Original subtitles

NARRATOR: On this episode of "Ice Road Truckers,"

critical gear rescued from the ditch.

That's a heck of an angle to have a truck stay put.

Northbound roller coaster.

NARRATOR: A female trucker takes on the haul road.

[cheering]

[dramatic music]

And it's chaos over Atigun Pass.

Truck spun out behind us, spun out in front of us.

They just shut up.

This road is no joke.

[ominous music]

NARRATOR: At the top of theworld, there's a job only a few

would dare.

Last season, the dash for the cash

was fought on the smooth playingfield of Canada's arctic ice.

This season, two old pros--

I came to the cash.

NARRATOR: --joined four of America's bravest truckers.

Come on, boys. Saddle up.

Let's go.

NARRATOR: --to tackle the continents' deadliest ice

passage.

Just when you thought extreme trucking couldn't

get more dangerous--

It's the most dangerous road I've ever been on.

They say she's a treacherous one,

so I'm here to give her a shot.

NARRATOR: --"Ice Road Truckers" take on Alaska.

[theme music]

[shattering]

[shattering]

[shattering]

[shattering]

[shattering]

[shattering]

[shattering]

[engine running]

A new "Ice Road" season has just begun.

Carlile Trucking has less than three months

to haul 2,000 loads from Fairbanks to the oil

fields of Prudhoe Bay.

Here, temperatures drop to 70 below.

The terrain is some of the most unforgiving in the world,

and race to bring home the big bucks is heating up.

In the yards, a new ice road trucker Lisa Kelly straps down

her first load of the season.

I'm going to throw a strap back there, too,

because there's not one there where I want it.

NARRATOR: Out of more than 200 truckers on the Dalton,

only three are women.

And at 28 years old, Lisa is the youngest.

She's an Alaskan State Freestyle Motocross champion

who took on extreme trucking for one simple reason.

Because I wanted to.

I became a trucker because I wanted to.

NARRATOR: And as a woman working in a man's world,

she had to want it more than anyone else.

I think what kind of fueled the spark was

that I had to worked so hard to get what I wanted.

NARRATOR: Lisa drove a school bus until she got her break

in Carlile.

This is only her second season on the ice,

and she's already focused on her next big goal.

I would like to do more big stuff.

So that way, people can't make fun of me.

NARRATOR: Bigger loads mean more money and respect

that comes with it.

Yay.

I love this part.

NARRATOR: In an industry dominated by men,

Lisa's says career choice often shocks the guys.

They're like, you're a trucker?

I'm like, I truck down on ice roads in Alaska and stuff.

He's like, no, you don't.

It's And so this to that guy.

I'm an actual trucker.

I wasn't lying.

NARRATOR: Lisa pulls out of the yard with 45,000 pounds

of construction equipment.

It'd be fun to haul oversized stuff.

But once in a while, it'sreally nice to get a light load

and just get-- get it done, you know?

Get up there, and get back, make some money.

NARRATOR: With light loads, speed is the name of the game.

More loads mean more cash.

Now that I can actually get some trips in, I feel--

I feel much better.

NARRATOR: But yesterday's rollover

was an evil reminder of how fast this road devours trucks.

Flipping a truck's a big deal, because you

lose all the freight, and the trailer, and the truck.

And if you're a new guy,they're going to be like, yeah,

you're not a good driver.

See you.

I've never flipped a truck.

I don't plan on it.

But you know, accidents happen.

[rock music]

NARRATOR: Back at the yard, Jack Jessee

is next up with his second run of the season.

His first load was a massive modular that not only tested

his skills on the Dalton ice, but pushed him to the edge

over a frozen Arctic Ocean.

Now, he faces a cargo so big that it will require a feat

of engineering just to load.

Well, today, we're going to goload some 130-foot pipe spools.

Pipes are 34-inch in diameter and they're 130 feet long.

Probably the longest load that we've shipped out of here.

NARRATOR: These colossal pipes, which

are nearly as long as half a football field,

are essential for oil productionon Alaska's north slope.

This load today was thelongest single piece of trailer

that I've hauled before.

It's-- it's a pretty long little setup.

A load like this, you-- you need the best of the best.

We have a lot of guys won't do it.

They're afraid of it.

NARRATOR: It takes two 40-ton hydraulic cranes

to hoist the first mammoth pipe into the air.

Next, workers carefully lower it onto the trailer.

We've got a good seven inches right there.

Let everybody know we're going to back the truck up.

[ominous music]

NARRATOR: The pipe must beperfectly centered for balance.

I think it looks good right here.

NARRATOR: And tightly secured, or else the load could end up

in a ditch like so many others.

Once the large 16-ton pipe is loaded,

two smaller pipes are placed alongside for added stability.

When I'm stretched out this long,

I have to have a lot more of the curve for the trailer

to make sure, you know, the trailer stays on the road.

So it's probably going to take us about the whole road

to make a left or even a right-hand turn.

Debbie, just dive off to the right side or the left

somewhere there.

NARRATOR: Oversized loads demandan entire team for navigation.

On this trip, two pilot trucks will

travel with Jack on the 500-mile journey to Deadhorse.

So far, you're looking good, Jack.

NARRATOR: Locked and loaded, Jack and his team

headed for the ice.

[honking]

[rock music]

Rookie Tim Freeman is stuck in Fairbanks waiting

for his broken-down truck to be repaired.

Well, my truck's Kenworth.

They're going through the [inaudible],,

trying to find the problem

NARRATOR: Tim's first crack at the haul road

ended before he even hit the ice.

This sucks.

I know it.

NARRATOR: 52 miles into his virgin ride,

he abandoned his load on the side of the road

after suspecting his truck wasn't shifting properly.

When he returned to Fairbanks defeated,

he called his dad back in Minnesota.

DAD [ON PHONE]: If you screw up, you're

going to hear about it for a long time,

so you don't want to screw up. - Yeah.

DAD [ON PHONE]: Be a professional

when you're behind the wheel.

I know there's something wrong back there,

and they're just going to have to dig through until they find

it.

I won't know until they tell me.

NARRATOR: Back at the garage, mechanics give his truck

a thorough inspection.

[dramatic music]

The cross member looks to be good.

The section right here is the power divider.

It's OK.

We don't see any kind of a problem

to cause the complaint that the driver is experiencing

at this point.

This is a new driver in the truck.

This driver might not be used to some of the things

that this truck does or some of the strange tendencies

from one truck to another.

NARRATOR: The truck gets a clean bill of health.

It's Tim's driving that's now suspect.

Yeah. All right.

Sounds good, Ray.

NARRATOR: Over at Carlile Dispatch,

manager Tim Rickards has more than 2,000 high-priority loads

to move in the next three months.

He's got no time to waste on rookie jitters.

We're going to send him up the road

today with a van full of Prudhoefreight for one of the oil

companies up north there.

It's a pretty light load.

NARRATOR: Once again, Tim will be

guided by his mentor and family friend, George Spears.

We'll go here, and walk around the truck,

check it out, make sure everything's good to go.

What happened [inaudible] all them [inaudible] down there?

That could be what the problem is right there.

That could be.

NARRATOR: With his father and George betting on him,

the pressure is on for Tim's second crack at the Dalton.

I'm a little nervous this morning.

I want to prove to everybody around here

I can do a good job.

want to make it to Prudhoe and make some money, man.

And away we go.

[suspenseful music]

NARRATOR: Tim and George are hoping to make the run

to Deadhorse in under 16 hours.

Tim, how's everything going back there?

TIM [ON RADIO]: Good, George, good.

GEORGE: All righty.

This here is 52-mile.

This is the one where we made it to last trip

where I had to dolly off my trailer and head back to down.

GEORGE [ON RADIO]: Chandler, I want to congratulate you

on getting by 52-mile.

Well, I appreciate that, George.

NARRATOR: Tim finally rolls offthe pavement and onto the ice.

His first challenge-- a terrifying 56 miles

of steep and twisted curves called the Taps.

