Now...
on Ice Road Truckers...
You'd better hang on to your shorts.
The race is on...
A dangerous little trip.
The truckers try to outrun the storm of the century.
That's our biggest challenge, playing Russian roulette
with Mother Nature.
Over the freshly opened roads...
There's no nothing,
you either make it or you're completely stuck.
That are ripe for disaster.
I hope I can get it off this lake
before it freakin' shuts down on me here.
Sync and corrections by n17t01 www.addic7ed.com
The winter road season is barely underway...
We can't control Mother Nature, that's for sure.
They're saying that's the worst snowstorm
they've seen out there in, in decades.
But already, the ice road truckers
are running out of time.
A polar vortex is bringing the worst winter
in a hundred years to North America.
You try to prepare for bad weather,
but nobody can prepare for two months.
You know, that's a bad deal.
And the first massive storm front
is due to hit the winter roads in less than 48 hours,
so it's a mad dash to bank as many loads as they can
before the blizzard erupts.
But in the Canadian wilderness...
Hello?!
For one driver the winter roads
have already taken their toll.
We had a signal and uh, no signal now.
Fuck!
Todd Dewey's stuck...
enduring a second day stranded in rapidly falling temperatures.
We're in the middle of nowhere,
it's, you know, 40 below outside,
it's freezing cold.
It's just fucked. The whole fucking situation
is fucking fucked.
Hauling a 35 tonne grader
to build past the end of the winter road.
Fucking sinking in pretty good.
Todd's trailer crashed into the snow filled ditch...
And now he's cut off from the rest of the world.
God dang, it' just fucked... Just frickin' figures!
You son of a...
I gotta warm up though, I'm fucking cold.
As night approaches,
the temperature hits record low levels.
Oh.
Holy! Sweet lord!
Oh, thank you!
A road crew on the way to the site
could be Todd's last lifeline.
Oh yeah. I'm thinking maybe if I get a chain
through those two hooks on the part that's down...
Yeah.
And have you lift on the road,
then I'll get in my truck
and we'll see if we can't get her moving forward.
Maybe both of these together.
If you see the truck start moving,
start driving forward see if you can push and pull.
Moving the heavy trailer with a small tractor
is a long shot...
Oh, it's a little bucket loader, I don't know.
But it's all he's got.
He's got to hit it when I move! He's got to hit it!
Hours into the rescue...
Don't stop pushing!
There's only inches to show for the effort.
Fuck! So fucking close!
Come on!
Oh yeah!
I think we're moving, boys. Oh yeah!
The trailer is free.
That's awesome!
And Todd's 36 hour nightmare is finally over.
I appreciate it very much.
- Thank you. - You did me a big solid.
Son of a bitch! We got it.
You know, that's what it takes up here on the ice roads,
is not to give up.
Oh, son of a bitch!
After a gruelling first trip for his new company...
Just rolling in to Three Sisters tower.
Oh yeah.
Todd finally arrives at the drop off point,
and with the delivery, Polar notches one more load.
Welcome to the ice roads.
Right here, this is what it's all about.
But Todd's not the only Polar driver
running late on his first trip.
So we're kicking over the roads back to town,
if we get around this turn in one piece.
After delivering to Garden Hill,
Art Burke's on his way back to Winnipeg,
but not without a costly mistake along the way.
Going the wrong way.
On the way up...
Are you okay? Are you going the right direction?
We're on the wrong road, boy.
Art missed the turn off
and wasted nearly an entire day backtracking.
Now, he's racing back to headquarters
hoping to beat the storm and hoping he still has a job.
I don't know if anyone has ever driven
200 fucking kilometres in the wrong way before,
before the catch on.
So now, well, actually I got there,
just I don't know if Mark is gonna laugh at it--
for fucking sure.
We've got troubles, buddy, we've got troubles.
Something's shorting out, I'm not sure what's going on.
I've got to shut her down here, boy.
We're losing power on the battery, or something.
She's cutting out, boy,
so I'm wonderin' what's going on?
I'm gonna go out and check the battery cable
to see if there's any fuck up out there.
