward to bring in more stuff up to the head of the bay.”
More subdued in his enthusiasm, Eivin says: “I’m hoping that if we can shoot a line to the far side of the river and then pull ourselves with the boat and the boat should just “pssshhhhet” right down until you to the far side, it should make the crossing situation a lot easier.”
August says: “All right. All we can do is hope.” Yet August is bummed out a bit as the rope misses the bank. “Dang it, we didn’t quite make it across…but it look promising.”
Eivin agrees: “It did look promising it shot good… just got to go a little higher with it or something, let’s try it again.”
He explains his new strategy: “Originally I was trying to use maybe some plastic wadding and then paper cause it’s more biodegradable and then I realized, you know, really the best wadding is potato. Because you know this is a potato cannon essentially…It’s wet, it’s slippery [and] it slides down the barrel good. So for all those reasons it really is the best wadding to use.”
Eivin is confident: “You know this one has to work. I put my blood on it.” The two add a blast of oxygen in the cannon so that the propane can work efficiently.
In this new season, the changing weather patterns of Alaska are front and center as winter comes to an early close. Spring is full of dramatic weather in the volatile transition from dormancy to life all around.
Now the Kilchers spring into action preparing the homestead while Jane and Eve embark on a ptarmigan hunt. Also Atz Sr. and Atz Lee build a weather station on Perl Island.
Tune in to see how the great potato cannon ultimately works for Eivin and August who struggle to resupply the head of the bay with their makeshift grappling cannon.
Discovery’s Alaska: The Last Frontier premieres this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/PT.