Original subtitles

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

She's ready to go.

NARRATOR: --the Canadians hit the ice.

Everybody knows polar bears have the right of way.

[chuckling]

Watch out, woman driver coming through.

NARRATOR: Lisa attempts to run with the big boys.

LISA KELLY: This is my first oversized load.

NARRATOR: And a rookie trucker gets lost in an arctic blow.

Can't see a [bleep] thing now.

Timmy, how we doing?

Timmy, you doing all right?

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

would dare.

Just when you thought extreme trucking couldn't get more

dangerous, ice road truckers take on Alaska.

[theme music]

Three weeks into the winter season on the Dalton,

of the 2,000 loads that Carlile needs

to move north to the oilfields,only 500 have been delivered.

And the clock is ticking.

375 miles from Fairbanks is a hill so

slick they call it Oil Spill.

It's an ice-covered slope that has ended careers and lives.

Tonight, Jack Jessee, one of Carlile's most dependable

heavy haulers, is rounding the top

of Oil Spill with a highpriority load of 130-foot pipe.

As Jack and his convoy use down the hill,

they spot trouble ahead.

NARRATOR: There's a pickup truck stuck

in the ditch with no movement from inside the cab.

Wow!

NARRATOR: There are no emergencyservices on the haul road.

Jack is their only hope.

How are you feeling?

PASSENGER: We're all right.

NARRATOR: Luckily, the passengers are unharmed.

Huh?

NARRATOR: But if left stranded, they will certainly

freeze in the subzero cold.

PASSENGER: Can you pull me out?

JACK JESSEE: Yeah.

Well, let me take a look.

It's about 30 below, so we can't really leave them.

I mean, if you were to do something like that you,

could actually sign their death warrant by doing it.

NARRATOR: Jack rigs a tow strap and chains

from the stranded vehicle to his truck.

But his truck is meant for heavy haul, not towing.

JACK JESSEE: If you get a steering tire off

into that snow or whatever, it'll

suck you right off the road.

NARRATOR: In order to pull the vehicle out safely and keep

his load of 130-foot pipe from going in the ditch,

Jack angles the nose of his truck towards the accident,

while keeping his trailer parallel to the road.

Put him in reverse, and tell him just real, real, easy.

Real easy.

Move the tire a little Come on.

Come on.

Come on.

Oh, almost, come on.

All right!

Whoa, whoa!

NARRATOR: He slides dangerously close to the edge.

JACK JESSEE: Right now my strap's too long.

I can't get close enough to pull him

up without getting me too close to the ditch.

The problem is my front end literally doesn't have

enough friction on the ice.

NARRATOR: Jack shortens the tow strap and tries again.

Have him rev it a little more.

I need to try to get that wheel to spin if I can.

Come on.

Come on.

Come on.

Come on.

There we go!

Got him out.

Let's get him unhooked.

You guys have a good night.

All right, truck must go on, let's go.

NARRATOR: Back on the road, Jackhopes to make up for lost time,

forging ahead through the last windswept icy stretch

to Deadhorse.

After 414 miles, finally, lights on the horizon.

Well, we finally got to Deadhorse.

Here's the Carlile Yard, up here in Prudhoe.

We'll get in there, unhook thistrailer, and I'm going to bed.

It's been a long day, and I'm tired.

It's about 30 below, with a 15-mile mile an hour wind.

It's going to be a cold one in the truck tonight.

Another day in paradise up here.

NARRATOR: As one epic run comes to an end,

two more are about to begin.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: 5:30 in the morning,

we're in Carlile's yard in Fairbanks.

And we're preparing to leave onour first trip to Prudhoe Bay.

Great.

She's ready go go.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: I'm turning the key.

I don't believe it.

NARRATOR: Hugh Rowland and Alex Debogorski

have made it through a week-longhaul road boot camp just

to get a crack at the legendary Dalton.

They've passed the bar at Carlile.

But even so, their maiden voyage will

be closely supervised by safety instructors.

Good morning, now.

NARRATOR: They're hauling 48,000pounds of drill pipe bound

for Deadhorse, the gateway to the Prudhoe Bay oil fields.

