Original subtitles

narrator: At the world's northern edge,

people and cultures cut off from civilization...

This is an isolated community.

narrator: Are briefly connected by a lifeline

of roads paved with ice.

This season, veterans return...

No hesitations, no practice runs.

See if an old man's still got what it takes

to get the job done.

narrator: And rookies emerge.

This is going to be one hell of a ride.

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Ha!

narrator: A new company reigns...

Muskie Creek, we have a very good reputation.

We don't leave a load behind.

narrator: While another confronts legacy.

I started this business to pass it down to my boys.

That was always the plan.

I was introduced to trucking probably from birth.

My truck's on fire.

Come on, tell me

this don't get your heart pumping!

Oh, !

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

narrator: On a long and lonesome highway

north of civilization...

We got something broken.

narrator: Todd Dewey is stranded.

Oh, my gosh.

narrator: He was forced to sleep in his truck

after the road ripped out his air lines.

Ah, son of a bitch.

The trailer brakes are locked.

Hang on.

Out here, every mile is a battle against nature itself.

It's cold.

You're by yourself.

And just pray to God you brought the right tools.

This is broke. That's broke. This is broke.

This one's broke. That's broke.

And this one's broken.

That's my main air supply right here.

Un--believable.

narrator: The lines supply air pressure

to the trailer's brakes and suspension.

A pressure loss locks up the trailer's disc brakes.

The lines must be reconnected and repressurized

to unlock the brakes so the wheels can spin,

or Todd's not going anywhere.

Stuck out in the middle of nowhere.

I can't even size this down.

Pretty frustrating.

It makes a guy think, why did I come back up here?

Is this something I really want to do?

I don't have anything to go from this

down to this small line to connect them--

hose clamps, nothing.

There's about six different air lines,

six different fitting sizes

going from the big to the small.

And I don't even know if I have all the proper tools to fix it.

It's been a long time since I've been up here.

I'm 51 years old and starting to feel it.

Muskie Creek, we have a very good reputation.

Whatever we commit to, we fulfill.

We don't leave a load behind.

.

Muskie Creek has given me an opportunity

to come back to see if I still have

what it takes to be back on the ice roads.

Oh, come on.

I don't have the right parts to put it together,

so I basically just half-assed the out of it,

trying to make it work,

and I don't think it's going to.

The only part I can't get the screw together

is this piece here.

It's not going to be airtight.

But it's enough to get some air,

at least get back to at least moving.

If I could just somehow get this son of a bitch

to cross thread on there.

Oh, come on.

.

Ow! .

cut all the way open.

narrator: In the remote northern community

of Garden Hill...

All right.

I don't know if that's going to make it.

I don't think so.

narrator: Lisa Kelly is struggling

to load the last piece of her backhaul.

Oh, he's going to be stuck there now.

Are you able to push him with the loader?

He finally got up and got the front wheels in.

There's, like, a gap, like, that big.

I'm like, it's going to swallow those wheels.

And it did.

narrator: A couple hours ago, Lisa offloaded across town...

Hey, thanks for unloading that.

I really appreciate it. - Yeah, no problem.

narrator: And found out she'll make

double the money for this trip...

So I have a backhaul that

I need you to look after for me.

It's quite urgent.

narrator: If she can get the backhaul

to Muskie Creek on time.

Tonight is the goal.

That's what I'm pushing them for.

The math is simple.

If I get backhauls, I get double the money.

The stakes are really high this year

because I need, like, a lot of money really fast

to get my truck running.

That's why it's important that I get backhauls

and I get my truck home every time.

We got to get it out today.

It's whether they're going to actually be able

to get it onto the trailer.

Whoo-whee!

Go that way just a little.

Coming.

Yeah, it's happening.

I'm happy where it's at if you want to turn it off.

Yeah, I'll make it work.

The bus and the skid steer is going in to go get fixed.

So they're going to appreciate getting it fixed

and getting it back here so they can use the equipment,

get their kids to school so they don't have to walk

in this 40-below weather.

Brr!

narrator: After a cold night in Garden Hill...

Big old bump.

narrator: Lisa's running 800 miles

back to Muskie Creek.

♪ Driving a truck

narrator: And she's hauling more than machinery.

♪ Driving a big old truck

narrator: She's also carrying memories of an old job.