It test the skills of every driver.

Pick the wrong gear, you wash out.

Hit the brakes too hard, and you end up in a ditch.

We're on the Dalton Highway.

We're doing pretty good.

Tim, when we get up on top of 1-mile,

take your front back in.

We've got to climb up a couple steps here.

OK, George.

NARRATOR: Tim's truck seems to be running fine.

It's the road that now has him rattled.

The Taps are the particular part

of the road that makes me nervous, because it's

all numbers, you know?

It's mile markers for what hill's

what, what curve is what.

It's just up and down, left and right.

NARRATOR: Tim makes it up the first two ascents.

The lowest gear we're going to be in going north with this

load's going to be fifth gear, because we top two-mile in it.

NARRATOR: But driving downhill is a whole new challenge.

It not only requires a low gear, but the use

of a special braking system.

When you got your Jake brake on,

it's backing your motor down due to compression.

NARRATOR: Ice road truckers only use foot brakes

as a last resort.

Their first line of defense is a Jake brake,

which draws on engine compression to slow the truck.

This usually allows them to maintain critical traction

on the drive wheels and stop without sliding.

But as soon as Tim engages his Jake brake,

his wheels start spinning on the ice.

[beeping]

[inaudible]

[dramatic music]

A hundred miles north of Fairbanks, rookie Tim Freeman

is navigating one of the deadliest stretches of ice.

The 56-mile passage called theTaps extends from the beginning

of the Dalton to the Yukon River Bridge.

As Tim comes down off the last deep hill,

his Jake brake suddenly locks up.

[bleep]

The truck might kick off sideways.

NARRATOR: Sliding sideways is the first stage

of a full-blown jackknife.

[thud]

[rumbling]

Timmy, how we doing?

NARRATOR: Tim eases up on the brake,

and it re-engages just as he crosses onto the entrance

to the Yukon River Bridge.

Well, that's what it feels like when your Jake brakes are

locking up.

NARRATOR: Marking the end of the Taps and his first victory

on the Dalton.

That was a sweaty growl there, fellows.

We're so light, what actually was going

on is we were just going too slow for our Jake brakes,

you know?

It was they were coming apart-- they were coming not--

they were too strong for how much weight we had

on our drivers, so they were making our--

making our drivers break loose on the road,

trying to want to kick around a little bit.

I was pulling a little-- pullinga little squaw handle there

to keep our--

keep our trailer straight, but we made it down.

GEORGE [ON RADIO]: Timmy, are things all right?

Well, we slipped and slid alittle bit coming down the back

five-mile there, but we made her, George.

[rock music]

NARRATOR: 112 miles north of Fairbanks, Lisa Kelly

is on a mission to get her loadto Deadhorse in a single day.

Go faster.

I don't need brakes.

Brakes are for sissies.

[laughter]

[dramatic music]

This job is all dangerous because we're driving on ice

and stuff, but it's just something you kind of learn

and you get accustomed to.

It's like, figure out how to drive or you go in the ditch

or die, you know?

You can't jerk the steering wheel.

You can't throb on the throttle.

You can't step on the brakes fast.

NARRATOR: Lisa is surprisingly confident on the ice,

but she still has 375 miles of [inaudible] frontier ahead.

This road is like a beautiful woman,

beautiful on the outside but a killer on the inside.

[laughter]

[ominous music]

NARRATOR: Back in Fairbanks, Jack Jessee

is headed north with a Titanic load of 130-foot pipe.

The cargo is such an extreme hazard for the narrow dome

that it must pass a special inspection

at the weigh station.

When we do oversized loads, we have

to get permission from the state to get our permits.

Length of pipe.

MAN: OK.

We've got to measure everything.

We're going to measure the length of the pipe.

This is just to make sure that I'm complying with everything

that I asked for, and he's justdouble-checking everything.

Here's your driver's license, and you've been cited for size

and weight 8,320 pounds over.

They said the pipe only weighs, like, 34,000 pounds.

$10 surcharge for the court, $1,008.40 for the citation.

Oh, you're [bleep] me.

