Original subtitles

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

a massive rollover nearly takes a life.

And he was laying right here.

I'd run him over.

NARRATOR: Lisa's brake failure causes a runaway truck.

I'm trying to stop.

NARRATOR: And new dangers emerge from the darkness of night.

Hitting a moose, it was like hitting a brick wall.

There he goes right now.

NARRATOR: At the top of the world, 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.

It's four weeks into Alaska's brutal ice road season.

Truckers have already faced an onslaught of breakdowns--

This sucks.

NARRATOR: --whiteouts--

Can't see at all.

NARRATOR: And rollovers.

This is the worst season that I've been through as far

as that many blows.

The roads are just getting really exciting and dangerous

at the same time.

NARRATOR: Carlile truckers have hauled more than 500 loads

to the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay,

but there's still 1,500 more to go.

Last night, a fierce snowstorm left dozens of truckers

stranded in Coldfoot, the halfway point and only truck

stop on the ice road.

Eight inches of fresh powder has buried the road.

OK, we're going to head off here.

NARRATOR: But ice road trucker Jack Jessee

is on a mission to go south, even if it means hitting

the ice before the snow plows.

We're going to shoe out-- go out and give it a try this

morning.

NARRATOR: He's back hauling an empty trailer,

but there's a heavy haul waiting for him in Fairbanks

with a weighty paycheck to go with it.

There's about eight inches of fresh snow on the ground,

so we'll be dealing with a lot of one-lane roads.

Gonna be hard to see the edges.

NARRATOR: Jack's a pro and has driven in conditions far worse

than this, but right behind him is young gun Lisa Kelly.

RADIO: Having fun yet?

I'm having a blast, are you?

RADIO: [laughing] Yeah.

NARRATOR: She's hauling two stacked empty trailers

and is eager to get her next big load.

I saw Jack this morning at the breakfast table.

I'm like, Jack, which way are you going?

South.

I'm going with you.

Yeah, Lisa wanted to follow me on this on the way home.

And safety in numbers, actually.

It's a really good thing.

NARRATOR: This is only Lisa's second season on the Dalton.

She's already delivered her first heavy haul

and made it through a blinding whiteout over Atigun Pass.

I already can't hardly see, and I'm barely moving here.

NARRATOR: But she's never driven through snow drifts

like this where you can't see the edge of the road

and could drive off at any moment.

I wasn't brave to do it by myself.

Jack's the one in front.

He's our fearless leader.

Any new driver, we don't send them out here

to cut their own throats, you know?

We try to give advice when needed,

and they try to stick her with experienced drivers.

Just want to go to Fairbanks.

Just wanna get to Fairbanks.

Fairbanks.

And I'm not guaranteeing I won't go in the ditch.

In the eight years I've been up here,

this is probably so far the worst start of the winter.

So far this winter's been pretty intense.

Right now the snow is what the problem is.

I still just can't see the road, though.

Between these two berms somewhere.

NARRATOR: As Lisa strains to see the road,

she slows down and then loses sight of Jack.

I can kind of see Jack's tracks in front of me.

That's it.

Looks like one lane.

NARRATOR: After all the effort to team up,

Lisa now finds herself all alone.

100 miles from Deadhorse at a place

called Slope Mountain, last night's storm

nearly proved fatal.

A truck traveling at 50 miles per hour

with a full load of drill pipe caught the edge of the road.

The rig flipped over twice and rolled down the icy embankment.

The driver was thrown from the cab into the frozen tundra.

He managed to drag himself up onto the road, where ice road

trucker Richard Merrill was the first to spot him.

Just glad he had a flashlight in his hand.

Because it was snowing, it was dark, you couldn't see nothing.

And when you're coming on a hill like this,

you're not in the left lane, you're on your side of the road

because you don't know what's coming at you.

And he was laying right here. I'd run him over.

I just got him up off the ground,

load him up in the truck, tried to comfort him and get

him to pump three.