It's getting cold.

I used to be a school bus driver.

I need a Class A without restrictions

to drive big truck.

But, you know, better to start somewhere, right?

It was definitely challenging.

I don't think I have heat going right now.

Seriously?

The freaking heat isn't working.

It's fricking wintertime out here, man.

Not having heat is going to be a serious problem.

They don't call it an adventure for nothing.

narrator: Racing through the northern wilderness,

Scooter Yuill is making up time

on his 800-mile adventure

from Muskie Creek

to Red Sucker Lake...

narrator: After problems with his wide load

delayed his departure.

14'6".

We can't haul this load.

If we take the blades off, we're no trouble.

I don't know if we're going to fit.

I really don't know if we're going to fit.

It's going to be tight.

One thing I'm learning about these roads...

Their bridges aren't very frickin' wide.

That is tight, tight, tight.

Good thing we did take the wings off this thing.

She wouldn't have made it.

That would have been scraping the edges

and sharpening the blade.

No room for error on this.

Whew.

There we go.

Yeah.

That's what I like.

Conditions are really tough.

Oh, that is flat.

Holy .

It is rough.

Any more bumps, my boobs are going to smack me in the face

and blacken my eyes.

Being a fat guy out here is not easy.

I'm getting my exercise though.

I'm getting the hip twist in, getting the hip twist in.

Yes, boy.

Holy mother of--

Ice roads will always throw something at you.

There's always a curveball coming.

Like getting thrown around like a rag doll.

Road conditions are pretty terrible,

especially with the flat light going on.

You can't see the contour of the road,

and also you hit big-ass potholes

that you can't even see.

Oh, no!

No!

narrator: On a remote ribbon of ice

that temporarily tethers northern communities

to the rest of the world...

No!

narrator: Scooter Yuill's oversized load

fits these roads like a fat guy in a little coat.

Come on, Big Bird, dig in.

Eat!

Come on, baby. Come on.

Come on.

When the going gets tough, there's only one choice.

No!

Hammer down.

Yeah!

I almost lost her for good there.

Ah.

Good girl.

I can't believe she pulled herself out through that.

Oh, my God.

I think Erwin just gave me a push out of that hole.

Erwin's testing me

to see if I'm worthy of driving this truck.

The driver that was assigned this truck

serviced Muskie Creek for a very long time.

Two years ago, Erwin Friesen, we--we lost him.

Erwin was a huge part of Muskie Creek.

I hope at the end of the season,

I've proved that I can handle this truck and this job.

Ooh.

narrator: 450 miles

to the west...

We just had a call from Curtis Contracting.

He had one of his graders go through

on the winter portage road from Stony to Fond Du Lac.

That's in there pretty good.

It's in there good.

narrator: Shaun Harris

and sons Riley and Zach

are teaming up to assist

with an urgent recovery mission.

We have to pick up an excavator for him.

Are we going to have a pilot?

Yeah, I'll run pilot.

- OK. - I'll take my truck.

My name is Riley Harris.

I'm 21 years old.

Man, I was born on a truck.

When you grow up with someone like my dad,

it's kind of embedded into your DNA.

He says he wants us to take over,

and he--he wants to retire,

but I know for a fact he'll never, ever retire.

He'll be micromanaging until the day he dies.

We butt heads quite a bit.

This will be my first season running ice roads.

A pit will be fine, as long as I don't do something stupid,

like hit the ditch.

It's a pretty big job.

This is a good test for the two boys.

Riley and Zach are going to drive the semis.

And I'm going to take the lead on this one.

I'll be the guy in the front in the pilot truck.

narrator: The Harris team is convoying 600 miles north

to Stony Rapids,

with Shaun leading in a pilot truck,

then Riley, and then Zach, each driving a big rig.

So we're going to put the buckets on this truck,

and you're going to drive it.

Giddyap.

I'm Zach Harris. I'm 31.

I'm a cattleman, a farmer, and a truck driver.

I grew up around farming,

and trucking's been in the family

for as long as I can remember.

I was driving a truck

without an adult in the cab

at about three or four years old.

I've never been on an ice road,

but I think I can handle it.

I'll just take it all in stride

and start building on my skills a little bit more.

Just don't die--that's my main goal for this season.

can go sideways on that road pretty fast.