As usual, the Polar Bear is eager to get a move on.

But Alex gives his truck one final inspection.

NARRATOR: Hugh makes a break for it--

[truck horn]

NARRATOR: Confident as ever.

HUGH ROWLANDS: Everybody says they've got a bad road, all

over the world.

Well, I'd like to try 'em.

And this is one that I've always wanted to drive,

and I'm ready to get at her.

I have all the confidence inthe world I'm going to succeed.

Everybody knows polar bears have the right of way.

[chuckling]

[truck horn]

NARRATOR: Back in the yard--

Well, we're going to put some more straps on this load.

I don't feel there's enough straps on it to make it safe.

At this stage in life, I don't need to wreck nothing or have

an accident.

I don't need that kind of excitement.

I've gotten past that point in life

where a person acts as if he wants to get it over

with as fast as possible.

I'm at a point in life now wherewe're trying to stretch it out.

[chuckling]

NARRATOR: Last season, Alex's run on the Canadian ice roads

was cut short because of critical heart trouble.

This season, he's out to prove he can make a comeback.

I'd kind of like to go do the job and get it done,

and go home healthy without going home on a stretcher.

NARRATOR: To make it home alive,Alex isn't taking any chances.

It's a load of pipe.

It's 50,000 pounds, roughly.

The worst that can happen is thetruck hits another truck head

on, or hits something, goes in a ditch and stops,

and the pipe comes off and cuts the top off the truck,

goes into the cab.

That's pretty well the worst that can happen.

Being dead is about the worst that can happen.

NARRATOR: Alex departs forthat great unknown with Carlile

safety instructor Phil Kromm, headed for an ice road

up steep hills and sharp curves unlike anything he's

driven in his 37-year career.

This is like another driver's test,

except it's going to be 500 miles north.

The biggest challenge, I guess, is to impress him

that I can drive the truck bymyself without having him there

to help me.

Hopefully, he will laugh at my jokes.

[chuckling]

NARRATOR: Back at Carlile, nextup, 28-year-old Lisa Kelly.

While her truck gets a service,she attempts to up the stakes.

[phone ringing]

Dispatch, this is Tim.

It's Lisa.

I need something going north.

I need something a little bit more difficult.

Only because I'm tired of getting teased.

Uh-huh?

LISA KELLY [ON PHONE]: Well, there's these 6-foot tires

here. They're pretty cool.

NARRATOR: With bigger loads comes a bigger paycheck--

$1,300 and up for a successful haul.

For Lisa to make it into heavy haul,

probably, what she's going to have to prove to everyone

is that she's capable of running the haul road safely,

and with challenging loads.

We've got a lot of oversized loads out here in the yard.

So she makes it through this winter

and does well, I think it's gonna

be a real feather in her cap for her.

NARRATOR: Lisa gets her bigchance with a 42,000-pound load

of truck tires.

LISA KELLY: Oops.

Air lines and my lights.

We got six?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Six whole tires.

I'm feeling good right now.

I just took some caffeine, so we're

going to shoot for the moon.

NARRATOR: Lisa's mission-- to run with the big boys,

and let them know she's on the rise.

You like my load?

TRUCKER: I'm pretty impressed.

Big trucking now.

Oh yeah, yeah.

I'm glad you're impressed.

That's why I did it.

NARRATOR: But hauling heavier loads

could prove to be more than she bargained for.

74 miles from Fairbanks, Lisa approaches

the Dalton's first major challenge, the Taps,

a terrifying 56 miles of steep and twisted curves

that tests the skills of every driver,

especially heavy haulers.

Man, this thing is so heavy.

I'm so used to putting my foot into it,

and it actually like, picks up speed.

TIM RICHARDS: Speed coming back to 25 miles--

All righty, we're just hitting the Dalton now.

There we are.

I zeroed out.

TIM RICHARDS: And the fun begins.

You know it.

NARRATOR: Lisa's pilot car driver leads the way.

OK, great.

Our job is to stay ahead of the load,

stay out far enough in front of the driver

so that we can get traffic pulled over off of the road.

NARRATOR: And today a sudden spike in temperature

has made the road dangerously slick.

Well, it's like 29 right now.

All winter, it's like 40 below, and it's

nice and icy and frozen, and they

water the roads, and stuff.

Then it warms up, and then it gets really slippery.

This temperature is always real fun, especially

for a first-time heavy load like this.

I'm going up 2 and 1/2.

CARL REYNOLDS: OK.

Lisa, hug the curve.

It's real slick.

Ooh, this is kind of slick.

Where's some traction?

Holy crap!

NARRATOR: On the Dalton's first icy stretch

of steep and twisted curves, Lisa Kelly

has lost all traction.

LISA KELLY: Where's the traction?

Come on, honey.

You can do it.

Oh-- Oh, [bleep].

NARRATOR: As she struggles for control on the ice,

a southbound pickup truck comes barreling towards her.

No!

Uh-oh.

Holy crap.

Oh, get over!

[truck horn]

Jesus!

Whew!

This is not good.

This is road is scary today.

OK, we got traction now.

There we go, we survived that one.

I'm going to chain up, because I slid pretty much all the way

up that.

CARL REYNOLDS: Yeah, I thought you might

have a problem on that one.

NARRATOR: Throwing a set of 65-pound chains

in the bitter cold is not everyone's idea of fun.

Yay, I love this part!

NARRATOR: But then again, Lisa is not your average ice road

trucker.

If the chains are too loose and they get slapping stuff,

they tend to break links.

I try to keep them snugged up pretty good.

You don't want them too snug, because then they

start wearing on the tires.

NARRATOR: Lisa rigs two sets of chains

to the tires of the truck's front drive axle, which

does all the work and requires the extra traction.

OK, good to go.

NARRATOR: Chains on, Lisa gearsup for the big hills ahead.

LISA KELLY: It looks like it's blowing now the wind's picking

up.

That's not a good sign.

NARRATOR: 70 miles north of Fairbanks--

[truck horn]

--Hugh "the Polar Bear" Roland is

poised to be the first of the two Canadians

to make it onto the ice road.

HUGH ROWLANDS: Oh, I think Alexis starting to slow down now,

you know?

He's getting up there, and he's getting pretty long

in the tooth.

[chuckling] But I'll probably have to pass him

like usual a couple of times today, yeah.

While he's napping.

[chuckling]

NARRATOR: But before he cantake on the deadly curves ahead,

he's got to double check that his load is secure.

Every time we stop, I'll check these straps.

Every time.

NARRATOR: While Hugh does his final check--

[truck horn]

--his old rival passes him by.

[laughter]

[truck horn]

I've been trying to look out for myself

here, no time to look after Hugh.

[chuckling]

NARRATOR: Hugh is left in the dust,

as Alex blazes on towards the most important test

of his career, where one mistake could end in disaster.

There's been a lot of deaths over the last 30 years

on this road.

Yeah, a little cross there just to remind you.

TONY MOLESKY: Yeah, there's several of them up and down

the road.

Driver coming north, they come out that corner too fast

and flopped over in the road and went through the guardrail

and over the edge.

You know, there's so much to contend with all the time

out here.

NARRATOR: Alex approaches the final stretch

before the Dalton begins.

Up ahead, 414 miles of the world's most extreme trucking.

And Alex is still getting used to an unfamiliar transmission.

He normally drives an 18-speed gearbox.

Now he's using a Super 10, whichrequires shifting with a hand

splitter.

And if you don't get it right, you could easily miss a gear.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: Got to getused to using that transmission,

that Super 10.

To me, that's my biggest challenge.

Yeah, go ahead and wind her up.

You got a short, but it's pretty steep pitch, you know?

OK.

NARRATOR: The 37-year veteran misses a gear,

stalling the truck just three miles from the start

of the haul road.

All right, here we go again.

NARRATOR: While Alex crawls up the hill--

[truck horn]

[chuckling]

--the Polar Bear takes back the lead

and charges ahead to the ice.

And that right there is one mile.

That's the start of the Dalton, right there.

This corner down here took out several trucks

in the last couple of years.

Bad wrecks, really bad wrecks.

It's all you can do to keepyourself on the road, you know?

Drive the truck and don't crash, and we'll be in good shape.

Right on.

And you want to be down to about, you know, 35

when you go around this corner.

Yeah.

NARRATOR: Hugh doesn't heed the warning.

NARRATOR: His tires lose traction

around the sharp curve.

HUGH ROWLANDS: I made it around that one.

I don't know how I made it around that one.

[chuckling]

NARRATOR: Tony doesn't want to take anymore chances.

Go ahead and peel off righthere, get on off the road here.

NARRATOR: He orders Hugh topull over and into the passenger

seat.

He'll have to see the route before he'll

be allowed to drive it.

HUGH ROWLANDS: They want professional drivers,

but what the [bleep] is going on here?

NARRATOR: 110 miles up theroad, rookie driver Tim Freeman

and his mentor, George Spears, prepare for the slick descent

called Beaver Slide It's two miles at 11% grade,

the equivalent of driving straight down a ski slope.

And braking is not advised.

GEORGE SPEARS: This is the first snow flurries

we've come across today.

Hopefully, from what everybody says, it shouldn't be too bad.

I don't think we're going to have a real problem with it.

NARRATOR: It's only Tim's second trip ever on the ice.

On his first trip, Tim survived a brake failure,

a near head-on collision, and a blinding whiteout.

110 miles from Fairbanks is one of the Dalton's longest

and steepest hills, two miles of 11% covered in ice known

as the Beaver Slide.

[truck horn]

I'll get Tim gathered up, and we'll

start easing down off here.

NARRATOR: Veteran George Spearsand rookie driver Tim Freeman

have just begun the long descent.

It's enough to test atrucker's skill on a clear day,

and today they're in a phase three blizzard.

GEORGE SPEARS: Phase three is where you can't see [bleep]..

OK.

The visibility is not very good right now.

Still coming, George.

I can't see a [bleep] thing, though.

GEORGE SPEARS: I wasn't expecting it to be this bad.

These kind of conditions have put a lot of guys, period,

in the ditch.

[bleep]

NARRATOR: With visibility this bad,

Tim could drive off the road at any moment.

[bleep]

Timmy, just take it real easy.

Watch for one delineator on one side, one on the other.

NARRATOR: Delineators identify the edge of the road.

They're generally staggered every 100 feet.

GEORGE SPEARS: Don't stare too far either direction.

Just stay right down the middle.

I'm kind of slowed down here, Timmy.

I got my backup lights on, and stuff.

Tim, can you still see me all right?

This is bad.

[bleep] me!

GEORGE SPEARS: We're stopping towait for Tim here so he can get

caught up.

Timmy, how we doing?

NARRATOR: George loses radio contact with the rookie.

Tim?

Tim?

Timmy?

Timmy, did you go all right?

GEORGE SPEARS: Yeah, that's me, Tim.

I see you right there.

Oh wow!

You wanted some wind, you got it.

[chuckling] I didn't think it was going to be that bad.

TIM FREEMAN: Hell, we were dropping down

one of the steepest,straightest grades on the road,

couldn't see [bleep] nothing in front of us.

I was shaking all the way down.

I've never driven on flat land in visibility that poor where

I didn't say [bleep] and found a spot to pull off.

And not to mention the 11% grade downhill.

NARRATOR: Once again, George's 30-year history

on this road proved invaluable to the rookie.

Man, he really kicked asscoaching me down through there.

Kept his cool so I can keep mine.

I'll owe him dinner at Coldfoot.

Whew!

NARRATOR: Back at the start of the Dalton,

Hugh's hopes of driving the haul road have been shattered.

After speeding around a slick curve,

he must forfeit the wheel and ride shotgun.

Carlile's safety instructor, Tony Molesky, is taking over.

We just took off out of here, Phil.

You can't bash your motor and go up the hill all the time.

The guys really gotta watch it.

You just ease it on up at, like, half throttle, right?

You got something to play with there.

