EPISODE 2: "FROZEN IN PLACE" Summary "Frozen in Place" examines how winter storms and extreme cold can transform familiar landscapes into impassable frozen prisons. The episode begins at Donner Pass, California, where hundreds of travelers became stranded during a historic 2022 blizzard that echoed the infamous Donner Party tragedy of 1846. We then visit Zermatt, Switzerland, where an avalanche cycle in 2018 cut off the luxury ski resort for nine days, trapping thousands of tourists and testing both infrastructure systems and psychological resilience. The episode concludes in Texas during the catastrophic 2021 winter storm, where millions experienced "infrastructure isolation" as power and water systems failed during record cold, forcing suburban families to create survival strategies in homes never designed for Arctic conditions.

This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI