Ice Road Truckers (2007) s06e11 Episode Script
Hurricane Alley
- Tonight on Ice Road Truckers.
.
Here we go.
The deadliest roads in North America take their toll.
Oh.
.
(Bleep) Me! On the Dempster.
.
I'm seeing a whole bunch of white.
The biggest storm of the season strikes Hurricane Alley.
Where are we? I'm off the road? Yeah, I don't think this is a very good idea.
In Alaska.
.
Come on, Kitty Kenworth.
No one is safe from Atigun Pass.
Holy [Bleep.]
! Whoa! Whoa! Catch it, catch it, come on! And making it through means risking it all.
There's Ice Road Trucking for you.
Holy.
.
White Horse, Yukon.
Okay.
Giddy up.
Let's go.
Veteran Alex Debogorski is racing to start a two day haul up the Dempster Highway.
I've got 55,000 pounds of groceries.
I'm taking them north to Inuvik.
To get north, he'll have to go through Hurricane Alley.
.
Where violent winds and whiteout conditions can shut down the road.
I'm partnered up with another driver on this run.
I'll be traveling with Steve.
And with a storm on the way.
.
There's safety in numbers in the remote Canadian wilderness.
My name's Steve Moore and I'm a line haul driver for Manitoulin Transport.
I've been driving for 32 years now.
All right.
Everything's looking good far.
They're hauling a combined 110,000 pounds of food and supplies for Canada's arctic communities.
It's fresh produce, so it's urgent to get it up there.
If we don't get it up soon enough, it starts sprouting and getting roots.
So we need to get up there before it goes bad.
How about you, Alex? Are you out there? Okay, Steve, we can go now.
Well, we're finally away.
Turned off the Klondike highway.
.
To deliver the food to the people who rely on it, they'll have to reach Hurricane Alley before the storm shuts it down.
Blowing snow, falling snow, whiteout.
.
It doesn't really matter.
We're gonna drive into it.
That's it.
Temperatures are plunging to 45 below.
But two haul road heavyweights are heating up the ice.
Don't cut my throat to keep your nickname.
It's all about freight, man.
Jack Jessee's looking to hold onto his title as haul road ace.
Feels like it's my turn to kick some butt now.
It's time somebody puts little Jack in his place.
While newcomer Darrell Ward is out for cold, hard cash.
[Bleep.]
You, Jack! You're costing Reno money.
At Carlile's Fairbanks yard.
.
Darrell scores again.
Darrell Ward leads the load count after last night's back haul shot him into the top spot.
I have a rivalry with Jack Jessee out here.
Jack doesn't know what I can do.
That gives me that edge.
It's kind of like the element of surprise.
I'll take him down.
Ya, I've got a load of sheetrock here on a flatbed trailer.
Spring ride's gonna ride like hell.
Ah, there we go.
Darrell's load is 48,000 pounds of construction material bound for the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay.
Always getting these [Bleep.]
junk ass [Bleep.]
trailers.
Good enough.
But it's sitting on one of the most worn out trailers in the yard.
So you know, this iron, the older it gets, the iron gets brittle.
Hoping it makes it.
I'm ready to roll.
Gonna be a rough old ride.
All I ever got was a rough ride.
All the way from trucking to marriages.
At the other end of the road.
.
Pretty sure we're taking our trailer that we brought up here home, so we're just gonna go get our paperwork for it.
Austin Wheeler's just finished his first solo heavy haul up the Dalton.
.
Let's keep going.
And secured his spot among the haul road elite.
Took some real thought and skill.
Kinda shows people what I'm made of and what I'm capable of.
- What's going on, man? - What's going on? Just trying to get something to head back to Fairbanks with.
Right on.
Well, I'm just gonna have you take a special load.
Sweet, man.
For his next heavy haul assignment.
.
Austin's headed 423 miles south.
To pick up an industrial water truck at the Livengood mining camp.
Well we just got our dispatch to go home.
There's a piece of equipment at the mining camp right in Livengood that needs to be picked up.
That'll make the day interesting.
It'll be another test for the 23-year-old, as he hits the road on his own.
Welcome to heavy haul.
I wanna just try to make it through the rest of this season.
Ronald "Porkchop" Mangum is also on the road alone with a load of construction gravel.
Load is pretty decent.
Hauling about 82,000 pounds total.
We're gonna push on through to Prudhoe Bay tonight.
I was gonna stop at Coldfoot, but I'm trying to get caught up on this load count.
This is only the third solo run for the South Carolina Native.
Yeah! Yeah! But after just couple of deliveries.
.
That's what I'm talking about.
Prudhoe Bay, get the hell out the way, here comes the Chop.
Success has gone to his head.
I'm down a couple of loads now, and I gotta get caught back up in the game.
It's kinda like I'm coming back out at half time, down 14 to nothing.
Time to go 5 wide.
Call that 151 trips right.
I ain't stopping.
I'm pushing on through to Prudhoe.
He's all over the place.
And tired of taking it from other drivers.
.
Can you get on your side of the damn road? Now he's dishing it out.
Damn, you gonna give me some room? What the hell, dude? Back off! Sorry about that.
See these guys out here, they don't wanna get over on their side of the road.
Makes 'em dangerous when you're.
.
Meet oncoming traffic.
So.
.