For 15 years, my dad has been telling me,

I want you to take over all this one day

and then to run it for yourself.

And now I feel like I'm really at a point

where taking over is pretty close.

OK, right on.

Crispy, you need to stay here, bud.

Am I in the middle still?

narrator: This job is Riley and Zach's first test

to prove they have the skills to run their dad's

winter road business.

Holy , that's too tight.

Dad's got a reputation for getting things done

that nobody else wants to do.

He's willing to put himself in pretty risky situations

to get a job done.

That puts a fair bit of pressure on me.

This is my first trip to the ice roads.

What do you think of--whoa.

Oh, .

, , .

, .

Holy .

We blew a bag.

It's this back one here.

The air bag is the bulk of your suspension.

When that air bag blows, there's almost nothing

holding up that part of your trailer.

narrator: Now the blown air bag

must be removed and replaced

before Team Harris goes anywhere...

Ow.

narrator: But their problems are just getting started.

Now we gotta torch the nuts off

that are holding the bag on.

It adds an extra headache.

Stress meter is high.

narrator: The nuts attaching the air bag are rusted on,

and they don't have a replacement air bag.

Hello?

We need to find another air bag right away.

Nobody in town has one.

I'm going to Saskatoon right now to grab it.

Oh, .

Yeah.

So I'll be back in three hours.

OK.

See you in three hours.

We could be struggling to get the out of here.

Oh, come on.

narrator: Stranded in the middle

of a remote ice road...

I just sliced her.

narrator: Veteran Todd Dewey is frozen and bleeding

as he MacGyvers the lines on his trailer

so he can limp back to Muskie Creek.

In order to make it work, I'm putting stuff together

that does not belong together.

This is just what Mother Nature does

to your trucks and your equipment while on the road.

I could also put these together for a service line too,

jerry-rig this together,

and hopefully, it just works.

If I can cross-thread this one into this,

I think I got a better chance of survival here.

It's not going to be 100%, but as long as we can hold air,

it doesn't come apart, we're golden.

That's not going to come apart.

Sweet. That's going on.

That's what I'm talking about.

Now if I can connect this one to this one...

Ha-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha-ha!

Now I'm happy.

There it is, nice and secure.

That can't fall down.

So our air line is now connected.

The brake line is fixed.

Hopefully, she just holds together

for the rest of the trip back, no more complications.

Let's get out of here.

It's not right.

It's far from being correct.

But it's good to hold air.

And that's all that matters.

We can get back to rolling.

The bush fix!

I got a long journey ahead.

I don't know if it's going to work.

Hopefully, it holds it together

the rest of the way in.

If it does, it'll be a miracle.

There's always that chance it might not.

narrator: Todd's bush fix needs to hold together

for the rest of his 650-mile

journey back to Muskie Creek.

I cut my whole fingernail clear to the top,

from the front to the back all the way.

Luckily, I didn't rip the fingernail all the way off.

That would really hurt.

This ice road has been nothing but just

kicking my ass the whole entire trip.

It has not stopped one time.

Nothing on the ice road comes easy, nothing.

narrator: Also fighting her way

out of the frozen wilderness...

I am cold.

narrator: Lisa's pressing on with no heat...

It's getting considerably worse.

narrator: And now she's flying blind.

My windows are fogging up.

Ugh.

That made it worse.

When you're heat in your truck isn't working,

like, your windows start frosting up and freezing over

because there's just no circulation

of any air in there, and the only way to do that

is roll a window down,

and it gets even colder in there.

Is that a hill?

I can't even tell.

Oh, yeah, it's a hill.

Now, how far down does it go?

Oh!

Not that way.

I wonder what would happen if I tried the torch

and heated the windshield up.

It's really scary when you lose the heat in your truck,

because you're in these extreme cold conditions,

and then you immediately go

right into problem-solving mode.

Whoa.

Oh, dang.

It's doing something.

I got a little bit of a hole going.

Let's try that for a little ways.

It's cleared up for a minute.

Let's see how fast and far I can make it

before it all fogs up again.

I should probably light my shoes on fire

so I can have some warm toes for a minute.

It's freezing cold.

My heated gloves are almost dead.

And I don't have very much torch left.

I don't know how to deal with this situation.

It's so cold.

How do I keep enough heat that I don't die out here?