And this is your offload directive,

which tells you you are going to take the load back to town.

NARRATOR: Jack's load is not balanced properly.

We are-- we're too tail-heavy here.

That, and we're 8,000 pounds over on our rear axle group.

OK.

So we're going to take this one back to town.

NARRATOR: When truckers get paidper load, a setback like this

could cost him $1,300 or more.

But the danger of driving tail-heavy

is that the front of the truck will not

weigh enough to maintain traction on the icy hills.

We're going to fix it, make everything legal and everybody

stays happy.

NARRATOR: Yesterday on a windswept stretch

called the Shelf, the ice road claimed its first victim.

Now, I got too close to the right edge, and over she went.

NARRATOR: As Bruce Carl reached for the dash,

his right front wheel caught the edge of the road.

The truck flipped onto its side and slid into the ditch.

Now, a massive operation is under way

to recover a load of corrosive batteries still desperately

needed at the oilfields.

Extracting the load from the ditch

and preventing any damage to the environment

requires special skill.

Ben Kryzkowski has spent thelast 25 years recovering trucks

on the Dalton.

It should be just up over this little knob.

There it is.

There it sat.

Well, that's a long way down there.

The worst part of the road right here, narrow.

NARRATOR: Ben's crew has to move fast.

When the road is blocked, no one is making money.

But he has to use special caution with a load

this potentially hazardous.

He goes over his strategy with the crew,

including driver Bruce Carl.

I want to do all I can to helpget the truck upright and out

of the ditch.

It's the mess I made.

I need to help clean it up.

What I'm thinking is the way it's all going to be setting

here, we're going to try to bring the truck right up here.

NARRATOR: Ben's plan is to placeheavy straps around the rig

and pull it upright before hoisting it out of the ditch.

We're tunneling underneath.

We just need a hole big enough to get that strap

through there.

Hopefully, we get it uprighted here

before it gets too dark on us.

[dramatic music]

NARRATOR: 245 miles north of Fairbanks, our recovery crew

is working swiftly to uprighta load of potentially hazardous

batteries.

Tunneling under that truck inorder to attach recovery straps

has taken four solid hours.

[beeping]

OK, we got everything in line.

We're running cables down, and hopefully we

get it uprighted here before it gets too dark on us.

We're ready.

NARRATOR: With little daylight left, they crank the winch.

If all goes well, they might just get this out

before nightfall.

[creaking]

[dramatic music]

Now, they have to haul it up the steep incline.

They manage to drag the truck to the very edge of the road,

but no further.

Hey.

That's a heck of an angle to have a truck stay put.

NARRATOR: The flow of goods to the oil fields

is at a standstill, and extra horsepower

is needed to haul the truck onto the road.

I'm going to the back end.

Todd is going to come in on the driver.

We're going to put the loader on the front end.

And we're just going to make a sweep with it, and overworked.

NARRATOR: By nightfall, three tow lines are in place.

Finally, they get some movement.

[rumbling]

After more than six hours, mission accomplished.

We're done here, finally.

NARRATOR: The battered truck gets a tow to Fairbanks.

The recovered load is sent to Deadhorse,

and the passage north opens once again.

It's 8 PM, and Lisa is on a power run through the Taps.

Since drivers are paid by the load,

the faster they make the run, the more money they pull in.

But with added speed comes an increased risk

of a deadly crash.

[crashing]

Of all the hills on the Dalton,none is more appropriately

named than the Roller Coaster.

With nearly vertical grades on both sides,

it's a white-knuckle ride of a lifetime that has landed

many drivers off the track.

Lisa barrels to the top of the first hill,

then starts the great descent.

The strategy is a nerve-rackingtest of precision called

freewheeling.

Pick a gear and don't brake or risk crashing.

Lisa holds steady, maintaining precious momentum

as she nears the bottom.

Full speed ahead, she immediately

swings vertical again.

[cheering]

Lisa still has more than 300 miles to go,

but this is one ice road truckernot to be underestimated.

LISA KELLY: So far, so good.