It is what it is.
As the sun sets in Alaska.
.
About five and a half hours into this trip.
I got this hot load of fuel I gotta get Prudhoe.
Haul road ace Jack Jessee rolls north.
One load down to load count leader Darrell.
I have to take extra precautions with this load.
It's a hazardous material.
It's flammable and it's heavy.
But his 82,000 pound load of fuel is slowing him down.
Basically the haul road is a one lane road.
When you're out here by yourself, man, you're the only one that can screw up.
You put other trucks in the mix, one bad call in judgment can take everybody out.
Who the hell is this? God! Out of the darkness.
.
What the hell is he doing? Another driver's coming in fast behind Jack.
The edge is just hard to find to make room.
Slow down! Whoa! Coming up.
.
There's a few bigger drifts on the road now.
The fury of Hurricane Alley.
Yeah, I don't think that's a very good idea.
In the dead of night.
.
What the hell is he doing? A truck tries to overtake Jack on a narrow stretch of the haul road.
Slow down! Whoa! That was close.
[Bleep.]
.
Did you see that? Is that you, Jack? That's Darrell.
What the.
.
You didn't say anything, Darrell, what the hell? Kinda.
.
Kinda scared me a little there.
Well, I figured whoever it is, I was gonna wake 'em up for damn sure.
You know, Darrell, passing like that's not gonna win you any friends out here.
You know, I'm not out here to make friends, Jack.
I've got plenty of them.
You know, you, uh, you might wanna watch your back.
I might be gunning for you.
Darrell with his lighter load has the advantage over Jack's heavy fuel tanker.
Probably be finishing up with my dinner in Coldfoot about the time you pull into your parking spot huh? Well, I got this fuel on here.
I can't go bouncing down the road like you guys.
Well, Jack, I guess I'll see you on the flip flop.
One last thought to think on.
Tortoise versus the hare.
Who won that race? Man, it's guys like that, that.
.
Cause problems and accidents out here.
You always question the new guys.
I don't care what you knew before you showed up here.
Certain mistakes up here can kill you.
You know, could have just, like, dodged a pothole at the very wrong moment when he came flying by.
Now you got two trucks in the ditch.
And that ain't how we roll out here.
Poor old Jack Jessee.
Passed him on the road.
Passed him in the load count.
Jack don't know what come around, did he? While Jack an Darrell battle to Prudhoe Bay.
.
I've still gotta stop and load up that freaking.
.
Six wheel drive water truck thing.
Austin Wheeler's taking on a heavy haul special assignment at a mining camp just off the Dalton.
I'm trying to make a name for myself by, hauling some of the biggest loads the most awkward loads.
Just to show people that I'm good at what I do and I have what it takes to be here.
But this job's more than just hook up and go.
Whoa.
That's good.
It's up to Austin to load and secure the cargo.
We're just about to load up this machine on here, so.
.
- Okay, let's take her slow.
- Yep.
I think it's pretty cool.
Ha.
The truck is as wide as the trailer.
Here we go.
All right.
Pull forward a little bit.
A couple of inches too far to either side.
.
And the load will end up on the ground.
Give it a little pump! Go! - Whoa.
- Hold up! Whoa! There you go.
Sweet, thanks, guys.
Whenever I load my own stuff, I always make sure it's loaded right and tied down right.
I think making anybody good on this road means not breaking loads, not damaging 'em, but also getting home safely too.
You never know, something could happen.
All right, let's do this.
It's been a really extremely long day.
And I am ready to leave.
The load's secured and Austin's feeling good.
Austin Wheeler is a bad ass, and I pretty much just drove.
.
Got in that thing and made it my [Bleep.]
.
And we're off like a.
.
Bale of turtles.
Alex and Steve are at the halfway point in their race against the weather.
I got a load of groceries.
.
Going to Inuvik, and I'm going down the Dempster.
I'm just leaving Klondike Corner in a big cloud of snow.
Steve's in the lead truck as they approach Hurricane Alley.
Very difficult to see.
Pretty wintery looking road, I'll tell ya.
But they may have already lost the race as the storm starts to show its teeth.
Yeah, I can only see whatever's 100 feet in front of me because of blowing snow.
We're not out in the open yet.
We're still in amongst the trees and it's blowing pretty good.
That means that we haven't seen the worst.
We'll see what happens when we get out there.
There's a few bigger drifts on the road now.
As they pull into Hurricane Alley, the winds have reached 80 miles per hour.
See, this is not good.
So I definitely gotta slow down a little bit more.
Holy [Bleep.]
! Keep an eye on those poles.
It's all we got.
Steve rolls forward with only the Delineator poles keeping him on the road.
I'm seeing a whole bunch of white.
See, we're down to two.
We're.
.
We're down to two.
Yeah, I don't think this is a very good idea.
I can't see [Bleep.]
at all.
This is.
.
This is bad.
Steve searches for the road while Alex seeks his own guidance.
I should say a prayer.
.
Dear God, give us a hand with this trip.
Bless this day.
Protect me from harm.
Give me direction and guidance.
I can't see nothing.
This is nuts, man.
This is total nuts.
Bless Steve, my convoy partner.
Keep us safe.
I can't see nothing.
Holy [Bleep.]
.
This is [Bleep.]
.
Jesus, I trust in you.