NARRATOR: Five miles back, Alex struggles

with the unfamiliar Super 10 transmission.

It just takes time and miles.

I'm going to get heckledwhether I do it right or wrong.

But doing it wrong or having a problem,

and I get heckled that much more.

[chuckling]

I would imagine.

Well, our Qualcomm just went off, telling us

there's a message to read.

You're kidding?

Am I in trouble?

NARRATOR: Haul road trucks are equipped with an emergency

bulletin system.

The alert is for an arctic storm up ahead.

PHIL KROMM: The weather can change in five miles

or five minutes anywhere in the state of Alaska.

Blowing snow is dangerous in a lot of ways, One,

you can't see, you can run off the road, flop over.

You can crash into the person in front of you

that you're trying to follow because you can't see them.

Potential for disaster.

NARRATOR: With the storm closing in,

Phil decides he can't risk it with a new driver.

We'll switch places, I'll drive from here.

I think you can get a better look at it, watching it first.

NARRATOR: He's a legend on the ice roads of Canada.

But in Alaska, Alex is treated just like any other rookie.

Like Hugh, he's forced to ride shotgun

for the rest of the trip.

The legend of the Dalton is not only known among truckers.

The road itself is a feat of engineering--

414 miles carved through the Alaskan wilderness.

It was built in 1974 in just six months

to aid the construction of the Trans Alaskan pipeline.

Total cost of the road, over $150 million.

Built on frozen soil and paved with ice,

the Dalton is key to the world's oil supply.

If the frozen ground stays frozen,

then the road will remain passable.

The oil will continue to flow.

NARRATOR: Back from his last heavy haul up the ice road,

Jack Jessee wastes no time getting to his next challenge,

an oversized load bound for the500-mile journey to Deadhorse.

This is a pipe rack that one of the oil companies

have asked us to transport to Alpine.

NARRATOR: The structural pipe rack

is used for oil production.

It attaches multiple oil wellheads

to the Trans Alaskan pipeline system.

One and two, and then one and two in the back.

It is obviously very critical.

Production will suffer if it's not there.

What did you say the overhang on the inside?

24.

As long as we get it centered on the trailer, it'll be good.

TIM RICHARDS: Yeah, we got to get this one on the road.

The schedule is tight this year.

We have a lot of loads to get to Prudhoe in a short window

of time.

It's 16 feet wide.

We're right at 17 feet high.

The center of gravity on this particular load

is probably about 10 feet in the air, doing a lot of this.

So we added more chains pulling straight

down to get some good down pressure on it,

so it stays on the trailer.

NARRATOR: As dusk approaches, Jack

makes the load legal for travel over the ice road.

JACK JESSEE: We've met all the requirements of our permit,

flags, oversize signs, reflective tape to run

at night.

So I'm getting in and let's go.

[truck horn]

NARRATOR: The 16-foot wide piperack takes up the entire length

and over half of the oncoming lane.

16 wide moving down the road, man.

You can't get overconfident on this road.

Because about the time you get overconfident and think

you know everything there is to know about this road,

they're going to be scraping you up out of the ditch.

NARRATOR: Jack is making goodtime when suddenly, all traffic

comes to a standstill.

Copy that.

[humming]

OK, Debbie, so what's the story?

Scott, whoever?

NARRATOR: A spun out truck up ahead

is blocking the northbound lane.

JACK JESSEE: So there's plenty room

on the other side of the road for a normal eight-six wide

load, but not for my 16-feet wide load that I've got.

NARRATOR: Jack has no choice but to wait,

burning time and money.

NARRATOR: 75 miles north of Fairbanks, Jack Jessee

is stopped dead in his tracks.

A spun out truck is blocking the road.

I just lost my momentum coming up here.

NARRATOR: And Jack's oversized load is too wide to pass.

This guy is-- he's not in a very good spot.

He's in a curve going uphill, and nobody can see him

from either direction.

So if two trucks, with another one

going up the hill and one coming down the hill,

and they all meet in the same place,

there's going to be an horrendous crash.

[truck horn]

NARRATOR: The driver can't get enough traction on the ice

to move out of the way.