It is nice.
Oh, my fucking-- What's going on with you?
There's supposed to be a cover on this thing, eh?
On the rough road Art lost the cover to his battery box.
It kept cutting out, eh?
And the building snow is causing the wires to short,
cutting power to the truck.
Never fucking ends, boy.
If the truck dies completely in the plummeting temperatures
Art may not survive the night.
Might as well get started on somethin'.
I'm not a mechanic, right?
And I don't pretend to be one.
But I know how to improvise.
Armed only with a strip of cardboard...
We're gonna see what that does, eh.
Art's makeshift cover is a Hail Mary.
So we're going to try that improvised situation there, boy.
And I'm gonna kill all these fucking lights...
and if all goes well boys and girls,
this is gonna work.
Yeah, we got it together here now, boy.
We're all business again for another while.
I think, I think, I think that that was the problem, eh.
Seems to be.
I'll have the fucking thing all put together with glue
and everything by the time we get back.
And then I'll be fired.
Coming up...
So, we had a little bit of an issue here, eh?
Art faces the music.
All I can do on this one is just plead insanity
and throw the cards on the table, boy.
And later...
Up here I see there's four red flags
telling me there's danger zone there.
Alex cracks up.
This is not good.
On the winter roads
a massive storm front is creeping closer,
now only 36 hours away.
At polar headquarters...
- Hey guys. - Hey, Mark.
Mark Kohaykewych is looking
for Darrell Ward and Todd Dewey,
to get in hauls before the weather strikes.
We're taking the grader and the snow cat,
heading up to go meet the boys that are building the road
for Utik Lake.
We're gonna meet them down
what you call the road to hell,
- that you were down already once. - Okay.
Darrell, you know you've always been my go to guy here,
but Todd's been up that road,
he knows what's going on up there,
I gotta, I gotta get him to take the lead on this one.
You know I'll follow Todd up there,
but when he goes off of the road into the ditch,
I'm not going to follow him into the ditch.
I don't want to go in.
You fucking asshole.
I don't-- I don't recommend you follow him into the ditch.
Hit the road, boys.
- All right. - See you when we get back.
Okay, take care.
You work for a company, you've been here for a year,
a new guy comes in, next thing you know,
you're following them. I don't get it.
Todd was the top dog over at VP last year.
Come on.
And we've got Darrell, top dog from last year at Polar,
we've got them both on the same team,
both strong headed, both want to get the job done.
You set the brakes on that thing?
I did.
Me and Darrell, we're both very competitive.
When we're together it's gonna be like, hey buddy,
hey, let's let up.
But at the same time, we're both going to be,
I'm gonna beat this guy there, I'm gonna beat Todd there,
I'm gonna beat Darrell there.
Hey, old man back there,
are you having trouble keeping up?
It's gonna be very competitive this year.
While Darrell and Todd battle for the top spot...
Good morning buddy, how you doin' this morning?
Hey, come on in.
So, we had a little bit of an issue here.
Another driver is just hoping he's still on the team.
I'm probably, it's not the first time I've been lost.
Hmm.
But hopefully it'll be the last.
Art's back in Winnipeg, but he's over a day late.
All I can do on this one is just plead insanity
and throw the cards on the table, boy.
You know what, that's a pretty serious situation
that you, you put yourself into.
I mean that road is closed,
and it's a big lake crossing that has a lot of current.
And you know if you would have proceeded through there,
you could have lost your life, Art.
We don't, we don't want anybody getting hurt.
And I don't want to get hurt.
You know, when we got a short season here to move loads,
I don't have time to find a replacement driver.
So what I need you to do is,
you're gonna be heading out to Deer Lake
- with a load of building materials. - Yes.
If you have questions ahead of time, please ask.
- All right, bud? - Okay, buddy.
Go back, take a look at your truck.
Right on, thank you very much. Away we go again.
Okay, see ya.
Well, got another touch up.
What can I say?
It's not, wouldn't be the first, not the first one,
and it fucking well ain't going to be the last.
Get the fuck out of here now.