Where are we? I'm off the road? No.
Jesus, I trust in you.
I don't see nothing.
Jesus, I trust in you.
Okay, to the right.
To the right, to the right.
Can't see a thing.
I can't see a thing.
- There, to the right.
- Whoa! Coming up.
.
The older it gets, this iron gets brittle.
Darrell's load fights back.
Holy [Bleep.]
.
Yukon, Canada.
Jesus, I trust in you.
I don't see nothing.
Jesus, I trust in you, amen.
Where are we? I'm off the road? No.
Can't see a thing.
I can't see at thing.
Whoa! Hang on.
Alex and convoy partner Steve, are fighting a massive whiteout in the middle of Hurricane Alley.
I've gotten too close to Steve.
Oh, crap.
I can't see nothing.
See a pole? See a pole? See a pole? I don't see nothing.
Can you see one? This is a nightmare.
Where in the dickens am I? Oh [Bleep.]
.
See a pole? Okay, Alex, I'm stopped.
Unable to press forward through the blinding whiteout.
And not even sure they're still on the road.
.
The veterans are stranded as the storm rages on.
Yeah, just headed northbound.
Over the hills and through the woods to Prudhoe Bay we go.
Darrell's made it to the north slope.
After leaving Jack in the dust last night.
I'm all about load count.
So stay out of my way, Jack Jessee, because I will sack your ass.
Again and again and again.
He's just an hour from Prudhoe Bay, but his old trailer might not make it.
Holy [Bleep.]
.
Man, this trailer's in pretty tough shape.
The older it gets, this iron gets brittle.
Can't handle the stress.
Here the temperatures plunge to 45 below.
And the truck's getting knocked around by frost heaps that cover the road.
[Bleep.]
Me.
[Bleep.]
Is buckling now.
If anything's gonna break this trailer in half, it'll be this [Bleep.]
trip.
and rough-ass ice road.
In the extreme cold, metal turns brittle.
And with the rugged road taking its toll on the old trailer, one bad bump could crack it in two.
And send Darrell's truck out of control.
Might have to slow her down, or we're never gonna make it there.
Just gonna have nurse it on in and hope for the best.
Don't wanna nurse it too slow.
Don't need old Jack or.
.
Porkchop or anybody like that to catch up with me.
Holy [Bleep.]
.
Holy [Bleep.]
, that'll break my trailer.
[Bleep.]
, dude.
This [Bleep.]
trailer don't stand chance.
You know, that's all I need is this trailer to go to [Bleep.]
on me, and end up sitting on the road here.
Hoping it makes it.
Keep my fingers crossed.
Pretty ugly.
Heading to Prudhoe, then I'm gonna try to head back to Coldfoot, see what happens today.
Porkchop's on his third solo run of the season, trying to get back into the load count race with a load of construction gravel.
Who knows what the Atigun is gonna hold for us.
It's probably greasier than greased cookie sheet on a Thanksgiving evening.
He's driven over 300 miles without a problem.
Got my lockers in.
Here we go.
But now he's gotta get his heaviest load of the season up Atigun Pass.
So far, so good.
Whoa! Little bit of slippage there.
When you catch a good groove, hopefully we won't slide over the edge.
Hopefully, it'll hold.
Human factor? No, you can't stop the Chop.
God factor? Any time he wants to.
Come on, Kitty Kenworth.
Climb on up to the top, baby.
Holy [Bleep.]
.
Here she comes again, damn it.
Porkchop's drive wheels are slipping on the ice-covered slope.
Almost there.
Three gears in less than 100 yards, baby.
Four gears.
Come on, girl.
Pull this bitch.
And that's how you go to the top of the rock.
The South Carolina Native crests the pass.
Southbound dropping off Atigun.
And he's starting to show he can handle the haul road.
Nothing to do but sit back and enjoy the ride to the bottom.
Hopefully, it's a smooth one.
Coming up.
.
Lost in a whiteout.
This is why they call it Hurricane Alley.
Northern Canada.
.
Hurricane Alley.
We're stuck at, uh.
Just north of 460.
Can't see a thing.
Alex and convoy partner Steve, are stranded hundreds of miles from civilization.
This why the call it Hurricane Alley.
Alex walks into the whiteout, trying to find the road.
But the Dempster is gone.
Getting disoriented in the blinding snow is the biggest danger of walking in a whiteout.
And at 25 below, they got just minutes before frostbite sets in.
Well, there ya go.
Ah.
.
Unable to find any sign of the road, they're stuck here.
But they'll only stay warm as long as their fuel holds out.
There's Ice Road Trucking for you.
Well, here I am.
Coming into Prudhoe Bay.
Darrell makes it out of the harsh north slope into Prudhoe Bay.
My trailer held together, didn't buckle in half on me, made pretty good time.
Get in here and get rid of this load, drop this trailer off and uh.
.
Dispatch up a back haul and head back south.
Woo, doggy.
Here we go.
Just like that.
See if I can get away from it right here.
Already on top of the load count, a back haul here will keep him in the lead.
- What's going on? - Not too much.
You have something for me? - Got you a bus.
- A bus? Like, what kind of bus? Like a bus bus like a people-hauling bus.
Better than bob-tailing, that's for sure.
- Yeah.
- Cool.
- I'm gonna get out of here.