We have a goal in mind, and we're heading for it.

NARRATOR: Back at Carlile,Hugh Roland and Alex Debogorski

are in the middle of a week-long haul road bootcamp.

They've come to Alaska to testtheir skills on North America's

most deadly road.

Good morning Fairbanks, Alaska.

NARRATOR: But this ice road is so extreme that even

pros like themselves are put through basic training.

Last week, they had to measure up behind the wheel

of a simulator.

I tipped it over.

NARRATOR: Today's trial, behind the door of a bathroom.

Hey.

Come on in.

Why the women's bathroom?

This is where we have our drug testing set up.

So if you're ready, then I'll just give you this.

And if you just can fill that up halfway.

You want it right to the top?

No, please.

Thank you, though.

[laughter]

Just let me know when you're done,

and I'll just be standing inside the bathroom

right on the outside.

[humming]

Looks like wine.

You want to do a taste test?

Oh, please don't.

Seems to be a lot more effort in making sure

that a driver's going to be able to drive this road.

They do have some concerns.

I make a fool of myself, but then I'm

used to doing that on occasion.

[laughter]

NARRATOR: Next up, the Polar Bear,

and he's eager to get trucking.

I don't think I can get any more ready.

And they run me through the Carlile Mill here,

and I'm ready to go.

If you just can fill that up halfway.

I just went.

I didn't know this was coming right up.

Do you want a cup of water?

All dried out.

[country music]

Oh, yeah.

I made her anyway.

And you're done.

[dramatic music]

NARRATOR: A routine trip to the weigh station

has left Jack Jessee $1,000 lighter

and a day behind schedule.

In order to balance the tail-heavy 130-foot-long load,

he's added weight to the front of the trailer

and finally passed inspection.

After all the good stuff we went through,

got an overweight ticket, had to add pipe

to get weighed on the drivers.

It's been one thing after another, but let's get going.

NARRATOR: His 500-mile journey to Deadhorse

will take two full days.

With hills and corners barely wide

enough to accommodate the load, the Taps

will be like threading a needle.

MAN [ON RADIO]: Come back.

JACK JESSEE: Three tires rollingthere, three tires rolling

there.

NARRATOR: Oversized loads are given priority on the Dalton,

not only because of their high value,

but because they often take up the entire road.

We're starting to pick them up.

We're heading your way, Deb.

OK, here they come.

Two troublemakers.

NARRATOR: Jack's pilot car drivers scout the road

to prevent head-on collisions.

You got a four-wheeler that just--

it's coming through the top guardrail over here,

two of them.

Sure thing.

NARRATOR: Jack's advance scout Debbie

is worried about a series of slick curves up ahead.

There'll be a couple of windy corners there,

and I have to go through them.

Pull up in the straight stretch over on the other side

to make sure that the corners are clear for Jack.

He's going to need all of the road there.

NARRATOR: With a load nearly the length

of half a football field, the ice road

is a disaster waiting to happen.

One misguided turn and the entire load

could go crashing off the edge.

[sinister music]

The left side over here'sabout a 500-or 600-foot dropoff

there, about a two-to-one slope.

If you went off that, you wouldn't

stop until you hit the bottom.

[honking]

NARRATOR: Jack has skillfully navigated this section

of the ice.

But as the daylight comes toan end, the worst of the Dalton

still lies dead ahead.

Lisa Kelly has blazed over 414 miles of unforgiving road

to Deadhorse in a speedy 14 hours.

[cheering]

But when she arrives at the Carlile terminal,

she discovers that her load does not end here.

MAN [ON RADIO]: Lisa, we need you to take this load

all the way up.

10-4.

NARRATOR: She's given a green light to the oilfields.

The last 25 miles are Arctic Ocean ice.

LISA KELLY: You've got to followa lot more rules on the ice

road.

NARRATOR: The speed limit on this road

is just 10 miles per hour, or you risk breaking through.

If you get stranded out there, you could die.

It's something that's just in the back of your mind.

NARRATOR: On the surface, the ice stresses and cracks.