Art'll get a chance to redeem himself
by joining Polar's first mission into Ontario,
part of Mark's bold, new expansion plan.
This season we're gonna stretch our boundaries a little bit.
We want to go to places we haven't been before.
We wanna reach the most remote regions of Canada this year.
And he's called on a tested field general
to head the convoy.
Art, how you doin' back there?
Doin' fantastic. How you doin' up there?
Good, just hoping I wasn't dusting you out too bad.
No, no, I'm back a ways.
Lisa Kelly is leading the way
over one of the least travelled roads in Canada.
So we're kind of the first ones,
like lead the charge into Ontario.
We need one of those bugles.
Charge! Do doo do do doo!
And if the storm hits them in the remote stretch...
it could be the last trip they ever make.
You gotta watch the weather
and you gotta stay alert.
And you get a storm that blows up,
that wind can kick up 100-120 kilometres an hour.
That road can literally disappear on you in minutes.
That's our biggest challenge,
is playing the Russian roulette game with Mother Nature.
Whoa, baby.
She be a dangerous little trip.
While Polar gets moving...
Yeah. This is pretty hilly here. Bumpity bump.
Oh!
On the rugged road out of St. Theresa Point...
Guess I should be watching my fire truck...
in case it decides to go to a fire on its own.
Alex Debogorski is rushing to deliver
a fire truck to Winnipeg.
The goal is to haul as many loads through here as I can
and our relationship as far as friends or acquaintances
is no worse than it is than when I started, and hopefully better.
You're looking good, did you lose some weight?
After teaming up with this former rival
at the start of the season,
the ice road legend is looking to log his second load
for VP Express.
You know, I don't mind being friends with Hugh.
I mean besides he smells funny and doesn't go to church,
that's okay.
Holy mackerel!
Ouch.
Goodness grief!
I need a different place for my Bible.
That's the second time it's hit me in the head.
Maybe the Good Lord is trying to pass me a message.
With 140 hundred miles of frozen muskeg to go,
Alex won't get relief anytime soon.
What's this? I got an ice road.
And as he approaches an ice crossing...
the old pro will trade bone-crushing bumps...
for spine-tingling cracks.
This sort of my first test of this load how heavy...
I'm not really excited about this.
With the 14 tonne load barely under the weight limit...
I guess since the Bible opened up to this chapter,
then maybe I should have a look at it, eh.
Alex looks for added help to get him through it.
Sirach, Chapter 41-- Concerning Death.
"Oh death, how bitter is the thought of you?
Do not fear death's decree for you,
this is the Lord's decree for all flesh."
Death is decreed for all of us.
We're all gonna die, so what are we complaining about?
Why should we be upset with God because we have to die?
We're all going to die. Everybody before us died,
everybody after us will die.
I'm gonna go down this hill real slow.
This early in the season, the ice has barely formed,
and is at its most fragile state.
See I'm not sure up here I see there's,
we've got four red flags.
Now those four red flags are telling me
there's a danger zone there.
Oh, this is not good.
On the deadly road from St. Theresa Point...
See I'm not sure up here, I see there's four red flags.
Now those four red flags are telling me
there's a danger zone there.
VP driver, Alex Debogorski's got trouble ahead.
Oh, this is not good.
The flags represent spots where the ice is too thin
for big rigs to cross.
And hauling his 10 tonne load,
Alex is playing with fire.
Okay, we're just about to the end here.
But he's not out of the woods yet.
Now I'm going to have to lower these,
lock up the four ways.
To make the hill at the edge of the crossing,
he'll have to gain momentum.
Gotta speed up a little bit.
But too much speed could break the ice.
Give 'er.
Ten kilometres, okay, we're on shore.
Opening the Bible I end up with Sirach
and the chapter to do with death.
I think it's a good omen, it's a good thing.
The more we understand
and grasp the idea of the shortness of our life,
the more fuller we'll live our life.
120 miles north...
Now here we go, highway to hell.
This road is turning in to be kind of my nemesis road.
10-4, buddy, this is where she starts.
Todd Dewey and Darrell Ward,
are rushing to deliver construction equipment,
urgently needed to extend the winter road.