So you know, I knew he was hurting.

NARRATOR: With the nearest hospital more than 400 miles

away, Richard drove the injured trucker to a pipeline service

unit.

From there he was medevaced to Anchorage.

Looks pretty violent.

This makes me sick to my stomach.

I bet you he come right out that window.

That makes me sick.

I can't even look at it anymore.

NARRATOR: Even veterans never get used to the deadly forces

of this road.

Southbound on the ice, Lisa Kelly

is alone, pushing through eight inches of deep snow.

Think he's up there.

NARRATOR: Finally, she spots Jack's tail lights.

I think so.

Our radios are important because that is our lifeline.

Because we don't get phone service, we don't get anything.

And the radios are how the truckers

tell other truckers that the road's good, or not good,

or somebody's coming, and somebody spun out,

don't come over the hill and kill us.

OK, I just met the one way coming back at you.

It's coming north?

NARRATOR: Snowplows are now on the move,

racing to open up the road for truckers headed north.

LISA KELLY: Oh gosh, he's hauling.

Look at the trees falling.

It's awesome.

Hey, Lisa?

LISA KELLY: What's-- what's up, Jack?

Got a northbound that's dropping into the [inaudible]

out there, he just came from the chain up area.

So hold up here for him.

LISA KELLY: All right.

NARRATOR: On the ice, northbound trucks have the right of way.

Southbounders must often pull over to allow more wide loads

to pass safely.

Lisa strains to find the next pull-out,

but the heavy snow blankets the edge of the road.

LISA KELLY: Cannot not fall off the road here?

Wait, is this it?

NARRATOR: She misses it completely.

I don't know how I'm going to move over here.

NARRATOR: As the other truck barrels toward her,

she tries to slow down.

[radio chatter]

[truck horn]

150 miles from Fairbanks and headed

southbound, the Dalton ace Jack Jessee

leads the less experienced Lisa Kelly through eight inches

of fresh snow.

Got a northbound that's dropping into the [inaudible]

out there.

NARRATOR: And if that's not dangerous enough,

Lisa discovers she has no brakes as an 18-wheeler barrels

straight towards her.

I'm trying to stop, I promise.

[truck horn]

NARRATOR: She bears down on the brake

pedal with all her weight.

Good gosh, that took everything I had.

I'm sorry, I didn't know I was at [inaudible]

because I didn't see the pull out, and then I can't stop, so.

RADIO: Not a problem.

RADIO: [inaudible] Kim's coming out of the guard

rail [inaudible] right now.

NARRATOR: Jack Jessee has seen it all

and knows this mistake well.

She-- she actually just forgot to dry her brakes off.

NARRATOR: When driving in fresh powder, snow and ice

accumulate in this space between the brake pad and the drum,

rendering the brakes useless.

Truckers must pump the brakes periodically

to build up heat and dry them out.

If you never touch your brakes driving

through lot of loose snow like this, you will--

you will never have any brakes.

LISA KELLY: Good gosh.

NARRATOR: Just outside of Deadhorse, the road

has been cleared, and Hugh Rowland is southbound.

HUGH ROWLAND: Loading up, take the southbound.

Headed for Coldfoot first, then on into Fairbanks.

NARRATOR: On this trip, Hugh hauls what may be the smallest

load of the season.

This here is my load, three pounds of paperwork.

It says right here, three pounds paperwork.

And I got an empty van.

This is all we got to haul back.

Getting paid regardless.

NARRATOR: But a bigger load would mean a bigger paycheck.

Hugh's mission is to get back to Fairbanks in a single day

to pick up some real freight.

So far, the polar bear is holding his own

on America's most dangerous road.

HUGH ROWLAND: It's it a lot of fun to drive,

I'll tell you that.

No I ain't been scared, nope.

NARRATOR: He's confident as ever,

but still requires the supervision of haul road

veteran Phil Kromm.

RADIO: What are you doing, Phil?

Just motoring along.

How about you?

