Jail for Chip Hailstone from Life Below Zero: Wiki-Bio, Career, Family

One of the regular cast members of Life Below Zero, Chip Hailstone has rarely missed a season of his own violation. However, he was forced to miss the 10th season of the show after he was sent to jail after being charged with two counts of perjury and making false statements to police. He was released after 15-months of jail time which was a major relief for both Chip and his family. Considering how Chip is in-charge of hunting and collecting meat for the survival of the family during winter, it is safe to say that keeping him away from his family for any longer could have caused some major problems.

Early Beginnings:

Edward “Chip” Hailstone was born on March 8, 1969, in Kalispell, Montana. Born and raised in Montana, Chip learned the art of fishing and hunting from his father and instantly took to the off-the-grid lifestyle. In 1988, when Chip was still in his early teens, he visited Alaska and decided to stay in the town of Noorvik. What started as a temporary visit turned into a permanent stay and Chip has been living there ever since.

Marriage and Children:

During his stay in Alaska, Chip met a young hunter Agnes who comes from the Inupiak clan. The pair began dating soon after and decided to tie the knot sometime during the 1990s. Since their marriage, the pair gave birth to five daughters. The older ones, Iriqtaq and Tinmiaq, travel to and fro from Alaska, whereas the three younger ones, Mary, Caroline, and Qutan, still live at home. Agnes was married once before her marriage to Chip and had two sons, John and Doug. While the boys have left Alaska in favor of a modern way of life they come and visit the family now and then.

Life Before Zero:

Prior to the family’s introduction in Live Before Zero, no one had heard of the Hailstones. The family was invited to work on the series in 2013 and was included amongst the original line-up for the series. Since then, the Hailstones have made regular appearances in all 13 seasons of the series and are looking at a possible 14th appearance. But while the series bought them worldwide fame, it also brought a fair share of inclusion in their personal life. A few fans even began criticizing their way of life and blamed Chip for exploiting his wife’s heritage. As Chip is not a direct descendent of the Inupiak clan, he cannot legally hunt on the land. However, his marriage to Agnes means that he can use his wife’s heritage to hunt.

Problems with the law:

In 2017, Chip was incarcerated in the Anchorage Correctional Complex on two counts of perjury and one count of providing false information to officers. The lawsuit states that Chip lied to the police in 2011 by claiming that an Alaskan state trooper had physically assaulted his daughter Tinmaiq, who was just 17 years old at the time. He also claimed that a Noorvik resident had pointed a rifle at his daughter after an altercation involving his stepson. Chip was first handed a three years probation but protested against the sentence. In 2017, Chip was sent off to prison for a total of 15-months and was released in time for the winter.

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