Now it's going into nighttime,

and it's going to start getting even colder.

narrator: In a race to haul crucial equipment

into the frozen north...

Now we got an extra headache.

Stress meter is high.

narrator: The Harris convoy is stuck at the starting line

with a blown airbag.

What do you think--whoa.

Oh, .

narrator: Without it, the trailer can't absorb

the abuse of the ice roads.

Now the clock is ticking on their rescue mission

to haul a huge excavator to a remote community.

God.

There we go.

Well, I got her.

Put it right there.

We do most of our own repairs in-house.

And that just comes from being raised on the farm.

They're all buttoned up.

My dad was a mechanic, so he taught me everything I know.

And I've passed that down to my boys.

Perfect.

Get the show on the road.

Zach, you're good to go, buddy.

We're out of here.

We don't have time to mess around.

This excavator is a 911.

It needs to be there now.

gotta roll now.

We're behind the eight ball.

All right, everything's OK?

Everything looks normal?

narrator: 750 miles east...

I am so cold.

I'm sick to death of being cold.

I can't even see anymore.

narrator: Daylight's dropping

and taking the temperature with it.

All right, I gotta figure this out.

I'm thinking I'm going to check fuses first.

narrator: And without a heater,

the frozen wilderness is closing in on Lisa.

It's getting colder and colder as we go,

obviously, 'cause it's like, now it's going into nighttime.

And it's going to start getting even colder.

My blower motor is out.

And I'm looking on here to see if

I can find a blower motor fuse.

Heat's pretty important.

On the ice roads, my truck is the reason that

I'm living out there and that I can survive.

Yeah, I'm not seeing anything that's, like, obvious.

But I'm going to pull--

there we go.

Not burned or anything, so it might just be

the actual blower motor itself burned out.

It's scary when you don't have heat out in minus-40.

Oh, there we go.

OK.

I don't see anything corroded.

I mean, it looks good.

So there's nothing I can really do.

I'm out of ideas.

Hey, does anybody get a copy that's near God's Lake there?

Does anybody get a copy that's near God's Lake?

Hey, Lisa, is that you?

Yeah, it's me.

Who's this?

It's your worst nightmare.

It's Scooter from Muskie Creek.

Right on.

Do you know how to or where

I can find anybody that can fix my heat for me in the cab?

Not right off hand, but we can meet up

and take a look and see what your issue is.

Where are you at?

I'm heading towards Red Sucker Lake.

There's a big pullout area by some tanks there.

Did you want to meet there, and we'll take a look at it?

Yeah, that sounds good.

Let's meet there and see if we can't get this fixed.

I'm freezing cold.

And I have nowhere warm to sleep.

This must be you here with all the blinky lights?

This is me, blinkety-blink.

Want to play bumper cars?

Sure.

I thought she was coming for me, for sure.

You saw, I got him freaked out.

Hey, Scooter.

Lisa.

I got no heat.

Do you know anything about it?

Show me. Let me take a look.

- What's that say, the-- - This is the--

- The HVAC cab control. - Yeah.

Yeah, that's the-- that's the one, isn't it?

I actually took this apart too.

And there is nothing I can do about this one.

Where'd my picture go?

There it is.

I'm cutting your head out.

Now, I put--

That's a great angle.

Stick a jumper wire in there, and see if it works.

I'm not doing that.

I want to see you get electrocuted.

Yeah, I bet you do.

I don't think it's a switch.

You need a new blower motor.

So there's no way to fix it or bypass it with a wire?

Blower motors go, they go.

You're .

Sorry.

That's kind of what I figured.

Thanks. - I'll send you the bill.

I am still without heat.

That means I'm sleeping in my truck in my winter clothes.

Well, thanks for trying.

Yeah.

You need professional help.

That ain't no joke.

Do you want to meet up in the morning?

All right, meet up for coffee?

- Yeah. - I'm sorry I couldn't

help you out, but you go get bundled up,

and I'll see you in the morning.

See you tomorrow.

Come rescue me.

Jeez.

narrator: Winter road drivers always sleep with their cargo,

and that means a long, cold night for Lisa.

I'm sleeping in my truck, like this.

I don't have many choices.

It super, super sucks.

I'm so sick of being cold.

Oh, man.

My toes are just freezing.

narrator: Lisa Kelly is an ice road veteran.