HUGH ROWLAND: It's been a good ride.

Probably so.

All in all, Phil's a good guy.

We're basically on the same page with everything.

I might be a little bit more risk-taking than Phil,

but Phil's been on this road a lot longer than I have.

NARRATOR: Hugh's only been here a few weeks yet he's already

living up to his reputation.

He's got kind of a-- a pretty colorful personality.

Maybe-- maybe a little wild.

Yeehaw!

Woohoo!

[laughter]

NARRATOR: 100 miles south of Deadhorse, north slope police

officer Steve Lee is on the scene to investigate

last night's crash.

This may be where he rolled the first time.

Now, the truck rolled, and this--

all this debris right here may be the--

where the first rollover occurred.

You can tell by looking at the cab that it's been on the cab.

It broke off the exhaust.

NARRATOR: When the massive cab came to a violent halt,

it ejected the driver across the tundra.

This is where he went down in the snow.

This is where he ended up, so I'd say it's probably

25 feet from the truck.

Let's go up and look inside.

Well, here's his other shoe.

Something here.

Let's see.

Oh, a bible.

I guess those are good things to carry with you.

NARRATOR: Fortunately, the trucker

missed a high-pressure gas line by mere inches.

He's lucky, you know.

If he'd have rolled, and it would have dug up the--

the-- the pipeline here, we could've had a natural gas

explosion.

And the guy that was driving most likely

would not be around.

When they move this thing out, gonna have to be awful careful.

NARRATOR: 250 miles south in Coldfoot.

I could use a nice neck massage right now.

NARRATOR: Alex Debogorski is just

getting started on the day.

We had a good night's sleep, so can head for Prudhoe Bay

now, do most of our drive in the daytime.

NARRATOR: He's still headed north

to complete his second trip.

Yesterday a broken trailer spring

put him half a run behind Hugh in the dash for the cash.

Well I've always--

I've always got a-- a few more loads than Alex.

He-- he gets out there pretty hard, but I--

I know he's starting to slow down here a little bit.

NARRATOR: Alex is hauling a stack load of drill pipe bound

for the oilfields.

He's traveling with Dalton veteran Jack McCann, who

carries a fleet of pickup trucks.

Alex, you gonna call me back there?

All right, by golly.

NARRATOR: They convoy towards the shelf,

a treacherous incline cut into the mountainside.

One wrong move here and it's several hundred feet

to the bottom.

We're just approaching the shelf,

and I think we're going to be chaining up.

Because they had the fresh snow the night before,

they had somebody blocking the road because they spun out.

NARRATOR: Tire chains on this stretch are essential.

So we're going to have the chaining experience.

We're going to be on the chain gang.

A good time will be had by all.

NARRATOR: It's a new experience for Alex,

since chains are not used on the Canadian ice roads.

Pretty hard to do that when you're huffing and puffing.

All right, we're just going to roll this ahead,

see if we can hook them up.

How's that look?

Does that look OK over there?

Next we'll be embarrassing myself and my--

my chaining capabilities here.

This is supposed to be the easy one.

How's that look, Jack?

That looks good.

Is the other one OK too?

Yeah, I got it.

OK.

NARRATOR: Alex begins the great ascent.

Well, we're northbound up the shelf, which

is the last challenge before Atigun Pass.

Stay over to my side of the road just in case I spin out,

and then if I do, then there'll be room for everybody to drive

up and down and laugh at me.

NARRATOR: The goal-- pick the right gear that will get him

to the top, because downshifting in the middle

could end in disaster.

I can't remember what gear I need to go up on this one.

I guess we're gonna find out really quick.

NARRATOR: Alex hits a gear that's too high

and doesn't give him enough traction.

He quickly downshifts.

Let's get down, let's hold here and stay here.

NARRATOR: But mistakenly drops two whole gears.

That was not my plan there.

NARRATOR: The truck slows to a frightening crawl

and then comes to a complete stop.

This is the last place an ice road trucker wants to be.

