Ice Road Truckers (2007) s05e08 Episode Script
Meltdown!
Tonight on ice road truckers I've been in the third-world country of trucking.
This is fourth-world trucking.
Rick reaches his breaking point.
I'm stuck! Lisa's career hits the skids.
Heavy haul's not for everybody.
I'm really, really, really mad.
And the biggest storm of the season This is the worst weather I've driven in yet.
Pummels the Dalton.
This wind is just sucking the breath right out of you.
You're trying to not drive your truck off the road.
In Fairbanks, Alaska Good morning, Fairbanks.
Welcome back to us.
What do we say here? Well, the national weather service says you shoulda stayed home in bed.
It's gonna be ugly here in Fairbanks.
We got cold winds and temperatures down into the 40-below mark.
Up on the haul road, yeah, it's gonna be even worse for those folks.
Blowing winds, drifting snows.
Wind chills up to 60-below.
You might as well pull over, slow down right now, and chain up because it's gonna be bad up there.
So be careful.
At the Carlile truck yard It's minus 40.
Damn, is it cold.
Dave Redmon's up early hoping to beat the storm and get a jump on the competition.
Agh, jeez.
It's so cold you can't even push the clutch in.
Now it won't [Bleep.]
Start.
Everything's so cold.
Nothing wants to work.
See, I don't even think the block heater was working on this.
Come on.
There we go.
We'll get the brakes released and see if we can get it to move.
All season Here it is.
Dave's been struggling just to get his truck out of the yard.
I just can't seem to get a break.
And with the storm closing in There's no time to lose.
I got a load of pipe.
Fixing to go to Prudhoe with it.
If I can get anything on this truck to move today.
Why is my damn fuel cap missing? I don't know why it was off.
You know, the son of a bitch was on there this morning.
Somebody better not have taken that thing off.
It's time to hit the road.
It's time to hit the road.
It's cold out here.
I gotta beat on the damn brake drum.
It's one thing after another.
I think that did it.
Hopefully that's the last thing this morning, but I don't know.
Finally Dave's ready to roll.
The storm is moving this way actually.
I ain't got time to sit around here.
But his trailer Isn't.
Oh, I hate my job.
I knew [Bleep.]
Like this was gonna [Bleep.]
Happen already this morning.
Fifth wheel wasn't locked.
Now I got too much going on this morning.
I can't think.
It's too [Bleep.]
Cold.
I should have actually crawled under and looked.
It's my fault this happened.
It's a mistake.
So now my punishment is I gotta crank this thing for the next hour to get it up enough to where I can get the tractor back up underneath it.
It ain't gonna be fun.
It's time like these I just wanna give up and go home.
It's like trying to Jack up a house.
Just across the yard We're about to pin onto some blasting agents.
It makes things go bang.
Tony molesky has no room for rookie mistakes.
Making sure everything is hooked up here.
I definitely don't want to lose this load.
This is, uh This is something where if we drop this trailer somewhere on the road it would be a bad thing.
Today, Tony's hauling 20 tons of explosives.
We haul a lot of different kinds of explosives.
It's usually for road construction, mining, things like that, to blast bedrock.
Let's roll.
Like that, to blast bedrock.
Dealing with explosives, they're pretty volatile.
And, for crying out loud, terrorists could have a ball with it, you know? The icy road will force Tony to take it slow.
But with this load, riding his brakes could mean disaster.
Tire fires could be a major deal up here.
I wanna make sure I'm not generating any heat from a tight brake or a low hub or a wheel bearing or even a tire.
I've seen a lot of trailers burn to the ground because of tires.
Even in sub-zero temperatures, friction from the braking system heats up the tires, sometimes causing a fire.
It's dangerous under normal conditions but devastating with a van full of explosives.
Knowing that I've got explosives back there, we'll just take it a little easy in a lot of spots here, and then drive to Prudhoe bay without crashing the truck or making anything go boom.
In lac brochet, manitoba Well, if people say I've had it up to here, I ain't Tall enough to where I've had it to.
Like, these last three days felt like three months.
A brutal 800-mile run We're in a bad spot for getting stuck or spun out here.
Has left Hugh stranded in the wilderness.
I'm done.
I got three flat tires on this van.
And Rick at the end of his rope.
I've seen some pretty Up places.
I've been in a lot of places.
I've been to [Bleep.]
India, third-world country.
This place is [Bleep.]
Worse.
This has been nothing but frustration from the time this happened to now where we're finally getting it unloaded.
We got a gleaming light at the end of the tunnel.
We're getting out of here, we're getting out of here, and that's all I'm saying.
Finally.
Rick heads South to meet up with Hugh and hightail it back to winnipeg.
Hopefully nature's no problem here.
I don't need any more incidents on the way.
It's gonna be a sketchy ride.
She's slippery, and it ain't 'cause of the fresh snow.
Tear her up, man.
Okay, we're rolling up to a nasty little hill here.
Time this just right so I don't pound the truck.
But I gotta have enough speed to make it up the hill.
Whoo.
Don't be getting it stuck, Rick.
Whoo.
Oh, come on, I can't spin out.
You've gotta be [Bleep.]
Me.
I'm [Bleep.]
Stuck! What's up? Which hill did you spin out on? That s-curved one.