.
- All righty.
Before anybody else shows up looking for me.
Sounds good.
Have fun with that bus.
Yeah, thanks.
I'm gonna go get the hell out of here before Jack Jessee even shows up, you know? By the end of the week, I'm gonna lap him.
We just pulled out of Coldfoot.
A good night's rest.
Jack's back on the road after getting passed last night by Darrell.
I think Darrell's all about winning the load count, for sure.
But, you know, sometimes it's not about the load count out here.
It's about making good decisions.
If you make the wrong decision out here.
.
You could kill somebody.
I've got this heavy load of fuel.
I gotta.
.
You know, I've got Atigun Pass coming up.
And I'm grossing about And I've gotta pull that up the hill.
The first half of this challenge to get up the hill.
I'm gonna have to change gears.
There we go.
It's amazing how steep these things are here.
Feels good.
We just made it to the top.
Jack crests the pass, but with his heavy load, the challenge has just begun.
Now that I made it up the hill, now I gotta go down the hill.
All right, here we go.
The north face of Atigun descends at an alarming 13% grade.
If you spin out going uphill, you have to worry about sliding backwards.
When you get caught going downhill, you don't stop.
You just start picking up speed.
Then you keep going and going.
He's gotta keep the pushing his 22,000-pound truck down the mountain.
Man, this road is slick.
And one mistake will send him over the edge.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Okay.
Maybe lost traction there for a second, but.
.
Must have found some more because it caught back up underneath it again.
Pushing me.
Whoa, come on, baby, come on.
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Well, there we go.
Good God.
Come on, get back underneath it.
Hear the motor dying down? That means I'm sliding.
Come on straight, straight, straight.
Come on, come on.
Good God, come on.
Get back underneath it.
No, no, no, no.
Crap.
We're out of control.
Halfway down the north face of ice-crusted Atigun Pass.
.
Good God, come on, get back underneath it.
Jack fights for control of the 82,000-pound tanker pushing him down the mountain.
Come on.
Come on.
Oh, crap, we're out of control.
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Come on.
Straight, straight, straight.
Come on.
.
Crap, I'm gonna grab the gear.
Got to get our speed up going downhill when you lose it.
Come on.
There we go.
Stay behind me.
Come on.
Stay underneath there, okay.
I think we're good now.
Yeah, I got it under control again.
There is nothing worse than losing traction going downhill.
Because all you do is speed up.
And the only way to get out from underneath it and to catch it is to go faster.
And that's not what you wanna do going downhill.
Oh, Lord.
Almost didn't catch that.
It's a bad deal.
So bad of a deal.
[Bleep.]
I'm getting out.
That mountain over there is definitely not something to mess with, now.
Get this trip over with and get her done.
You know, almost there.
Porkchop's finally hitting his stride as he chalks up another load.
Get on up here and getting this load off and get another one and head back.
Woo! Feels good to have made it.
Still in the game.
I'm not down.
I just scored another touchdown.
Fourth quarter ain't here and the last whistle ain't blowed.
Don't count me out.
I got this.
Let's go see what dispatch has to offer.
And a back haul here will keep his streak going.
- What's up, man? - What's going on there Porkchop? What you got? Gonna have to send you bobtail back to Fairbanks.
I got nothing for you, man.
Is there any wait or anything? No.
All right.
Wish I had something for you.
- It happens.
Later.
- Yep.
Now Porkchop faces a 500-mile trip without a paying load.
It's plain and simple.
Once again, if you ain't in the club.
.
You ain't getting a back haul.
That's B.
S.
you know? I come up here to make money for my family so I can get bills caught up.
I don't have a silver spoon in my mouth.
I've worked for every damn thing I've got.
It is what it is.
As Porkchop heads out, Jack pulls in.
Well, we just pullin' in to Prudhoe.
All I gotta do is get offloaded and I am out of here.
He's not ahead in the load count, but he's alive.
And at the end of the day.
.
The Rocky Mountain log hauler holds onto the lead.
But back on the Dempster's Hurricane Alley.
.
You're all alone and it starts to blow, and there you are.
.
In the middle of a snowstorm or a windstorm.
Alex and Steve have been stranded for three hours at 25 below.
Hoping their fuel supply outlasts the storm.
The grader showed up to save our hides.
So now it's just a matter of whether we can see as good the grader to get out of here.
Give her heck.
I'll be on your tail.
The veteran truckers follow the grader's path.
Before the road disappears again.
How you making out back there, Alex? That's a good thing.
Going up Border Hill.
We're gonna be crossing into the northwest territories.
Steve and I managed to get through by the skin of our teeth.
After two days on the road.
Alex and Steve finally deliver 110,000 pounds of food to the remote community of Inuvik.
Well old buddy, we made it.
We got the loads here.
We didn't wreck no equipment.
It's cold, it's snowing, it's blowing, it's.
.
Still winter.
Which is good because that means the ice is strong to haul more loads.
Next time on Ice Road Truckers.
.
Rick Yemm is back in the saddle.
Aw, [Bleep.]
.
And back in hot water.
We hit a truck.
Austin's longest load of the season.
.
Oh, [Bleep.]
! Could be his shortest trip.
Please no.
I need to talk to you for a sec.
And a veteran lays down the law.
- You put me in a bad spot.