Below the wheels, frigid water.

After nearly 16 hours behind the wheel,

Lisa arrives at her final destination.

LISA KELLY: We've done good this time.

This is the way it's supposed to go.

[beeping]

All right.

The boss needed me to deliver today now.

Hot load.

NARRATOR: The run is a personalbest for this ice road trucker,

and proves she's going to hold her own this season.

This desolate area of Alaska known as the North Slope

was rarely traveled until 1968,when a giant oil discovery

changed the landscape forever.

The government spent something like $50 million

exploring for oil.

By 1968, this giant discoveryof the oil bands at Prudhoe Bay

changed all of Alaska.

All kinds of smart people from all over the world

made suggestions about how do we get the oil to market?

A pipeline seemed like the most logical one.

The value of Prudhoe Bay is so enormous.

Oil made Alaska the richest state in all of the United

States, by far.

NARRATOR: The state of Alaska is so wealthy

that they can afford to pay out more than $1,000 a year

to every citizen.

300 miles up the Dalton ice road,

rookie Tim Freeman and GeorgeSpears are nearing Atigan Pass,

a 4,700-foot treacherous climb through the Brooks mountain

range.

And it's just begun to snow.

You've got to watch your steering down

through here, Tim.

That-- you know, that new snow on top of that snowbank, lot

of times your steering can get loose with you a little bit,

so take it easy and be a little more cautious.

The shoulders of the road are white.

The hills are white.

It's kind of hard to tell where the edges are at.

It's just hard to distinguish what's the difference

between the road and the ditch.

NARRATOR: With conditions growing worse,

George decides to play it safe and chain up

before climbing the pass.

Pull over up on the top here.

Good deal.

I don't want him to have any trouble on his first trip.

We're responsible for him making it

the whole way, so if it means putting a set of tire chains

on, it's not that big a deal

NARRATOR: Tim throws on his first set of chains,

but makes a common rookie mistake.

I had a little problem because mine were hung upside

down, or backwards, if you will,so that these trigs were facing

down towards the tires.

And like a dumbass, I didn't look at them.

I just threw the [bleep] on there.

We've got a lot more snow than what I expected.

We'll have to be really careful on this next one.

[tense music]

NARRATOR: Rookie Tim Freeman has made

it 2/3 of the way up the icy Dalton,

but the worst is still to come--

the treacherous Atigan Pass.

JARED [ON RADIO]: Have Tim giveme a holler when you get up

this side.

OK, Jared.

Will do.

NARRATOR: At 4,700 feet over the Brooks Range,

that 12% icy grade is a brutal challenge for even the most

experienced haul road trucker.

I'm glad we decided we better put some chains on.

Pretty deep, deep snow drifts across the road.

Man, it's hard to see up here.

Tim, once we get up here in the canyon,

there should be some reflectorsalong the edge of the road

to make it a little bit easierto see where the road's at here

just a little bit.

These are the big boys.

These are the bad ones.

If you get over these two, you're in good shape.

OK.

We'll watch for them.

NARRATOR: Snow plows have reduced the road

to a single lane and created a sudden logjam of trucks too

wide to pass safely.

[bleep] damn these [bleep] idiots.

Hold up a minute.

There's a cluster [bleep] up here.

[inaudible] stop.

10-4, yep.

Tim, can you get stopped?

Yeah, [bleep]

NARRATOR: Tim slams on his brakes,

stopping just short of a head-on collision.

You've got the blade, but lord,

we've got trucks spun out behindus, spun out in front of us.

Just hold up.

[bleep] damn it.

[dramatic music]

Timmy, we can't do much until this blower gets out

of the way.

OK, George.

Yeah, here he's moving over now.

Timmy, once we get by the blower,

we can pick it up a little bit.

NARRATOR: Slowly, the road clears and traffic starts

moving again.

Tim and George have just 150 miles to go.

[country music]

Back at Carlile, Hugh is undergoing

his third and final test beforehe's unleashed on the Dalton.

This is a do or die moment right here.

I mean, if you don't do the pre-trip

and you don't do the driving test, then you're finished.