I got chains on.
Still can't make her.
No.
Rick's stuck up there.
He spun out.
What the hell? Ricky, Ricky, Ricky.
This is, like, just unbelievable what this thing just turned right into.
I think it's, uh, bates motel.
You check in, you ain't checking out for [Bleep.]
'S sakes.
Get me outta here.
Coming up, the arctic blizzard unleashes its fury.
I can't see a damn thing.
It's just steadily going it's just steadily going downhill quick.
of lac brochet, manitoba Rick is going nowhere.
What the? Guess we didn't have enough drama for this [Bleep.]
Road.
It's like trying to tie your boot and you can't reach your shoelace.
It's right there, but you can't [Bleep.]
Get it.
It's When you get into situations like this, most people say it's not worth it.
Pretty much isolate yourself in the worst environment you can possibly think of, and that's what we're at.
When you're trucking in these parts, when [Bleep.]
Goes wrong, like, it could be deadly.
You get stuck in the bush, you can die.
And plain and simple.
You run out of water.
You run out of food.
Exposure.
That'd be a pretty [Bleep.]
Gift for my wife, to find out my corpse is getting airlifted out corpse is getting airlifted out of here to go back home.
Mr.
polar bear.
There's my rescue right there.
The manitoba d.
O.
T.
Leaves heavy equipment along the roads for situations just like this.
Like this.
Make sure I'm on your bumper.
This is gonna be entertaining.
Come on, baby! Got it? Okay, I'm out.
We'll get on our way here.
Happy day.
Well, at least we're going the same way now.
But after three brutal days in the bush What a [Bleep.]
, man.
Rick's not ready to look on the bright side.
At least there's a cat here.
I've had enough.
What an ordeal.
I've had enough.
*** [Bleep.]
Nightmare run.
Finally getting the hell outta here.
You better believe it.
South bound and down.
Emptied out and trucking.
Back in Alaska at the offices of Carlile transportation And when you get to a point where you're on heavy haul and you're doing these bigger loads, any incident, any accident is a huge deal.
It's literally inches from being a catastrophe.
Okay.
Lisa Kelly's last run ended in disaster.
Stop, stop, stop! And now it's time to face the music.
I guess the other thing I was thinking was one of the biggest and best traits of a successful heavy hauler is patience.
Okay.
You and I have talked, that's a huge deal.
Heavy haul's not for everybody.
Okay.
Okay? Thank you very much.
All right, thanks, Lisa.
Have a good trip.
Thank you.
Be safe.
After the incident, here what we'll do is I'm gonna take Lisa back down a little bit.
We're gonna give her a couple easier loads, let her get back into it, make sure her mind's in the right place while she's out there trucking.
We'll we got you a van.
Guess you can give that a try.
Okay, I'll hustle.
See you later.
See you.
A trailer full of office supplies is as far from heavy haul as a driver can get.
How am I? I'm pissed off.
Psst.
I'm trying to get exciting loads, and I'm getting vans.
It's making me mad.
Really, really, really mad.
I would love to say I love heavy haul, but as soon as I get into it then I can't do it anymore.
That's just so stupid.
I'm being held back from it when there's tons of loads to go and I'm stuck under a van.
It's very sad.
This is bull.
While Lisa drags her van load out of the yard Well, I got a nice heavy load of pipe.
Something to keep me grounded while I go up there in the wind.
Rookie Maya sieber has a spring in her step.
I have to make it up there safe and sound.
And no messing around on the way.
For the first time, Maya's hitting the road on her own With no trainer and no safety net.
Yeah, this is a hot load, this load of pipe, and it has to get up there.
The first load of pipe that I took didn't make it 'cause we had truck problems.
So I hope to make it up there with this one.
The oil company is counting on this 60,000-pound pipe load by the end of the day.
It's supposed to be pretty bad weather.
It's very hard to see the edge of the road right now.
Especially when a truck drives by me, I get, like, a whole-- it's like whiteout right in front of me.
Like, I lose the road for a little bit.
Oh, my God.
But with every passing mile, the arctic storm closes in.
Right now I'm just focusing on staying on the road and not going off the sides, 'cause I can't see them.
It's just God dang building up in galbraith in there with some pretty big drifts.
It's gonna get rough in a couple hours, brother.
Um, all of it up there is really nasty, nasty.
Really tough to see.
Ah, he said to tell you, recommend that you didn't go.
It sounds really bad up there.
They're saying that it's blowing wind like crazy and you can't see.
So the advice is do not continue up to Prudhoe right now.
Coming up, Rick's running on fumes.
It's a death trap right now, man.
And the storm strikes.
On Alaska's north slope blowing snow threaten to swallow the haul road.
We're headed north, and hopefully our visibility won't be too bad.
But you never know, man.
This is the haul road.
Anything can happen.
Tony's loaded up with 20 tons of explosives and headed right for the heart of the storm.
You're trying to push through the nasty conditions and still go slow enough to not drive go slow enough to not drive your truck off the road.
You got a copy? Yeah, this is Tony.
I'm at the top of galbraith and the visibility is bad.
And you got a truck there off the road.
Sounds like we got a 20-wide up here in galbraith that might be having some trouble.
I gotta listen here for a minute.