- That's B.
S.
, man you know it.
No, not up here it's not.
.
Here we go.
The deadliest roads in North America take their toll.
Oh.
.
(Bleep) Me! On the Dempster.
.
I'm seeing a whole bunch of white.
The biggest storm of the season strikes Hurricane Alley.
Where are we? I'm off the road? Yeah, I don't think this is a very good idea.
In Alaska.
.
Come on, Kitty Kenworth.
No one is safe from Atigun Pass.
Holy [Bleep.]
! Whoa! Whoa! Catch it, catch it, come on! And making it through means risking it all.
There's Ice Road Trucking for you.
Holy.
.
White Horse, Yukon.
Okay.
Giddy up.
Let's go.
Veteran Alex Debogorski is racing to start a two day haul up the Dempster Highway.
I've got 55,000 pounds of groceries.
I'm taking them north to Inuvik.
To get north, he'll have to go through Hurricane Alley.
.
Where violent winds and whiteout conditions can shut down the road.
I'm partnered up with another driver on this run.
I'll be traveling with Steve.
And with a storm on the way.
.
There's safety in numbers in the remote Canadian wilderness.
My name's Steve Moore and I'm a line haul driver for Manitoulin Transport.
I've been driving for 32 years now.
All right.
Everything's looking good far.
They're hauling a combined 110,000 pounds of food and supplies for Canada's arctic communities.
It's fresh produce, so it's urgent to get it up there.
If we don't get it up soon enough, it starts sprouting and getting roots.
So we need to get up there before it goes bad.
How about you, Alex? Are you out there? Okay, Steve, we can go now.
Well, we're finally away.
Turned off the Klondike highway.
.
To deliver the food to the people who rely on it, they'll have to reach Hurricane Alley before the storm shuts it down.
Blowing snow, falling snow, whiteout.
.
It doesn't really matter.
We're gonna drive into it.
That's it.
Temperatures are plunging to 45 below.
But two haul road heavyweights are heating up the ice.
Don't cut my throat to keep your nickname.
It's all about freight, man.
Jack Jessee's looking to hold onto his title as haul road ace.
Feels like it's my turn to kick some butt now.
It's time somebody puts little Jack in his place.
While newcomer Darrell Ward is out for cold, hard cash.
[Bleep.]
You, Jack! You're costing Reno money.
At Carlile's Fairbanks yard.
.
Darrell scores again.
Darrell Ward leads the load count after last night's back haul shot him into the top spot.
I have a rivalry with Jack Jessee out here.
Jack doesn't know what I can do.
That gives me that edge.
It's kind of like the element of surprise.
I'll take him down.
Ya, I've got a load of sheetrock here on a flatbed trailer.
Spring ride's gonna ride like hell.
Ah, there we go.
Darrell's load is 48,000 pounds of construction material bound for the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay.
Always getting these [Bleep.]
junk ass [Bleep.]
trailers.
Good enough.
But it's sitting on one of the most worn out trailers in the yard.
So you know, this iron, the older it gets, the iron gets brittle.
Hoping it makes it.
I'm ready to roll.
Gonna be a rough old ride.
All I ever got was a rough ride.
All the way from trucking to marriages.
At the other end of the road.
.
Pretty sure we're taking our trailer that we brought up here home, so we're just gonna go get our paperwork for it.
Austin Wheeler's just finished his first solo heavy haul up the Dalton.
.
Let's keep going.
And secured his spot among the haul road elite.
Took some real thought and skill.
Kinda shows people what I'm made of and what I'm capable of.
- What's going on, man? - What's going on? Just trying to get something to head back to Fairbanks with.
Right on.
Well, I'm just gonna have you take a special load.
Sweet, man.
For his next heavy haul assignment.
.
Austin's headed 423 miles south.
To pick up an industrial water truck at the Livengood mining camp.
Well we just got our dispatch to go home.
There's a piece of equipment at the mining camp right in Livengood that needs to be picked up.
That'll make the day interesting.
It'll be another test for the 23-year-old, as he hits the road on his own.
Welcome to heavy haul.
I wanna just try to make it through the rest of this season.
Ronald "Porkchop" Mangum is also on the road alone with a load of construction gravel.
Load is pretty decent.
Hauling about 82,000 pounds total.
We're gonna push on through to Prudhoe Bay tonight.
I was gonna stop at Coldfoot, but I'm trying to get caught up on this load count.
This is only the third solo run for the South Carolina Native.
Yeah! Yeah! But after just couple of deliveries.
.
That's what I'm talking about.
Prudhoe Bay, get the hell out the way, here comes the Chop.
Success has gone to his head.
I'm down a couple of loads now, and I gotta get caught back up in the game.
It's kinda like I'm coming back out at half time, down 14 to nothing.
Time to go 5 wide.
Call that 151 trips right.
I ain't stopping.
I'm pushing on through to Prudhoe.
He's all over the place.
And tired of taking it from other drivers.
.
Can you get on your side of the damn road? Now he's dishing it out.
Damn, you gonna give me some room? What the hell, dude? Back off! Sorry about that.
See these guys out here, they don't wanna get over on their side of the road.
Makes 'em dangerous when you're.
.
Meet oncoming traffic.
So.
.
It is what it is.
As the sun sets in Alaska.
.