Getting started again on this hill

could send Alex sliding backwards down the mountain

side.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: Oh Lord, Lord, what did I get myself in for?

NARRATOR: 60 miles north of Coldfoot, Alex Debogorski

missed a gear and is now stopped dead in his tracks

on the icy slope known as the shelf.

Getting going again means fighting the force of gravity.

One slip on the ice could send Alex sliding backwards

to the bottom.

He eases into first gear.

The tires hold.

He pushes into second.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: Going on a pretty low gear here.

I'm in second gear, so I gotta put a lot of power

to the road, which is, you know, not real good if it's really

slippery because that'll make you slip through.

NARRATOR: As Alex creeps along, the road narrows.

The cliffs become more steep.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: Over there, 500,000 feet down.

So what makes it treacherous is if a guy spins out,

the concern is sounds like he's going backwards down

these hills, and a lot of trucks have

been lost by going backwards down the hill

and then over the guardrail.

If a person goes over that edge, lose their truck,

and lose the driver, too.

NARRATOR: His tires barely gripping the ice, Alex rounds

the top of the shelf.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: Look at that, made it to the top.

NARRATOR: But he still has 75 miles of treacherous terrain

to go.

I ended up having to start over.

I get to start over on the shelf now.

Add that to the list.

NARRATOR: 127 miles from Fairbanks, Jack and Lisa

are racing back to get their next loads

and the northbound traffic is out in force, trying to make up

for lost time.

[radio chatter]

You wanna move over at all?

Guess not.

NARRATOR: With increased speed comes an increased risk

of going into the ditch.

Two kinds of drivers on the road--

ones that have been in a ditch and the ones that are gonna go

in a ditch.

But the funny part is that the ones that actually say that

have usually already been in a ditch.

I can say that.

NARRATOR: As word of the road's most recent crash spreads

along the Dalton, it's a grim reminder of just how many lives

have been lost.

Right here's where John died.

He was heading north and just got close, just kind of rolled

over.

Wasn't a pretty sight.

Kind of messed the guys up that showed up on the scene first.

NARRATOR: More than 35 steel white

crosses honor the dead on this side of the haul road.

None of this--

none of this freight we're moving is worth anybody's life.

NARRATOR: 100 miles south of Deadhorse, a big rig

ran off the road and flipped over twice.

Recovery specialist Ben Krakowski

races to the scene to retrieve the truck and its load of drill

pipe.

The 42 pieces of pipe are worth half a million dollars.

Ben has to work quickly to prevent a logjam of trucks

from backing up on the ice.

All the pressure is on me.

You don't wanna-- you don't want to keep them guys tied up.

You do what you gotta do, but you do it kind of quick

so they can get going, you open it up as much as you

can so they can get through.

NARRATOR: He begins by hooking two heavy duty steel cables

to the front of the truck.

BEN KRAKOWSKI: These inner brackets inside here

are bolted directly to the frame,

so we got something solid we can really pull on.

Because we're going to do some heavy pulling here.

NARRATOR: The cables are connected

to two high-powered winches on the tow truck.

Slowly, the cab inches up the snow bank.

BEN KRAKOWSKI: OK.

Now we got the tractor up on the road,

we'll bring the trailer up out of there.

Well, there is a pile of snow down here, isn't there?

Yeah, there is.

NARRATOR: Ben and his team attach two cables

to the underside of the trailer.

BEN KRAKOWSKI: Don't get no grease

on my [bleep] damn [bleep] now. - It's gettin' on my clothes.

BEN KRAKOWSKI: That's OK.

The landing gear, just watch it in case it digs in.

It should slide over the top.

Just stand somewhere and holler if it don't look right.

NARRATOR: They manage to drag the trailer

to the top of the incline.

BEN KRAKOWSKI: Oh crap.

NARRATOR: But they can't get enough leverage

to drag it onto the road.

Ben now has to improvise, and he has no time to waste.