Looking out the windshield, looking out the side window, I couldn't see nothing.
And all of a sudden, it just sucked me right in.
There's galbraith right there.
Holy.
There's no way I could do anything with you, I don't believe.
All right.
You guys need me to make any calls? No.
Might see if I can get out of here.
I'd latch onto you and try to pull you, but I got a load of explosives here.
I don't wanna do that.
Yeah.
I don't wanna put my load in danger to help another guy out.
It's just not--it's not feasible.
I would but it's kinda like, all right, do you stay or do you go? I mean, this is where it's tough up here.
These are the times when you gotta make decisions, and it could get really nasty all the way to Prudhoe.
So I don't know.
I don't know.
Just 30 miles behind Tony Supposed to blow like this till Saturday.
Prudhoe, I just heard.
You got to be kidding me.
I'm ready to turn around and head South.
I hear there's a 20-wide off the road totally, load and all.
Copy all on atigun.
I've been up here on top of galbraith for the last two hours.
Don't come up here.
Everybody's already yelling back on the radio, "don't come.
" Yeah, the guys up in front of me have dropped their trailers, and they're gonna bobtail all the way back to Fairbanks.
Playing it safe will cost him a paycheck for this load.
Need to maka decision.
They got galbraith blocked up.
They got drifts and it's started to pick up in Prudhoe.
We'll probably just head back to coldfoot.
Start over tomorrow.
Should have never left the truck stop this morning once we found out the roads were getting bad.
But that's life.
Dropping this trailer so we can head back to coldfoot 'cause the weather's just getting so bad here that it's just making no sense to stay.
And it's just steadily going downhill quick.
I can't breathe in this.
This wind is just sucking the breath right out of you.
Ugh, let's go.
Ugh, let's go.
Ugh! Plagued with problems every day, why we couldn't get going.
And it's just always one setback or another.
In manitoba, Canada Ugh.
Just a few hours from civilization Felt that one in my fillings.
Rick's truck is hanging by a thread.
Did you bottom out on that again? Yes, sir.
It's rubbing right on that thing.
That's making your tires skid and everything.
Funny they're not flat yet.
Like a death trap right now, man.
It's the same problem that cost Hugh three tires and left him stranded.
What a bunch of garbage.
His Springs are broke.
Tire's right down to the steel belts on it.
It's just a hazard on the road.
Well, them two trailers that we got there, uh, they're spring suspension trailers.
You don't throw them on the Winter road and expect them to make them roads.
A reasonably a long day, yes.
Yeah.
the end of his own marathon run.
Well, I could be like a whole bunch of other people just sitting by a pool somewhere down South, drinking with my feet up, waiting for my coffin to get built.
Gonna die soon enough.
Might as well be doing something.
Hey, Alex.
Hey, Rick, how's it going up there? Did you see that trailer there? The one that Hugh destroyed on us? What? Well, to get her out I had to chain up the back axle.
I know none of us are too impressed about that.
Okay, I'm gonna come over and have a look.
Okay.
Well, rumor is that Hugh's trailer is falling apart.
The first nations' mechanic has hauled Hugh's busted trailer back to the yard.
Horbas has always got a lot on the line.
We gotta keep these trucks running and keep the trailers in one piece because that's his bread and butter for the whole year.
And owner Dave horbas is getting his first horbas is getting his first look at the carnage.
Right through-- they got the ain up on there.
These sills here, this one here's chewed right up from the tires.
The trailer's taken over $5,000 worth of damage.
Both back axles, the Springs are gone, eh? Springs are gone in the front too on one side.
That's pretty bad.
That's pretty rough.
Ooh.
That's amazing.
See, if you go too fast and then something breaks and then you keep going, this is what happens.
Just smashes everything to hell.
Ye, I think those guys are finished.
I don't think they're much winter road truckers.
They're not driving here.
They're not hauling here anymore.
It's over.
Coming up I can't see a damn thing.
This is the worst weather I've driven in yet.
Oh, .
All I want to do is the big stuff and I'm hooked to a van, and I'm hating life.
When I see oversized loads and I'm not with it or helping it or under it, I get a sick feeling in my stomach because I'd rather be doing that and not this.
How bad can you possibly want something when you're being held back? You know what I mean? Just makes me wanna, like, oh, my gosh, you don't even understand.
Nobody stands between me and what I want.
Now here's your choices, you can either get in my way or you can help me.
You can help me.
But either way, I'm doing it.
Up ahead At a standstill.
Full of trucks.
All northbound.
Is this Dave? Where are you headed? North.
You ain't going north.
Not today.
Well, I'm headed that way.
Not today.
We just came from the other side of atigun, about 20 miles.
I think you're gonna be stuck here.
Tony and them are up in it.
Are they in it right now? Yeah, they're in it right now, but they're not going nowhere.
I'm just gonna hang out in the truck stop for a little while or the restaurant.
Ain't no sense sitting on the side of the road.
Well, all right, I'm going inside.
See ya.
Come inside and be social.
But Lisa's in no mood to be social.
Waiting out the storm so I can go.
Trying to stay positive because, you know, cooped up in this tiny little cab insanity gets to you pretty quick.
The haul road has disappeared.
Kind of pushing to go.