But after her first night in a truck with no heat...

- You look cold. - Yeah.

narrator: The ice queen needs to thaw out.

Why don't we grab some breakfast, some coffee,

and warm up?

That would be good,

'cause my food is all frozen.

Makeup's frozen.

That's OK.

I didn't do my makeup and my hair

this morning either.

This place is awesome.

Ooh, that's hot,

which is a word I haven't said in a few days.

Lisa Kelly, her personality is unique,

so we both kind of clicked really good.

What's your opinion on these roads?

It seems like to me that it's, like, kind of

a tortoise and the hare type deal, you know?

Yeah.

Go fast enough to actually get there today,

but go slow enough that you're not just braking

and going in the ditch.

I'm a "veteran" now

and not a rookie anymore.

You like my load?

I keep picturing myself as this 27-year-old little girl.

And then these new guys show up, and they're like,

I've been here a year.

I was like, that's it?

How many miles you figure

you're going to put on this year?

As many as possible.

I need to make some money.

So I got a proposition.

OK.

Let's throw $100 bet down and see who can run

the most miles this winter road.

- $100? - Yeah, something keeps it fun.

It keeps it fun.

I think you're going to lose.

A bet is a bet.

Ah...

.

That's awesome.

This is going to be a really interesting season.

I hope so.

Let's order breakfast.

Let's get some food.

narrator: Burning south after a narrow escape...

It feels good to finally get this trip behind me

and be rolling in with my backhaul.

narrator: Todd's limping his truck back to base

on a bush fix that should have been impossible.

Ow! .

The bush fix!

It makes a guy second guess it.

Was it really worth it to come back up here

and put my whole body through this?

I'm a little sore from pushing and pulling

and prying bolts on

and trying to put air lines back together,

and my fingertip's cut in half.

I didn't think it was all going to hit so hard, so fast

right on the first trip.

This is a lot of work.

My mind's young,

but my body's definitely getting old.

You want to know why the main reason

I'm excited to get back in today?

Because I smell like armpits and ass.

And I want a shower.

Finally, Muskie Creek!

This is exciting.

Damn, it's good to see this place.

Looks good to me.

This load has officially been delivered.

narrator: 750 miles

to the northwest...

narrator: On a frozen scar cutting across the tundra...

narrator: The Harris family is on an urgent rescue mission

to deliver an excavator.

narrator: And they're within striking distance.

When do we start pulling hills?

I had that same thought.

I've always wanted to drive on the ice roads.

I've heard a lot of stories about

how dangerous the job can be.

But I think I can handle it.

Stay to your left and then just take her slow.

Ooh.

.

Whoa. Ooh, .

me.

The shoulder just gave out.

Oh, I don't know if she's going to chew her way out of that.

I might have had a close encounter

with the shoulder of the road here.

All of a sudden, it just felt like the whole

passenger side of my truck just fell out from under me.

It was a sudden drop and a hard stop.

Yeah, I'm going to need a little tug here.

Exactly what I said.

dummies.

I'm not that far in front of you.

I can back up and pull you out.

Start backing up, Riley.

OK.

narrator: To help his brother,

Riley needs to back up over a mile

with a 100,000-pound excavator on his trailer.

Oh, my God.

narrator: On the edge of the northern frontier,

a soft shoulder is teaching Zach Harris

a hard lesson on humility.

The whole passenger side of my truck

just fell out from under me.

Don't worry, Zach.

Your little brother's coming to the rescue.

"Zach-cident" is a word for a reason.

It's a word that people have created...

Come on.

We got to hurry it up here.

Because I've earned a little bit of a reputation

for having mistakes and oopsies.

I do my best to avoid it.

But it just seems to find me.

Got him.

OK, anybody learn any lessons there?

You talked the , and I paid the price.

Yeah.

You .

heads out of your asses.

The best thing about working for my dad

is he can't fire me when I screw up.

What'd I say? Eight minutes?

What was it, 7 1/2?

Maybe.

I didn't have my timer on.

OK, get those hooks out and let's get going.

I bet it wasn't even eight minutes.

I've tried to teach them everything I can.

But there's just some things you don't teach.

They have to learn that themselves.

Sometimes they're going to learn the hard way.

Don't get too close to the edges.