About five and a half hours into this trip.
I got this hot load of fuel I gotta get Prudhoe.
Haul road ace Jack Jessee rolls north.
One load down to load count leader Darrell.
I have to take extra precautions with this load.
It's a hazardous material.
It's flammable and it's heavy.
But his 82,000 pound load of fuel is slowing him down.
Basically the haul road is a one lane road.
When you're out here by yourself, man, you're the only one that can screw up.
You put other trucks in the mix, one bad call in judgment can take everybody out.
Who the hell is this? God! Out of the darkness.
.
What the hell is he doing? Another driver's coming in fast behind Jack.
The edge is just hard to find to make room.
Slow down! Whoa! Coming up.
.
There's a few bigger drifts on the road now.
The fury of Hurricane Alley.
Yeah, I don't think that's a very good idea.
In the dead of night.
.
What the hell is he doing? A truck tries to overtake Jack on a narrow stretch of the haul road.
Slow down! Whoa! That was close.
[Bleep.]
.
Did you see that? Is that you, Jack? That's Darrell.
What the.
.
You didn't say anything, Darrell, what the hell? Kinda.
.
Kinda scared me a little there.
Well, I figured whoever it is, I was gonna wake 'em up for damn sure.
You know, Darrell, passing like that's not gonna win you any friends out here.
You know, I'm not out here to make friends, Jack.
I've got plenty of them.
You know, you, uh, you might wanna watch your back.
I might be gunning for you.
Darrell with his lighter load has the advantage over Jack's heavy fuel tanker.
Probably be finishing up with my dinner in Coldfoot about the time you pull into your parking spot huh? Well, I got this fuel on here.
I can't go bouncing down the road like you guys.
Well, Jack, I guess I'll see you on the flip flop.
One last thought to think on.
Tortoise versus the hare.
Who won that race? Man, it's guys like that, that.
.
Cause problems and accidents out here.
You always question the new guys.
I don't care what you knew before you showed up here.
Certain mistakes up here can kill you.
You know, could have just, like, dodged a pothole at the very wrong moment when he came flying by.
Now you got two trucks in the ditch.
And that ain't how we roll out here.
Poor old Jack Jessee.
Passed him on the road.
Passed him in the load count.
Jack don't know what come around, did he? While Jack an Darrell battle to Prudhoe Bay.
.
I've still gotta stop and load up that freaking.
.
Six wheel drive water truck thing.
Austin Wheeler's taking on a heavy haul special assignment at a mining camp just off the Dalton.
I'm trying to make a name for myself by, hauling some of the biggest loads the most awkward loads.
Just to show people that I'm good at what I do and I have what it takes to be here.
But this job's more than just hook up and go.
Whoa.
That's good.
It's up to Austin to load and secure the cargo.
We're just about to load up this machine on here, so.
.
- Okay, let's take her slow.
- Yep.
I think it's pretty cool.
Ha.
The truck is as wide as the trailer.
Here we go.
All right.
Pull forward a little bit.
A couple of inches too far to either side.
.
And the load will end up on the ground.
Give it a little pump! Go! - Whoa.
- Hold up! Whoa! There you go.
Sweet, thanks, guys.
Whenever I load my own stuff, I always make sure it's loaded right and tied down right.
I think making anybody good on this road means not breaking loads, not damaging 'em, but also getting home safely too.
You never know, something could happen.
All right, let's do this.
It's been a really extremely long day.
And I am ready to leave.
The load's secured and Austin's feeling good.
Austin Wheeler is a bad ass, and I pretty much just drove.
.
Got in that thing and made it my [Bleep.]
.
And we're off like a.
.
Bale of turtles.
Alex and Steve are at the halfway point in their race against the weather.
I got a load of groceries.
.
Going to Inuvik, and I'm going down the Dempster.
I'm just leaving Klondike Corner in a big cloud of snow.
Steve's in the lead truck as they approach Hurricane Alley.
Very difficult to see.
Pretty wintery looking road, I'll tell ya.
But they may have already lost the race as the storm starts to show its teeth.
Yeah, I can only see whatever's 100 feet in front of me because of blowing snow.
We're not out in the open yet.
We're still in amongst the trees and it's blowing pretty good.
That means that we haven't seen the worst.
We'll see what happens when we get out there.
There's a few bigger drifts on the road now.
As they pull into Hurricane Alley, the winds have reached 80 miles per hour.
See, this is not good.
So I definitely gotta slow down a little bit more.
Holy [Bleep.]
! Keep an eye on those poles.
It's all we got.
Steve rolls forward with only the Delineator poles keeping him on the road.
I'm seeing a whole bunch of white.
See, we're down to two.
We're.
.
We're down to two.
Yeah, I don't think this is a very good idea.
I can't see [Bleep.]
at all.
This is.
.
This is bad.
Steve searches for the road while Alex seeks his own guidance.
I should say a prayer.
.
Dear God, give us a hand with this trip.
Bless this day.
Protect me from harm.
Give me direction and guidance.
I can't see nothing.
This is nuts, man.
This is total nuts.
Bless Steve, my convoy partner.
Keep us safe.
I can't see nothing.
Holy [Bleep.]
.
This is [Bleep.]
.
Jesus, I trust in you.
Where are we? I'm off the road? No.
Jesus, I trust in you.