You're not even going to the haul road.

Dude, we're off here.

Holy.

Yeah.

OK, that last corner, Hugh, we got a--

Problem there.

Yeah, we did.

We had a problem.

We've got to read the road ahead, assess the lane

position.

Whoops, Jesus.

It's my judgment that he doesn't have control

or the skills needed.

Absolutely, it's my call that this is it.

We don't go to the haul road.

You're driving at a speed right now,

something happens, you can do something about it.

HUGH: OK.

Good turn.

Very good, Hugh.

That's perfect.

I'll write up my evaluation, and then we'll

talk a little bit about it whenwe get outside of the truck.

You get up there and you start talking about it.

My observations is I--

I just increase mirror usage, you know, four to six seconds,

more if it's--

if inclement weather and bad conditions.

He's a no bull [bleep] guy.

He-- he made me do everything that has to be done.

I'm-- I'm eager to go.

He's-- he's a hell of a good guy.

He knows what-- he knows his stuff.

I think we're good to sign offon your road test and your pace

drive.

Right on.

Thank you, sir.

Welcome to the team.

Perfect.

Clear.

NARRATOR: Next up, Alex Debogorski.

Once you get a little bit familiar with the track,

we'll start doing some commentary.

You know, you can talk to meabout distant relevant objects,

things that you're looking for on the road.

The speed limit is coming down to 40.

The only thing I can see right now that I'd like you

to increase, Alex, is a little bit more mirror,

left and right.

Looking-- looking behind you.

Yeah, yeah, left--

left and right.

I'm very strict.

I don't bend the rules.

You either have it or you don't.

So obviously, some of the stories about the road being

dangerous probably are true, because they

go to some extremes of making sure that one can drive

the road before they're going to let one drive on his own

up there.

NARRATOR: Alex passes his final test.

You did a great job out there.

Thank you very much.

I'm proud to have you on the team.

NARRATOR: Boot camp is over,and the Canadians are officially

part of the Carlile team.

Next time they're behind the wheel,

it will be on North America's deadliest road.

[suspenseful music]

Tim and George have made it 350 miles up the ice.

Now, they face the final assault--

the last 50 miles stretch called the Bluffs.

But the winds have picked up to 80 miles per hour

and are blowing heavy waves of snow across the road.

[honking]

GEORGE [ON RADIO]: Tim, how's everything going back there?

NARRATOR: Suddenly, Tim falls behind

and loses sight of George.

Here he comes.

I knew it.

We've been giving him a real thrill this trip.

MAN [ON RADIO]: 10-4, yep.

Yeah, copy.

[orchestral music]

NARRATOR: Then as fast as the road disappeared,

it re-emerges from the blinding blow.

Out in the distance, theshapes of the town of Deadhorse

emerge, and Tim breathes a sigh of relief

that his first run up the Dalton wasn't his last.

Altogether, you know, it's been a pretty good trip.

We're almost to Prudhoe.

NARRATOR: For George, this was atrip they both can be proud of.

Looks like we've made it to Prudhoe Bay about 5:30.

Tim is right here by me, looking good.

He's done a good job.

We'll go in here and get our trailers switched around,

get a bite to eat.

Tim, what we need to do is get your van off

on this right-hand side.

NARRATOR: After a punishing two-day ride,

Tim delivers his first load of supplies to the oilfields.

[beeping]

Well, I'm happy I made it,because there were some doubts,

maybe, you know?

NARRATOR: For now, Tim's doubts have been answered,

and one more trucker has made history on the Dalton.

After five days of the dash for the cash,

veteran George Spears is in the lead with two loads.

Another day of safe passage for Alaska's ice road truckers

is in the books.

But as night falls, danger on the Dalton strikes again.

WOMAN [ON RADIO]: Hey, Jack.

We got a [inaudible] over here.

It looks they're stuck.

They're stuck in-- in the middle of the road

or in the ditch?

WOMAN [ON RADIO]: Good Lord, have mercy.

They're way out.

Wow.

[dramatic music]