We'll just throw our chains on and see if we can ease our way and see if we can ease our way through this.
I think we're good.
I think I'd rather get through it now than sit here for it now than sit here for two days.
I'm watching this side marker beside the edge of the road here, and that's kinda--we're just crawling through here.
Using the force.
This is it right here.
This is it right here.
I can't see a damn thing.
Is, damn it.
I got nothing.
Would you mind putting that thing down and helping me out a little bit? Yeah.
Can you see anything on the outside? I can't see Really? Well, okay, there's no indicator or anything.
Are you sure? Definitely don't want to be over there.
That's the bushes, man.
Pretty dangerous right now.
I can't see very much.
Maya is also driving into the whiteout.
It's tough when you have freight that has to get up there as soon as possible.
You try and wonder if you should leave it and head back or-- it's, like, all these decisions you have to make, wondering what's the best decision.
Sometimes the best one at the moment can be the worst.
While the weather has Dave and Lisa stuck at coldfoot, the rookie has no intention of letting her first hot load get there late.
The storm seemed to pick up.
Now it's blowing a lot.
Oh, .
Sometimes you can't see the edge of the road at all.
And that's when it gets pretty damn scary.
I don't wanna get stuck on the side of the road in this stuff.
That's what I don't want to happen.
Probably get buried if you stop.
Stopping in a blizzard can cause blowing snow to clog the air filters.
Without air flow, the engine will shut down.
Leaving the driver stranded.
Okay, now I can't see.
It's hard to focus when everything's just completely white.
Can't see which way the road turns or if it's uphill or downhill.
This is the worst weather I've driven in yet.
Holy! On Alaska's north slope Yeah, we're gonna need to get through this.
Tony molesky has spent half a day battling through the last 20 miles of a blinding snowstorm.
You never know, man.
This is the north slope of Alaska.
Things can happen really, really fast.
leaving the Fairbanks yard, Tony has hauled the most dangerous load of the season safely into Prudhoe bay.
Today was, like, an adrenaline rush for me.
It was pretty intense tonight.
Pretty intense.
Whether it's explosives or fuel or freight or pipe, it doesn't matter.
I mean, I'm just glad we made it through.
Damn, that was gnarly.
Back down the road No [Bleep.]
Way.
The rookie's still in over her head.
, I can't, like, [Bleep.]
, I can't, like, get focused.
And it's really hazy.
You can't really see.
It looks like staring into it looks like staring into a white wall.
I mean, this is crazy.
Can't see anything.
Oh, .
Prudhoe bay right now.
After weeks of training and 12 hours fighting the arctic blizzard So we're gonna drop this load here, and hopefully it clears up in the morning.
Maya's first solo run of the season is in the books.
And the rookie from New York is one step closer to earning her place as an ice road trucker.
That was one hell of a drive.
Drop this and then I'm gonna call it a night.
I like hauling the heavier loads.
It's fun.
I mean, it's a step up from what I've done.
It's a great accomplishment to have driven this far and to do it all by myself.
After battling the storm, Maya chalks up load number two while Tony pulls number two while Tony pulls within a load of the lead.
I kind of roll with the punches my whole life.
You know, no sense in bitching about something.
Just deal with it.
Get at her.
Rick and Hugh limp their busted rigs back to town.
My trailer busted Springs.
His trailer busted Springs.
He pulled me up the hill.
I pulled him up the hill.
You know, I pushed him out of the holes, and it took a lot of teamwork, that whole Trip.
Pretty good carnage on that road.
I took some damage.
The truck took some damage.
The trailer took some damage.
Let's just say it was a baptism by fire on that one.
We just took the loads, and we made the best of it.
And we're not gonna, you know, cry over spilled milk.
We made some money here.
You know, we dealt with it.
We overcome it.
We're on our way home.
That's a good thing.
After four days 1,600 miles And two destroyed trailers, the run to loc brochet is finally at an end.
Another load, another dollar.
End of the back haul.
Glad to get rid of this Junk.
Ready to get the Out of dodge.
Dodge.
I'm out of here.
I've gotta go out and run them papers out to horbas there.
No, I'm just about there now, and I'll drop 'em off, and I'll tell you how it went down.
Down.
It was a trip from hell, eh? Yeah, trip from hell.
Yeah.
Yeah, she Up pretty good there.
Yeah.
It's-- you got some tires on her anyways.
Yeah.
What I can't figure out is I sent five trucks in.
And out of the five, you and Rick come back with two broken trailers.
You know, what's the problem? That's the way it goes down, man.
Who the hell's gonna fix all this? Maybe you guys should come here and fix it all, you know? We did her.
The way it turned out is the way it turned out.
You got the papers, the end of the load, you got her.
I'm finished with you guys.
I don't need you coming here and wrecking everything.
Adios.
You.
It didn't work out.
It didn't work out, that's all.
How these guys can go in there and wreck this stuff like this and then say, "it's junk.
" It's junk now after they're finished with it, I guess.
Had enough with these guys.
They're not coming back here.
They can go back to Alaska.
Next on ice road truckers Wish I was back in Alabama right now.
The arctic blizzard rages on.
And Dave is left out in the cold.
Gonna die slow, cold, and alone.