Can get that loader just kind of across this way here,

and all he's gonna do is hold onto that front end.

NARRATOR: He uses a loader to help stabilize the trailer,

then he repositions the tow truck

to pull from the back end.

BEN KRAKOWSKI: OK, here we go.

NARRATOR: Finally, the trailer makes it back on the road.

Right now we're gonna start hooking on some pipe,

and start dragging that up out of there,

and see how that all goes.

With the last of the drill pipe cleared,

the Dalton reopens for business.

BEN KRAKOWSKI: I know all these guys that are driving up there,

and I hate to see them wreck their trucks.

But if the traffic keep going like it is and they don't slow

down, I will be busy.

NARRATOR: 40 miles south of Deadhorse

is the area known as the bluffs, a windy expanse

of barren tundra stretching from the Brooks Range

to the Arctic Ocean.

Hugh Rowland is southbound, doing battle

to stay on the road.

It's got wind on it shining [inaudible]..

You could skate on it today.

NARRATOR: And with Hugh's cab shackled to an empty van,

he's getting tossed all over the road.

It's way better to have a load in your van

or a load on the back of your truck than having an empty van.

It just slides all over the place.

So you gotta keep on your toes.

There's quite a bit more snow on the road.

Been-- been breezy all night, and some--

most of the drifts are clear across the road.

You gotta drive through them.

We got snow all over, and snow dust you can't see.

NARRATOR: Suddenly the winds churn up the snow

into a blinding whiteout.

It's-- I know we can't stop on the ice here, she's pretty--

pretty slick.

NARRATOR: 50 miles from Deadhorse, Hugh Rowland

is southbound.

Blowing snow makes the road nearly impossible to see.

Woohoo, that wind got cold right there.

Keep our wits about her today.

NARRATOR: Fortunately, he's got 23 years of experience driving

on ice.

I don't use my brakes on the ice.

Very much stick to the gear.

NARRATOR: On the ice, brakes can cause a deadly skid.

If something happens and the truck breaks loose,

you're already out of control.

NARRATOR: Gearing down reduces the truck speed

but still keeps power to the drive axles.

Gear down and gear up, away you go.

NARRATOR: As Hugh approaches the steep mountains of the Brooks

Range, he leaves the destructive winds behind.

Load doing OK.

It ain't fell on the floor and got all dirty yet.

[laughter] And the trailer's tagging along behind us,

so we're doing good.

NARRATOR: But he still has 300 miles of extreme terrain to go.

Still trailing Hugh is Alex Debogorski.

He's only just now pulling into Deadhorse,

completing his third trip up the ice.

I guess if you look at the map and then go

the northernmost part of Alaska, and you'll find right there

on the sea shore Prudhoe Bay.

That's where we are.

NARRATOR: Alex's plan is to turn and burn to catch up with Hugh.

Fantastic.

NARRATOR: But when he arrives at the Carlile yard,

he discovers a big problem.

That a flat tire?

NARRATOR: Alex can't catch a break.

Yesterday he had a broken trailer spring, now this.

My left front outside tire's flat.

Came off the beat.

Must have just happened, because it's not full of snow.

That thing looks pretty fresh, maybe gonna

be able to save it cause these guys had one of them things

that blows air in there, you know what I mean?

NARRATOR: Alex must wait for repair,

putting him even further behind in the dash for the cash.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: There was another delay.

I didn't want it, but that's what I got.

Don't always get what you want.

I think they wrote a song about that once.

[laughter]

NARRATOR: Deadhorse, Alaska, sits at the northern end

of the Dalton.

The discovery of the Prudhoe Bay oil field in 1968

put Deadhorse on the map, and it now serves as a company town

housing oilfield workers.

It has a general store, a post office, and even an airport.

But alcohol is forbidden, leading to the unofficial town

motto--

"all that far and still no bar."

Turns out the name Deadhorse is not as literal as it seems.

It's got nothing to do with the horses actually

being dead up there on the ice on that end because there

weren't any horses up there.