I don't see nothing.
Jesus, I trust in you.
Okay, to the right.
To the right, to the right.
Can't see a thing.
I can't see a thing.
- There, to the right.
- Whoa! Coming up.
.
The older it gets, this iron gets brittle.
Darrell's load fights back.
Holy [Bleep.]
.
Yukon, Canada.
Jesus, I trust in you.
I don't see nothing.
Jesus, I trust in you, amen.
Where are we? I'm off the road? No.
Can't see a thing.
I can't see at thing.
Whoa! Hang on.
Alex and convoy partner Steve, are fighting a massive whiteout in the middle of Hurricane Alley.
I've gotten too close to Steve.
Oh, crap.
I can't see nothing.
See a pole? See a pole? See a pole? I don't see nothing.
Can you see one? This is a nightmare.
Where in the dickens am I? Oh [Bleep.]
.
See a pole? Okay, Alex, I'm stopped.
Unable to press forward through the blinding whiteout.
And not even sure they're still on the road.
.
The veterans are stranded as the storm rages on.
Yeah, just headed northbound.
Over the hills and through the woods to Prudhoe Bay we go.
Darrell's made it to the north slope.
After leaving Jack in the dust last night.
I'm all about load count.
So stay out of my way, Jack Jessee, because I will sack your ass.
Again and again and again.
He's just an hour from Prudhoe Bay, but his old trailer might not make it.
Holy [Bleep.]
.
Man, this trailer's in pretty tough shape.
The older it gets, this iron gets brittle.
Can't handle the stress.
Here the temperatures plunge to 45 below.
And the truck's getting knocked around by frost heaps that cover the road.
[Bleep.]
Me.
[Bleep.]
Is buckling now.
If anything's gonna break this trailer in half, it'll be this [Bleep.]
trip.
and rough-ass ice road.
In the extreme cold, metal turns brittle.
And with the rugged road taking its toll on the old trailer, one bad bump could crack it in two.
And send Darrell's truck out of control.
Might have to slow her down, or we're never gonna make it there.
Just gonna have nurse it on in and hope for the best.
Don't wanna nurse it too slow.
Don't need old Jack or.
.
Porkchop or anybody like that to catch up with me.
Holy [Bleep.]
.
Holy [Bleep.]
, that'll break my trailer.
[Bleep.]
, dude.
This [Bleep.]
trailer don't stand chance.
You know, that's all I need is this trailer to go to [Bleep.]
on me, and end up sitting on the road here.
Hoping it makes it.
Keep my fingers crossed.
Pretty ugly.
Heading to Prudhoe, then I'm gonna try to head back to Coldfoot, see what happens today.
Porkchop's on his third solo run of the season, trying to get back into the load count race with a load of construction gravel.
Who knows what the Atigun is gonna hold for us.
It's probably greasier than greased cookie sheet on a Thanksgiving evening.
He's driven over 300 miles without a problem.
Got my lockers in.
Here we go.
But now he's gotta get his heaviest load of the season up Atigun Pass.
So far, so good.
Whoa! Little bit of slippage there.
When you catch a good groove, hopefully we won't slide over the edge.
Hopefully, it'll hold.
Human factor? No, you can't stop the Chop.
God factor? Any time he wants to.
Come on, Kitty Kenworth.
Climb on up to the top, baby.
Holy [Bleep.]
.
Here she comes again, damn it.
Porkchop's drive wheels are slipping on the ice-covered slope.
Almost there.
Three gears in less than 100 yards, baby.
Four gears.
Come on, girl.
Pull this bitch.
And that's how you go to the top of the rock.
The South Carolina Native crests the pass.
Southbound dropping off Atigun.
And he's starting to show he can handle the haul road.
Nothing to do but sit back and enjoy the ride to the bottom.
Hopefully, it's a smooth one.
Coming up.
.
Lost in a whiteout.
This is why they call it Hurricane Alley.
Northern Canada.
.
Hurricane Alley.
We're stuck at, uh.
Just north of 460.
Can't see a thing.
Alex and convoy partner Steve, are stranded hundreds of miles from civilization.
This why the call it Hurricane Alley.
Alex walks into the whiteout, trying to find the road.
But the Dempster is gone.
Getting disoriented in the blinding snow is the biggest danger of walking in a whiteout.
And at 25 below, they got just minutes before frostbite sets in.
Well, there ya go.
Ah.
.
Unable to find any sign of the road, they're stuck here.
But they'll only stay warm as long as their fuel holds out.
There's Ice Road Trucking for you.
Well, here I am.
Coming into Prudhoe Bay.
Darrell makes it out of the harsh north slope into Prudhoe Bay.
My trailer held together, didn't buckle in half on me, made pretty good time.
Get in here and get rid of this load, drop this trailer off and uh.
.
Dispatch up a back haul and head back south.
Woo, doggy.
Here we go.
Just like that.
See if I can get away from it right here.
Already on top of the load count, a back haul here will keep him in the lead.
- What's going on? - Not too much.
You have something for me? - Got you a bus.
- A bus? Like, what kind of bus? Like a bus bus like a people-hauling bus.
Better than bob-tailing, that's for sure.
- Yeah.
- Cool.
- I'm gonna get out of here.
.
- All righty.
Before anybody else shows up looking for me.