Lisa Can you see anything at all? Hits the road to redemption.
And it's Alex to the rescue.
This is fourth-world trucking.
Rick reaches his breaking point.
I'm stuck! Lisa's career hits the skids.
Heavy haul's not for everybody.
I'm really, really, really mad.
And the biggest storm of the season This is the worst weather I've driven in yet.
Pummels the Dalton.
This wind is just sucking the breath right out of you.
You're trying to not drive your truck off the road.
In Fairbanks, Alaska Good morning, Fairbanks.
Welcome back to us.
What do we say here? Well, the national weather service says you shoulda stayed home in bed.
It's gonna be ugly here in Fairbanks.
We got cold winds and temperatures down into the 40-below mark.
Up on the haul road, yeah, it's gonna be even worse for those folks.
Blowing winds, drifting snows.
Wind chills up to 60-below.
You might as well pull over, slow down right now, and chain up because it's gonna be bad up there.
So be careful.
At the Carlile truck yard It's minus 40.
Damn, is it cold.
Dave Redmon's up early hoping to beat the storm and get a jump on the competition.
Agh, jeez.
It's so cold you can't even push the clutch in.
Now it won't [Bleep.]
Start.
Everything's so cold.
Nothing wants to work.
See, I don't even think the block heater was working on this.
Come on.
There we go.
We'll get the brakes released and see if we can get it to move.
All season Here it is.
Dave's been struggling just to get his truck out of the yard.
I just can't seem to get a break.
And with the storm closing in There's no time to lose.
I got a load of pipe.
Fixing to go to Prudhoe with it.
If I can get anything on this truck to move today.
Why is my damn fuel cap missing? I don't know why it was off.
You know, the son of a bitch was on there this morning.
Somebody better not have taken that thing off.
It's time to hit the road.
It's time to hit the road.
It's cold out here.
I gotta beat on the damn brake drum.
It's one thing after another.
I think that did it.
Hopefully that's the last thing this morning, but I don't know.
Finally Dave's ready to roll.
The storm is moving this way actually.
I ain't got time to sit around here.
But his trailer Isn't.
Oh, I hate my job.
I knew [Bleep.]
Like this was gonna [Bleep.]
Happen already this morning.
Fifth wheel wasn't locked.
Now I got too much going on this morning.
I can't think.
It's too [Bleep.]
Cold.
I should have actually crawled under and looked.
It's my fault this happened.
It's a mistake.
So now my punishment is I gotta crank this thing for the next hour to get it up enough to where I can get the tractor back up underneath it.
It ain't gonna be fun.
It's time like these I just wanna give up and go home.
It's like trying to Jack up a house.
Just across the yard We're about to pin onto some blasting agents.
It makes things go bang.
Tony molesky has no room for rookie mistakes.
Making sure everything is hooked up here.
I definitely don't want to lose this load.
This is, uh This is something where if we drop this trailer somewhere on the road it would be a bad thing.
Today, Tony's hauling 20 tons of explosives.
We haul a lot of different kinds of explosives.
It's usually for road construction, mining, things like that, to blast bedrock.
Let's roll.
Like that, to blast bedrock.
Dealing with explosives, they're pretty volatile.
And, for crying out loud, terrorists could have a ball with it, you know? The icy road will force Tony to take it slow.
But with this load, riding his brakes could mean disaster.
Tire fires could be a major deal up here.
I wanna make sure I'm not generating any heat from a tight brake or a low hub or a wheel bearing or even a tire.
I've seen a lot of trailers burn to the ground because of tires.
Even in sub-zero temperatures, friction from the braking system heats up the tires, sometimes causing a fire.
It's dangerous under normal conditions but devastating with a van full of explosives.
Knowing that I've got explosives back there, we'll just take it a little easy in a lot of spots here, and then drive to Prudhoe bay without crashing the truck or making anything go boom.
In lac brochet, manitoba Well, if people say I've had it up to here, I ain't Tall enough to where I've had it to.
Like, these last three days felt like three months.
A brutal 800-mile run We're in a bad spot for getting stuck or spun out here.
Has left Hugh stranded in the wilderness.
I'm done.
I got three flat tires on this van.
And Rick at the end of his rope.
I've seen some pretty Up places.
I've been in a lot of places.
I've been to [Bleep.]
India, third-world country.
This place is [Bleep.]
Worse.
This has been nothing but frustration from the time this happened to now where we're finally getting it unloaded.
We got a gleaming light at the end of the tunnel.
We're getting out of here, we're getting out of here, and that's all I'm saying.
Finally.
Rick heads South to meet up with Hugh and hightail it back to winnipeg.
Hopefully nature's no problem here.
I don't need any more incidents on the way.
It's gonna be a sketchy ride.
She's slippery, and it ain't 'cause of the fresh snow.
Tear her up, man.
Okay, we're rolling up to a nasty little hill here.
Time this just right so I don't pound the truck.
But I gotta have enough speed to make it up the hill.
Whoo.
Don't be getting it stuck, Rick.
Whoo.
Oh, come on, I can't spin out.
You've gotta be [Bleep.]
Me.
I'm [Bleep.]
Stuck! What's up? Which hill did you spin out on? That s-curved one.
I got chains on.
Still can't make her.
No.
