In October of 2005, Kate Beatton woke up at 5 in the morning, shuffled out of the one

bedroom she was sharing with two roommates, and made her way to the bus stop.

It was the first day of her new job.

She was wearing an old jacket which barely held up against the cold.

Not normal cold.

Really, really cold.

Like when you breathe in and it feels like there's knives going in your throat, that's

the kind of cold.

Or like if you breathe in through your nose, your nostrils just stick together.

In Northern Canada where she just relocated, temperatures could drop to minus 58 degrees

Fahrenheit, which I can't even imagine.

So cold that legally, when it hits certain temperatures, some of the workers are not allowed

to work outside more than 15 minutes at a time that legally they have to come back inside

and warm up.

This was not your everyday 9-5.

Kate was headed to work for a company called Sincrood and the oil sands of Alberta.

Imagine a huge expanse of black, sticky, tar-like substance that can be processed into oil.

It's an isolated desolate place.

Kate would be spending all day and sometimes all night in a frigid warehouse, handing tools

to the workers out in the fields.

She was just 21.

She'd be one of very few women by some estimates, one woman for every 50 men.

...