It'll make you pay.

narrator: 650 miles to the southeast...

I'm just so sick of being cold.

It's exhausting when you can't get warm.

narrator: Lisa's fighting through the frozen wilderness.

Seriously?

Thirsty.

OK, yeah, that's going to work real good,

running out of water and another day to go.

I'm out of every kind of heat source that I can think of--

toe warmers, heated gloves, the propane bottle.

Like, the only thing making heat right now

is my metabolism.

And we all know how that goes when you turn 40.

It's scary when you don't have heat out in minus-40.

You could get hypothermia.

You could get frostbite.

I mean, you can freeze to death.

You're just pretty much in complete survival mode.

I just thought of something.

It's worth a shot, right?

If I could just get my toes warm for a second, I'd be OK.

So I know sometimes the blower motors get stuck,

and you can see if you can just knock it loose.

narrator: As daylight ticks away and temperatures plummet,

Lisa clings to hope

that the blower motor is just stuck.

She tries one final technique, percussive maintenance.

That should be enough, honestly.

Let's see if that's working.

Dang it.

Yeah, not working.

I am desperate.

Your brain doesn't have time to worry

a whole lot when all you're doing is trying to survive.

Ooh!

The engine part's warm.

Good thing engine's a source of heat.

narrator: Out of options, Lisa resorts

to using the engine heat to warm up enough

for a final push back to Muskie Creek.

The problem is, sitting here,

it just doesn't get me any closer.

I'm just so afraid that I've got frostbite somewhere.

narrator: At the end of an ice road deep in the bush...

Yeehaw!

Well, I made her.

How was the roads coming in?

That was fun.

narrator: Scooter's adventure isn't over

until the trailer's empty.

You got to get yourself this way, back that way.

You're going to slide right off the edge there, man.

Yeah, try to get you back up on the trailer.

Go forward, your right stick, real slow.

Then slowly bring your left stick forward,

your other stick at the same time.

I think it might be OK.

Whoa.

OK.

Yeah, that didn't work out too good, did it?

You're into my tires.

It was going good until it wasn't going good.

We got a long night ahead of us.

You can plan for a perfect frickin' offload.

It'll never happen.

I thought, hey, we'll bang it off.

We'll do this, and we can go.

Never happens.

I knew this--

Oh, --

narrator: In the remote northern community

of Red Sucker Lake...

Oh--

.

narrator: Scooter's oversized load is more trouble

at the end than it was at the beginning.

Fork should have been on the other way,

underneath the blade.

The blade's like this. Fork's in here.

Lift up.

Snowcat level.

No, get it under the blade.

What are you doing?

Get both forks under the blade.

Holy .

A little unorthodox.

Well, that was something else.

How's the trailer look?

Bent the rail.

Yeah.

Should we get the rest of this unloaded?

Will it go easier?

Oh, it'll go easier.

OK.

Well, what can I say?

We got her done.

You up at the beginning,

but you crushed it in the end.

Thank you.

This is my first time in this area.

I appreciate you guys letting me have--

letting me come to your community.

I'd like to offer you some tobacco.

Offering tobacco, it's a practice

that's been around for generations.

Thank you.

It's part of my heritage.

It makes me feel good because I'm giving something back.

- Thank you. - No problem.

I really appreciate the hospitality.

The community is really happy.

Snowcat will help them build the winter roads easier now.

It's all in one piece, despite it going

off the side of my trailer.

I'm bushed.

I'm beat up, tired.

I'm ready for bed.

Do it all again tomorrow.

That's what we get paid to do.

That's why we do it.

I made it back to Muskie Creek.

I'm ready to put the truck in the shop and go get warm.

Not only is it one of the toughest trips,

but all the problems just made it that much harder,

like, really?

Really, we got to do this?

I haven't ever had to drive that long

without heat before--

ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.

This truck needs to sit in a shop.

Probably not good enough.

It feels really good to help out the communities

when you take the stuff in there that they need

because it just-- it's a cool part of the job.

I mean, it's not just a paycheck.

It's actually helping people.

Good riddance.

But I need that truck to run.

That's my moneymaker.

Oh, gosh, oh, gosh.

Holy crap.

My truck's on fire.

Ah!

Can't move forward.

I'm going to try to move backwards.

Ah, come on.

This is going to be a nightmare.