Rick's stuck up there.
He spun out.
What the hell? Ricky, Ricky, Ricky.
This is, like, just unbelievable what this thing just turned right into.
I think it's, uh, bates motel.
You check in, you ain't checking out for [Bleep.]
'S sakes.
Get me outta here.
Coming up, the arctic blizzard unleashes its fury.
I can't see a damn thing.
It's just steadily going it's just steadily going downhill quick.
of lac brochet, manitoba Rick is going nowhere.
What the? Guess we didn't have enough drama for this [Bleep.]
Road.
It's like trying to tie your boot and you can't reach your shoelace.
It's right there, but you can't [Bleep.]
Get it.
It's When you get into situations like this, most people say it's not worth it.
Pretty much isolate yourself in the worst environment you can possibly think of, and that's what we're at.
When you're trucking in these parts, when [Bleep.]
Goes wrong, like, it could be deadly.
You get stuck in the bush, you can die.
And plain and simple.
You run out of water.
You run out of food.
Exposure.
That'd be a pretty [Bleep.]
Gift for my wife, to find out my corpse is getting airlifted out corpse is getting airlifted out of here to go back home.
Mr.
polar bear.
There's my rescue right there.
The manitoba d.
O.
T.
Leaves heavy equipment along the roads for situations just like this.
Like this.
Make sure I'm on your bumper.
This is gonna be entertaining.
Come on, baby! Got it? Okay, I'm out.
We'll get on our way here.
Happy day.
Well, at least we're going the same way now.
But after three brutal days in the bush What a [Bleep.]
, man.
Rick's not ready to look on the bright side.
At least there's a cat here.
I've had enough.
What an ordeal.
I've had enough.
*** [Bleep.]
Nightmare run.
Finally getting the hell outta here.
You better believe it.
South bound and down.
Emptied out and trucking.
Back in Alaska at the offices of Carlile transportation And when you get to a point where you're on heavy haul and you're doing these bigger loads, any incident, any accident is a huge deal.
It's literally inches from being a catastrophe.
Okay.
Lisa Kelly's last run ended in disaster.
Stop, stop, stop! And now it's time to face the music.
I guess the other thing I was thinking was one of the biggest and best traits of a successful heavy hauler is patience.
Okay.
You and I have talked, that's a huge deal.
Heavy haul's not for everybody.
Okay.
Okay? Thank you very much.
All right, thanks, Lisa.
Have a good trip.
Thank you.
Be safe.
After the incident, here what we'll do is I'm gonna take Lisa back down a little bit.
We're gonna give her a couple easier loads, let her get back into it, make sure her mind's in the right place while she's out there trucking.
We'll we got you a van.
Guess you can give that a try.
Okay, I'll hustle.
See you later.
See you.
A trailer full of office supplies is as far from heavy haul as a driver can get.
How am I? I'm pissed off.
Psst.
I'm trying to get exciting loads, and I'm getting vans.
It's making me mad.
Really, really, really mad.
I would love to say I love heavy haul, but as soon as I get into it then I can't do it anymore.
That's just so stupid.
I'm being held back from it when there's tons of loads to go and I'm stuck under a van.
It's very sad.
This is bull.
While Lisa drags her van load out of the yard Well, I got a nice heavy load of pipe.
Something to keep me grounded while I go up there in the wind.
Rookie Maya sieber has a spring in her step.
I have to make it up there safe and sound.
And no messing around on the way.
For the first time, Maya's hitting the road on her own With no trainer and no safety net.
Yeah, this is a hot load, this load of pipe, and it has to get up there.
The first load of pipe that I took didn't make it 'cause we had truck problems.
So I hope to make it up there with this one.
The oil company is counting on this 60,000-pound pipe load by the end of the day.
It's supposed to be pretty bad weather.
It's very hard to see the edge of the road right now.
Especially when a truck drives by me, I get, like, a whole-- it's like whiteout right in front of me.
Like, I lose the road for a little bit.
Oh, my God.
But with every passing mile, the arctic storm closes in.
Right now I'm just focusing on staying on the road and not going off the sides, 'cause I can't see them.
It's just God dang building up in galbraith in there with some pretty big drifts.
It's gonna get rough in a couple hours, brother.
Um, all of it up there is really nasty, nasty.
Really tough to see.
Ah, he said to tell you, recommend that you didn't go.
It sounds really bad up there.
They're saying that it's blowing wind like crazy and you can't see.
So the advice is do not continue up to Prudhoe right now.
Coming up, Rick's running on fumes.
It's a death trap right now, man.
And the storm strikes.
On Alaska's north slope blowing snow threaten to swallow the haul road.
We're headed north, and hopefully our visibility won't be too bad.
But you never know, man.
This is the haul road.
Anything can happen.
Tony's loaded up with 20 tons of explosives and headed right for the heart of the storm.
You're trying to push through the nasty conditions and still go slow enough to not drive go slow enough to not drive your truck off the road.
You got a copy? Yeah, this is Tony.
I'm at the top of galbraith and the visibility is bad.
And you got a truck there off the road.
Sounds like we got a 20-wide up here in galbraith that might be having some trouble.
I gotta listen here for a minute.
Looking out the windshield, looking out the side window, I couldn't see nothing.