He doesn't have the proper chains to get himself

up the hill.

So I've gotta put some in a pilot car

so we can take him up there, so he can get off the hill,

so I can get by him.

Yep.

All right, let's move it up the hill.

All right.

Good luck, Scott.

There's only three of them up there.

Somebody ought to know how to put tire chains on.

But everybody's got to get educated.

Yeah, but they're doing it at my expense right now.

- Yeah. - I don't like that.

Thanks.

NARRATOR: If the wheels aren't turning, nobody's earning.

And if the truck can't clear the hill,

Jack may be forced to return to Fairbanks.

Frustrating, I guess.

It's mostly frustrating for me.

Because he didn't have what he needed to do the job.

And he's only got single rail tire chains, which

means his only chains that he can put on there goes over one

tire.

So when we put chains on, we putthem over a group of two tires.

That may work fine down in the states, on the pavement.

But up here, you've got to have three railers,

and you got to have enough to go over every tire.

We laugh if somebody says they've got singles to put on.

I don't think I can get my arms in there any better

than you can.

This is definitely going to make for a long night.

NARRATOR: After nearly three hours, the spun out truck

is cleared from the road.

And Jack is ready to blaze a trail north.

OK, Debbie, we're ready to roll.

Blow that smoke out.

Let's go.

NARRATOR: 253 miles up the ice road, Alex and Phil Kromm

are heading north toward the Dalton's most epic challenge,

Atigun Pass.

PHIL KROMM: This is Atigun Pass that you're looking at.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: Well, that'sa pretty impressive climb right

there.

PHIL KROMM: It's 2 and 1/2miles up this side and 2 and 1/2

down the other side.

It's steep, and there's a drop off on the right.

And a mountain on the left.

Yeah, this time of year, one thing you got to to watch out

for is avalanches.

One of our guys here six or seven years ago was coming up

and an avalanche hit him.

It ripped the sleepers off the chassis,

and twisted up and mangled the truck cab

and buried it, picked him upand set him over the bank there

and survived it.

He must've been awful lucky, because it's a long ways down,

and there's nothing down there but rocks.

And I don't mean little ones, they're boulders.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: It's pretty impressive.

It'll be a challenge to go up here now.

And first of all, I gotta make that shift.

[truck horn]

See, somebody spun out here.

We're going to get on their marks.

Hang on a second, I gotta holler at Tony.

You get below the pipe crossing, Tony--

Oh, OK.

Thank you.

NARRATOR: Just behind Phil and Alex

are Hugh and driving instructor Tony Molesky.

If you do break loose really bad,

it'll want to take off on you, And down the hill you go.

Like a toboggan, you know?

HUGH ROWLANDS: If you go off one of them banks

you're going to die.

Your load's going to take the cab of the truck off.

Well, looks like somebody run off the road right there.

HUGH ROWLANDS: Somebody put it in the ditch there.

TONY MOLESKY: It's a bad deal, a really bad wreck.

It went down and rolled over twice.

Totaled a brand new truck and tanker.

After seeing that, it makes a guy kind of slow down,

you know? - Oh, yeah.

A guy just gets that feeling and he slows down,

you know, just out of respect, or whatever.

NARRATOR: It's a warning the rookies can't ignore.

Nearly every mile of this rugged terrain

has taken a trucker's life.

The convoy pushes through the night to Deadhorse.

Three hours later, they arrive at the Carlile terminal.

Go around the end of the airport here in Prudhoe Bay.

NARRATOR: Alex and Hugh may not have driven the full trip,

but they experienced many of its perils firsthand.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: All it was was a load of pipe,

but we'd never drove the road before.

So the biggest challenge is just going down

the road for the first time.

HUGH ROWLANDS: And you don't know the road after one trip.

But you know the potential of the road.

Yeah, on this one, you're not going to go through the ice

and drown, but you're going to go off a cliff and die.

You'd better hurry up, because you're

gonna be getting up the--

NARRATOR: Next time Hugh and Alex face the ice,

they'll have to drive it alone.