Sounds good.
Have fun with that bus.
Yeah, thanks.
I'm gonna go get the hell out of here before Jack Jessee even shows up, you know? By the end of the week, I'm gonna lap him.
We just pulled out of Coldfoot.
A good night's rest.
Jack's back on the road after getting passed last night by Darrell.
I think Darrell's all about winning the load count, for sure.
But, you know, sometimes it's not about the load count out here.
It's about making good decisions.
If you make the wrong decision out here.
.
You could kill somebody.
I've got this heavy load of fuel.
I gotta.
.
You know, I've got Atigun Pass coming up.
And I'm grossing about And I've gotta pull that up the hill.
The first half of this challenge to get up the hill.
I'm gonna have to change gears.
There we go.
It's amazing how steep these things are here.
Feels good.
We just made it to the top.
Jack crests the pass, but with his heavy load, the challenge has just begun.
Now that I made it up the hill, now I gotta go down the hill.
All right, here we go.
The north face of Atigun descends at an alarming 13% grade.
If you spin out going uphill, you have to worry about sliding backwards.
When you get caught going downhill, you don't stop.
You just start picking up speed.
Then you keep going and going.
He's gotta keep the pushing his 22,000-pound truck down the mountain.
Man, this road is slick.
And one mistake will send him over the edge.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Okay.
Maybe lost traction there for a second, but.
.
Must have found some more because it caught back up underneath it again.
Pushing me.
Whoa, come on, baby, come on.
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Well, there we go.
Good God.
Come on, get back underneath it.
Hear the motor dying down? That means I'm sliding.
Come on straight, straight, straight.
Come on, come on.
Good God, come on.
Get back underneath it.
No, no, no, no.
Crap.
We're out of control.
Halfway down the north face of ice-crusted Atigun Pass.
.
Good God, come on, get back underneath it.
Jack fights for control of the 82,000-pound tanker pushing him down the mountain.
Come on.
Come on.
Oh, crap, we're out of control.
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Come on.
Straight, straight, straight.
Come on.
.
Crap, I'm gonna grab the gear.
Got to get our speed up going downhill when you lose it.
Come on.
There we go.
Stay behind me.
Come on.
Stay underneath there, okay.
I think we're good now.
Yeah, I got it under control again.
There is nothing worse than losing traction going downhill.
Because all you do is speed up.
And the only way to get out from underneath it and to catch it is to go faster.
And that's not what you wanna do going downhill.
Oh, Lord.
Almost didn't catch that.
It's a bad deal.
So bad of a deal.
[Bleep.]
I'm getting out.
That mountain over there is definitely not something to mess with, now.
Get this trip over with and get her done.
You know, almost there.
Porkchop's finally hitting his stride as he chalks up another load.
Get on up here and getting this load off and get another one and head back.
Woo! Feels good to have made it.
Still in the game.
I'm not down.
I just scored another touchdown.
Fourth quarter ain't here and the last whistle ain't blowed.
Don't count me out.
I got this.
Let's go see what dispatch has to offer.
And a back haul here will keep his streak going.
- What's up, man? - What's going on there Porkchop? What you got? Gonna have to send you bobtail back to Fairbanks.
I got nothing for you, man.
Is there any wait or anything? No.
All right.
Wish I had something for you.
- It happens.
Later.
- Yep.
Now Porkchop faces a 500-mile trip without a paying load.
It's plain and simple.
Once again, if you ain't in the club.
.
You ain't getting a back haul.
That's B.
S.
you know? I come up here to make money for my family so I can get bills caught up.
I don't have a silver spoon in my mouth.
I've worked for every damn thing I've got.
It is what it is.
As Porkchop heads out, Jack pulls in.
Well, we just pullin' in to Prudhoe.
All I gotta do is get offloaded and I am out of here.
He's not ahead in the load count, but he's alive.
And at the end of the day.
.
The Rocky Mountain log hauler holds onto the lead.
But back on the Dempster's Hurricane Alley.
.
You're all alone and it starts to blow, and there you are.
.
In the middle of a snowstorm or a windstorm.
Alex and Steve have been stranded for three hours at 25 below.
Hoping their fuel supply outlasts the storm.
The grader showed up to save our hides.
So now it's just a matter of whether we can see as good the grader to get out of here.
Give her heck.
I'll be on your tail.
The veteran truckers follow the grader's path.
Before the road disappears again.
How you making out back there, Alex? That's a good thing.
Going up Border Hill.
We're gonna be crossing into the northwest territories.
Steve and I managed to get through by the skin of our teeth.
After two days on the road.
Alex and Steve finally deliver 110,000 pounds of food to the remote community of Inuvik.
Well old buddy, we made it.
We got the loads here.
We didn't wreck no equipment.
It's cold, it's snowing, it's blowing, it's.
.
Still winter.
Which is good because that means the ice is strong to haul more loads.
Next time on Ice Road Truckers.
.
Rick Yemm is back in the saddle.
Aw, [Bleep.]
.
And back in hot water.
We hit a truck.
Austin's longest load of the season.
.
Oh, [Bleep.]
! Could be his shortest trip.
Please no.
I need to talk to you for a sec.
And a veteran lays down the law.
- You put me in a bad spot.
- That's B.
S.
, man you know it.
No, not up here it's not.