And all of a sudden, it just sucked me right in.
There's galbraith right there.
Holy.
There's no way I could do anything with you, I don't believe.
All right.
You guys need me to make any calls? No.
Might see if I can get out of here.
I'd latch onto you and try to pull you, but I got a load of explosives here.
I don't wanna do that.
Yeah.
I don't wanna put my load in danger to help another guy out.
It's just not--it's not feasible.
I would but it's kinda like, all right, do you stay or do you go? I mean, this is where it's tough up here.
These are the times when you gotta make decisions, and it could get really nasty all the way to Prudhoe.
So I don't know.
I don't know.
Just 30 miles behind Tony Supposed to blow like this till Saturday.
Prudhoe, I just heard.
You got to be kidding me.
I'm ready to turn around and head South.
I hear there's a 20-wide off the road totally, load and all.
Copy all on atigun.
I've been up here on top of galbraith for the last two hours.
Don't come up here.
Everybody's already yelling back on the radio, "don't come.
" Yeah, the guys up in front of me have dropped their trailers, and they're gonna bobtail all the way back to Fairbanks.
Playing it safe will cost him a paycheck for this load.
Need to maka decision.
They got galbraith blocked up.
They got drifts and it's started to pick up in Prudhoe.
We'll probably just head back to coldfoot.
Start over tomorrow.
Should have never left the truck stop this morning once we found out the roads were getting bad.
But that's life.
Dropping this trailer so we can head back to coldfoot 'cause the weather's just getting so bad here that it's just making no sense to stay.
And it's just steadily going downhill quick.
I can't breathe in this.
This wind is just sucking the breath right out of you.
Ugh, let's go.
Ugh, let's go.
Ugh! Plagued with problems every day, why we couldn't get going.
And it's just always one setback or another.
In manitoba, Canada Ugh.
Just a few hours from civilization Felt that one in my fillings.
Rick's truck is hanging by a thread.
Did you bottom out on that again? Yes, sir.
It's rubbing right on that thing.
That's making your tires skid and everything.
Funny they're not flat yet.
Like a death trap right now, man.
It's the same problem that cost Hugh three tires and left him stranded.
What a bunch of garbage.
His Springs are broke.
Tire's right down to the steel belts on it.
It's just a hazard on the road.
Well, them two trailers that we got there, uh, they're spring suspension trailers.
You don't throw them on the Winter road and expect them to make them roads.
A reasonably a long day, yes.
Yeah.
the end of his own marathon run.
Well, I could be like a whole bunch of other people just sitting by a pool somewhere down South, drinking with my feet up, waiting for my coffin to get built.
Gonna die soon enough.
Might as well be doing something.
Hey, Alex.
Hey, Rick, how's it going up there? Did you see that trailer there? The one that Hugh destroyed on us? What? Well, to get her out I had to chain up the back axle.
I know none of us are too impressed about that.
Okay, I'm gonna come over and have a look.
Okay.
Well, rumor is that Hugh's trailer is falling apart.
The first nations' mechanic has hauled Hugh's busted trailer back to the yard.
Horbas has always got a lot on the line.
We gotta keep these trucks running and keep the trailers in one piece because that's his bread and butter for the whole year.
And owner Dave horbas is getting his first horbas is getting his first look at the carnage.
Right through-- they got the ain up on there.
These sills here, this one here's chewed right up from the tires.
The trailer's taken over $5,000 worth of damage.
Both back axles, the Springs are gone, eh? Springs are gone in the front too on one side.
That's pretty bad.
That's pretty rough.
Ooh.
That's amazing.
See, if you go too fast and then something breaks and then you keep going, this is what happens.
Just smashes everything to hell.
Ye, I think those guys are finished.
I don't think they're much winter road truckers.
They're not driving here.
They're not hauling here anymore.
It's over.
Coming up I can't see a damn thing.
This is the worst weather I've driven in yet.
Oh, .
All I want to do is the big stuff and I'm hooked to a van, and I'm hating life.
When I see oversized loads and I'm not with it or helping it or under it, I get a sick feeling in my stomach because I'd rather be doing that and not this.
How bad can you possibly want something when you're being held back? You know what I mean? Just makes me wanna, like, oh, my gosh, you don't even understand.
Nobody stands between me and what I want.
Now here's your choices, you can either get in my way or you can help me.
You can help me.
But either way, I'm doing it.
Up ahead At a standstill.
Full of trucks.
All northbound.
Is this Dave? Where are you headed? North.
You ain't going north.
Not today.
Well, I'm headed that way.
Not today.
We just came from the other side of atigun, about 20 miles.
I think you're gonna be stuck here.
Tony and them are up in it.
Are they in it right now? Yeah, they're in it right now, but they're not going nowhere.
I'm just gonna hang out in the truck stop for a little while or the restaurant.
Ain't no sense sitting on the side of the road.
Well, all right, I'm going inside.
See ya.
Come inside and be social.
But Lisa's in no mood to be social.
Waiting out the storm so I can go.
Trying to stay positive because, you know, cooped up in this tiny little cab insanity gets to you pretty quick.
The haul road has disappeared.
Kind of pushing to go.
We'll just throw our chains on and see if we can ease our way and see if we can ease our way through this.