This is a whole new ice road.
There ain't no markings on it, doesn't even exist on a map yet,
it's brand new, getting built.
I like to go where no man has gone before.
Leading the convoy,
you know, I've already been on this road once,
so I know kind of what to expect.
Me and this road did not get along last time very well, so.
On his first trip over the untested route...
Whoa.
It proved too much for Todd.
We're stuck.
And he was left stranded for over 36 hours.
Now...
Ugh!
He's getting a second chance to tame the beast
and come through for Polar.
Ugh!
Getting a little tight in here,
rubbing the trees with my tracks.
The narrow road leaves no room for error,
and keeping all wheels on the ground...
Oh, there's a bottom-out.
...is no easy task.
Ow! Fuck!
There is no passing places,
there's no place to get around anybody,
it's once you are on this road,
you are dedicated all the way in.
You either make it or you're completely stuck.
Make the corner! Make the corner!
Ha ha!
Getting a little rough through here, Big D,
getting a little rough through here, buddy.
Well, this road to hell ain't too bad.
I don't know why Todd was freaking himself out.
There ain't nothing wrong with this road
other than Todd's grandma's driving.
I got a pocket full of Viagra,
you might tell your grandma to pull over.
All right, Darrell, we're gonna keep a steady pace.
We don't want to go too fast.
You know they say wisdom overcomes youth every time, Todd.
I don't know. I don't know.
You're good with youth, but your wisdom sucks.
I don't think Darrell was very happy
when we had our dispatch there and Mark said,
"Todd, I'm gonna put you in the lead of this convoy."
I've got faith you're gonna get it up there,
and get this done.
Darrell ain't the only one who knows how to drive a truck.
He needs to move over and make a little room
because there's, you know,
I'm trying to be the lead sheriff this year and uh,
you know put him as deputy.
Fuck, Todd, at this rate we're gonna be all day getting it here.
Hey, old man back there,
Mark didn't put me in charge of this convoy for nothing.
Ha ha ha ha!
Knock me off the hill, Todd,
it's what you've got in mind. Get 'er done.
The storm's hours away,
but one has already started between the two war horses.
Darrell wants to butt heads,
you know what, he's buttin' heads with the right guy,
because I don't just sit around and take it.
You know, he'll have one hell of a fight on his hands.
So you know, he might be able to boss Art around,
Lisa around, everything goes his way,
but that shit don't fly with me.
Coming up...
Art, I have a problem.
Lisa's on this ice.
I hope I can get it off this lake
before it freakin' shuts down on me here.
On the Canadian winter roads...
the massive storm front
threatening to turn the season upside down
is now only 24 hours away.
And on the trail to Deer Lake, Ontario...
Art, how you doin' back there?
Lisa Kelly and Art Burke,
are leading the way for Polar's big expansion.
Desperately trying to deliver before the storm hits.
Hey Art, I think I see our first ice crossing of the day.
It'd be a first one in Ontario.
Yeah, why don't we stop here and get out and check it out?
The crossing at Lake McInnes stretches over 6 miles,
making it one of the longest on the winter roads.
This is a dandy lake. Look at the size of it.
It's big!
We've got to go really, really slow.
Buddy told me the ice is not that thick here, eh.
How slow do we have to go over the ice?
Like ten or under.
Ten or under? Okay.
I don't like the snow on a lake like this cause it insulates it.
Oh really?
Yeah, it doesn't freeze right through, eh.
Well, what do you think? We tackle it?
Sounds good.
So ten kilometres an hour,
ten kilometre lake, that's an hour for one lake.
It's gonna be a long one.
All right, let's go!
Leading the convoy, Lisa's first onto the ice.
I'm just going to roll down nice and easy here.
We gotta go right slow on this because you never know, right.
Right. Yeah, I'm not even going ten yet.
But she'll have to go slow...
to keep the waves below from rising too high
and breaking through.
I mean we're going so slow that it doesn't seem scary,
but then it almost seems scarier when you're going slow
because then if it starts to crack, you're like,
your first instance is like get off.