300 miles south of Deadhorse, Lisa Kelly slowly

pushes ahead with their first ever oversized load.

All these tires, these huge tires.

NARRATOR: She's being tested at every turn.

LISA KELLY: Where's the traction?

NARRATOR: First she slipped clear across the ice.

Oh, [bleep], we're spinning.

NARRATOR: Now the unforgiving Alaskan weather

is whipping up another storm.

LISA KELLY: We got the wind blowing across the road.

We got a few snow drifts on the southbound side.

NARRATOR: Gusting at nearly 40 miles per hour,

the wind hits Lisa's load with a terrifying force.

LISA KELLY: I don't like those tires hanging out like that.

I'm going, hm, worrying about it.

I want it back on the trailer.

Let me know when you got it hooked.

Got it?

Yep.

NARRATOR: She tightens the straps to their limit.

There, that's as tight as that one's going for me.

I'm just too strong for this.

NARRATOR: Hoping they'll hold up against the oncoming storm.

The wind isn't making it any warmer.

NARRATOR: But when she goes for the last strap--

[groaning]

200 miles north of Fairbanks, there's a trucker down.

A ratchet broke, hurtling Lisa Kelly to the frozen ground.

CARL REYNOLDS: Oh!

You all right?

Lisa?

What happened?

Sorry, I had a little technical problem.

[chuckling] Now, that was stupid.

I don't know what happened.

I was tightening it down, and that portable fell off the--

something, like, bent the metal,or something, and it came off.

Yeah, they'll do that sometimes.

They'll pop loose.

LISA KELLY: So I got to roll around

on the ground a little bit, you know?

There you go.

Let's go to Coldfoot.

Show my true ballet-ness.

There you go.

NARRATOR: With her load secure,Lisa gets back on the ice.

All I heard it was 50 mile an hour winds.

NARRATOR: The storm is poundingthe road with snow and ice,

forcing her to chain up again in the bitter cold.

Next time you see me, my hair will be a disaster.

[WAILING] So cold!

OK, record time.

All righty.

Well, you're getting prettygood at flinging them chains on!

Are you timing me?

Are my times getting better?

TIM RICHARDS: I'm not timing you,

but it sure is taking a lot less time.

You're getting really good at that.

NARRATOR: With added traction, Lisa forges ahead.

It's starting to snow more, it's starting to blow more.

Yeah, good thing we chained.

Whew, thank gosh!

50 mile an hour winds.

I remember when it was 30, it was blowing trailers over.

NARRATOR: 50 mile per hour wind has put countless trucks

in the ditch.

In an instant, a sudden gust could send Lisa over the edge.

LISA KELLY: Yeah, the wind's getting more aggressive.

NARRATOR: As Lisa nearsColdfoot, she and her pilot car

decide it's unsafe to push any further.

Yeah, I doubt we're going to hit Atigun before midnight,

anyway.

Yeah, I agree.

Coldfoot works for me.

NARRATOR: They call it quitsand take shelter from the storm.

The truck stop has the only phone on the 500-mile journey.

[chatter]

We're at Coldfoot right now.

And we finally made it here, and there's a storm brewing

up north.

So it might not even clear till tomorrow night.

So if you don't hear from me for a while, that's why.

We're going to be stuck here at Coldfoot for a while.

Yeah.

So I just thought I'd let you know, so you don't worry.

NARRATOR: After just one week of the ice road season,

veteran George Spears and Jack Jessee have each completed two

loads, and two Canadian recruits have yet

to pull their weight in Alaska.

Still on the road just 70 miles south of Deadhorse,

a phase three storm has clearedall trucks off the Dalton--

except for one.

Jack Jessee and his pilot cars are

caught in the eye of the storm.

So the storm's moving in really fast,

so it can get pretty intense out here at night.

NARRATOR: Visibility is near zero.

Right now the problem is there are no delineators.

So 50 miles is taking eight hours.

NARRATOR: If Jack stops now, hecould be stranded in the storm.

He has no choice but to push forward.

I can't see anything.

I can't see the road.

I can't even see a set of headlights in front of me.

And this ain't going to get any better.