I think we're good.
I think I'd rather get through it now than sit here for it now than sit here for two days.
I'm watching this side marker beside the edge of the road here, and that's kinda--we're just crawling through here.
Using the force.
This is it right here.
This is it right here.
I can't see a damn thing.
Is, damn it.
I got nothing.
Would you mind putting that thing down and helping me out a little bit? Yeah.
Can you see anything on the outside? I can't see Really? Well, okay, there's no indicator or anything.
Are you sure? Definitely don't want to be over there.
That's the bushes, man.
Pretty dangerous right now.
I can't see very much.
Maya is also driving into the whiteout.
It's tough when you have freight that has to get up there as soon as possible.
You try and wonder if you should leave it and head back or-- it's, like, all these decisions you have to make, wondering what's the best decision.
Sometimes the best one at the moment can be the worst.
While the weather has Dave and Lisa stuck at coldfoot, the rookie has no intention of letting her first hot load get there late.
The storm seemed to pick up.
Now it's blowing a lot.
Oh, .
Sometimes you can't see the edge of the road at all.
And that's when it gets pretty damn scary.
I don't wanna get stuck on the side of the road in this stuff.
That's what I don't want to happen.
Probably get buried if you stop.
Stopping in a blizzard can cause blowing snow to clog the air filters.
Without air flow, the engine will shut down.
Leaving the driver stranded.
Okay, now I can't see.
It's hard to focus when everything's just completely white.
Can't see which way the road turns or if it's uphill or downhill.
This is the worst weather I've driven in yet.
Holy! On Alaska's north slope Yeah, we're gonna need to get through this.
Tony molesky has spent half a day battling through the last 20 miles of a blinding snowstorm.
You never know, man.
This is the north slope of Alaska.
Things can happen really, really fast.
leaving the Fairbanks yard, Tony has hauled the most dangerous load of the season safely into Prudhoe bay.
Today was, like, an adrenaline rush for me.
It was pretty intense tonight.
Pretty intense.
Whether it's explosives or fuel or freight or pipe, it doesn't matter.
I mean, I'm just glad we made it through.
Damn, that was gnarly.
Back down the road No [Bleep.]
Way.
The rookie's still in over her head.
, I can't, like, [Bleep.]
, I can't, like, get focused.
And it's really hazy.
You can't really see.
It looks like staring into it looks like staring into a white wall.
I mean, this is crazy.
Can't see anything.
Oh, .
Prudhoe bay right now.
After weeks of training and 12 hours fighting the arctic blizzard So we're gonna drop this load here, and hopefully it clears up in the morning.
Maya's first solo run of the season is in the books.
And the rookie from New York is one step closer to earning her place as an ice road trucker.
That was one hell of a drive.
Drop this and then I'm gonna call it a night.
I like hauling the heavier loads.
It's fun.
I mean, it's a step up from what I've done.
It's a great accomplishment to have driven this far and to do it all by myself.
After battling the storm, Maya chalks up load number two while Tony pulls number two while Tony pulls within a load of the lead.
I kind of roll with the punches my whole life.
You know, no sense in bitching about something.
Just deal with it.
Get at her.
Rick and Hugh limp their busted rigs back to town.
My trailer busted Springs.
His trailer busted Springs.
He pulled me up the hill.
I pulled him up the hill.
You know, I pushed him out of the holes, and it took a lot of teamwork, that whole Trip.
Pretty good carnage on that road.
I took some damage.
The truck took some damage.
The trailer took some damage.
Let's just say it was a baptism by fire on that one.
We just took the loads, and we made the best of it.
And we're not gonna, you know, cry over spilled milk.
We made some money here.
You know, we dealt with it.
We overcome it.
We're on our way home.
That's a good thing.
After four days 1,600 miles And two destroyed trailers, the run to loc brochet is finally at an end.
Another load, another dollar.
End of the back haul.
Glad to get rid of this Junk.
Ready to get the Out of dodge.
Dodge.
I'm out of here.
I've gotta go out and run them papers out to horbas there.
No, I'm just about there now, and I'll drop 'em off, and I'll tell you how it went down.
Down.
It was a trip from hell, eh? Yeah, trip from hell.
Yeah.
Yeah, she Up pretty good there.
Yeah.
It's-- you got some tires on her anyways.
Yeah.
What I can't figure out is I sent five trucks in.
And out of the five, you and Rick come back with two broken trailers.
You know, what's the problem? That's the way it goes down, man.
Who the hell's gonna fix all this? Maybe you guys should come here and fix it all, you know? We did her.
The way it turned out is the way it turned out.
You got the papers, the end of the load, you got her.
I'm finished with you guys.
I don't need you coming here and wrecking everything.
Adios.
You.
It didn't work out.
It didn't work out, that's all.
How these guys can go in there and wreck this stuff like this and then say, "it's junk.
" It's junk now after they're finished with it, I guess.
Had enough with these guys.
They're not coming back here.
They can go back to Alaska.
Next on ice road truckers Wish I was back in Alabama right now.
The arctic blizzard rages on.
And Dave is left out in the cold.
Gonna die slow, cold, and alone.
Lisa Can you see anything at all? Hits the road to redemption.
And it's Alex to the rescue.