But I can't see the other side,
so I'm just gonna have to like take a couple breaths here.
How you doin' back there, Art?
We're off.
400 hundred feet behind Lisa,
Art crawls ahead,
adding 22 tonnes of pressure onto the ice.
This goes way the fuck over there, look.
So that means we're going to be on this for a little spell.
Oh, hear that one? See how it sounds like thunder?
Not cool.
I wonder how deep this is?
I'm hoping the ice is as thick as the lake is deep.
Well, I'll tell you what my escape strategy is.
When we get through the fucking ice,
drink as much water as you can to get it over with
as fast as possible.
Pretty much sums it up.
Boy, she's crackin' now!
Already 30 minutes into the journey...
the ice isn't Lisa's only concern.
Hey Art,
where would be the most dangerous place on the lake?
My opinion, it'd be in the middle.
Art, I have a problem.
My truck is wanting to shut down
in the middle of this lake here, it's wanting to regen here.
When soot builds up in the exhaust filter
the truck automatically goes in to regeneration,
a process that cleans the filter
while the truck keeps running.
It's supposed to do it by itself while we're driving.
But in worst case scenarios,
the truck can shut down completely.
And in the dead centre of the lake,
the weight of a stationary truck
would be a ticking time bomb for both drivers.
Dangerous spot here, boy.
I wouldn't be one bit surprised, I kid you not,
you'd probably go through.
I hope I can get it off this lake
before it freakin' shuts down on me here.
On the ice crossing at Lake McInnes...
My truck is wanting to shut down
in the middle of this lake here.
Polar's charge into Ontario has hit a snag.
I wouldn't be one bit surprised, I kid you not,
you'd probably go through,
then down you go.
Lisa Kelly is fighting to keep her truck running
and above the ice.
I hope I can get it off this lake
before it freakin' shuts down on me here.
The edge of the crossing is in sight.
Oh shit! It's shutting down now!
I have no power at all. Oh!
But the truck shuts down before she reaches land.
Oh my gosh.
Lisa throws it in neutral hoping roll herself to safety.
Go!
Come on!
I barely, barely made it off that lake.
And it seriously shut down
and would have left me stranded on the lake.
Look good, you made it.
It almost shut me down on that lake.
I cannot even believe I made it off the lake.
All right! If it didn't get me on that lake,
I'm on the shore now and up the road.
Oh yeah, I can't go anywhere. It won't let me go anywhere.
I'm regening now.
Okay, we'll just wait here.
If it takes 40 minutes, it takes 40 minutes.
I don't care.
As the convoy waits for Lisa's filter to clean itself
and fully regenerate...
back in Manitoba...
Ow! That fucking hurt.
Polar drivers, Todd Dewey and Darrell Ward,
close in on their drop off point near Utik Lake.
You just keep clear cutting with your tracks down there.
Keep clear cutting the bush out.
You know I think Darrell is having a little struggle
with me being the leader of this convoy.
You know I don't think he's too extremely excited about it.
Experience-- it's what it comes down to.
Wisdom overcomes youth.
He pulls the, you know, I'm older than you
and I got more wisdom.
Well, you know what? He can take that
and shove it in his ass.
The bottom line is, I'm in charge on this convoy,
and I'm leading it in and he's just got to deal with it.
We're here, you see that tower right there to your left?
That's the tower right there,
that's where we're gonna be dumping this off at.
Copy that.
Todd and Darrell catch up with the construction crew
who'll use the equipment to extend the winter road.
Here's the thing, Darrell,
I'm not seeing any equipment here to pull this off.
I don't know how we're gonna get the blade off.
But with no loading dock...
So what I'm thinking we need to do
is get this snow cat off of here first.
The responsibility to unload the cargo
falls on their shoulders.
Cut my trailer side right into the bank.
Just spin it around like we do a fucking bunch
and walk her right off the side.
I was gonna just start spinning that way a little bit
and get it at an angle coming this way, just come off forward.
Okay.
You know we need to get these rigs off of here,
get everything unloaded, and get the hell out of here.
If Todd wants to do it the way Todd wants to do it,
we'll go with it and then deal with the fucking consequences.
You're okay, you're all right.
Spin this motherfucker.
It's not wanting to turn.
Damaging the snow cat would not only cost Polar thousands...
Todd, hey!
It'll delay the road and future deliveries.
This parking brake is temperamental.
Fucking nerve-wracking.
Come on!
Watch it!
Oh no! Look out!
Oh!
Dude, that was fucking nerve-- There's no brake,
so if you start rolling there, you have to jam it in
and give it just a little throttle...
- It was a fucking pain. - Grow some fucking balls!
I did. I just took it off the trailer, old man!
The convoy bags two crucial loads for Polar.
Woo!
Took a little bit of talent, little bit of know how.
I don't think the ordinary guy could come up here
and just do what I did with that snow cat.
But I got the job done.
Mission accomplished!
Todd's stock may be rising,
but the Montana legend's not backing down.
I've seen Todd work, I know what Todd can do.
Todd's not going to come here and run me off.
On the road back from St. Theresa Point...
...severe weather alert for northern Manitoba and Ontario,
and folks, there's no more hiding.
That massive storm front is only a few hours away.
Oh, here comes the weather we were talking about earlier.
VP Express driver, Alex Debogorski's
closing in on Winnipeg, just ahead of the storm.
Expect winds in excess of 50 kilometres per hour,
temperatures as low as -50,
and record snowfall like you've never seen before.
Wind and snow.
That could make it interesting.
It will make it difficult to travel
or it might even close the road off.
I don't have a very big shovel.
Back to Winnipeg.
Well, it all looks good.
As Alex delivers the fire truck
and puts another load on the books for VP Express.
225 hundred miles north in Deer Lake...
Yeah, we got to do this awful fast.
Art Burke and Lisa Kelly,
have delivered Polar's first hauls into Ontario.
Now they need to unload and quickly turn and burn.
You-you unloading this for us or...?
I got nothing to unload with.
Without a loader operator,
the offload is on hold.
How are you gonna get this off?
I don't know.
And Lisa and Art are grounded.
I don't know, buddy, our-our future is in your hands.
What?
There's nobody here to take this off.
With the storm looming on the horizon,
there's no time to wait.
You need help? I'll do it.
So Lisa takes matters into her own hands.
There she goes.
I haven't driven a lot of forklifts,
but I know a trick or two.
Hey, when a woman is doing something,
you just leave her alone, boy, you let her do it.
Well, I've just got to figure out the difference in the controls.
- Whoa-whoa-whoa! - Ahh!
Not going to interfere, tell her how to do it,
or any of that bullshit. Just let her go.
See that, boy.
Despite virtually no experience on the loader...
She's doing good.
Lisa's a natural.
Oh yeah! Cool!
And polar bags two vital loads.
Sorry about dumping it. I didn't damage any, did I?
Oh, it broke a board or two.
That's it? Oh, that's pretty good for two trailers.
You get that one there...
and thank you very much for getting that together for us.
- It was nice meeting you. - Nice meeting you too.
Ah, right on!
You all ready to roll, Lisa?
Let's roll, baby!
But as the convoy heads back for the long trip to Winnipeg,
the storm begins rearing its ugly head.
Environment Canada has updated
a severe weather bulletin,
a blizzard warning is continued.
Uh oh!
There's a little bit of snow in the air,
it's landing on the road.
Who the hell knows how big this storm is?
This is not gonna be fun.
Fuck, man, there's nothing worse
than trying to drive in the fucking snow.
This is going to be fucking terrible if this keeps up.
Next...
I'm not concerned about what we've gone through,
I'm concerned about what's coming.
The ice road truckers are out of time.
Snowing like a fucking prick,
I'm running out of fucking fuel,
I'm completely out of fucking patience.
As the storm of the century erupts...
Look how much snow is on this fucking lake.
That's like ten feet high.
And life on the winter road...
If I get stuck, I'm on my own.
...will never be the same.
If I make it through this, it's going to be a fucking miracle.
Buckle up!
Oh my gosh!
Sync and corrections by n17t01 www.addic7ed.com