But by the time you got there, you might as well

have been a dead horse.

So I mean, I guess it's-- it's the perfect name to be

at the end of Dalton Highway, that's for sure.

NARRATOR: 125 miles from Fairbanks, Hugh Rowland is

southbound, charging through every challenge on this road.

[truck horn]

There's a road challenge me every day coming up around them

hills around the corner.

Yeah, if you weren't afraid of death,

then you'd be [bleep] dead.

I guess that's the challenge.

NARRATOR: Now a new obstacle.

Seen that one.

NARRATOR: Arctic speed bumps known as frosty heaves.

Frost heave is permafrost in the earth.

And it moves in the spring and in the winter.

NARRATOR: Alaska's extreme subzero temperatures

cause the earth to buckle under the ice,

making the road even more dangerous.

A frost heave will make a bump or a dip in the road,

that's what-- that's what it does.

either bumps or dips, one of the two.

Well, you get-- your truck gets to bucking

and there's not a comfortable feeling.

[laughter] Buck you right out of the seat

just like being in a rodeo.

[inaudible] Frosted right in here.

It's like a [bleep] country fair roller coaster ride.

NARRATOR: After driving through snow drifts all day,

Jack Jessee and Lisa Kelly finally approach Fairbanks.

You're good for five, Lisa, keep on trucking.

10-4.

NARRATOR: This was a tough backhaul,

but a good run for an ice road trucker.

But I do this particular job because I love it.

I like jobs that you can be proud of what you've done.

NARRATOR: They pull into the Carlile yard,

but there's no rest for Jack.

He's ready to turn and burn with another load.

Do more trips, you get more cash.

I'm out there for myself to make money for me and my family.

That's what I'm out there for.

NARRATOR: Lisa is taking a few hours off in her home

away from home.

Welcome to my truck!

Jeez, it's where I live most of time now.

This thing's packed, wonderful craftsman tools.

I got tons of wrenches, our screwdriver

for spreading prongs on the-- on the light thing.

And then I got these ratcheting crescent wrenches

or whatever they are, ratcheting wrenches.

And here's all my clamps and stuff, and air hose fittings.

I'm an oversize.

[laughter] So now for the inside.

Come on in.

My house is back here.

NARRATOR: Surprisingly the sleeper cab has room for most

of the necessary comforts.

LISA KELLY: I got my refrigerator here.

I have all my clothes in my gear bag right here.

They're all organized.

Got a couple of movies, not very many.

And my little DVD player when and if I ever have time.

Then I got my food.

Got it all organized, too.

Watching my calories, I don't want no trucker physique.

That's about the extent of it, I think.

This is my house on wheels, so it works for me.

NARRATOR: At the end of the road in Deadhorse,

Alex Debogorski's truck is in the shop.

Got a flat tire came right off the rim.

And the tire man, he's gonna see if he can find the hole

and fix it.

Well, we've had numerous delays this trip.

This is just another one.

NARRATOR: Carlile uses severe service duty tires

for driving on the ice.

On average they only last six months, and at $400 apiece,

it's worth the time to patch them.

I'm gonna dunk the tire and find the leak.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: Not a small one.

This is pretty good hole, actually.

It's funny it made it this far.

NARRATOR: The mechanic mends the hole with a filler plug

and reinforced rubber patch.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: Well great, thank you very much.

Thank you.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: Have a good day.

NARRATOR: Good to go, Alex heads for his load.

He's back hauling an empty van trailer.

They want vans back in Fairbanks.

NARRATOR: And in the freezing cold

that Prudhoe Bay is famous for--

Oof.

Holy mackerel, that's some snap you on the face.

NARRATOR: --he heads south for another crack

at the Dalton and to catch up with the competition.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: Goodness grief.

What next?

We're waiting in-- with bated breath

to see what the next situation is going to be.

[laughter]

NARRATOR: As night falls and the northern lights begin

to dance--

So this is the deal.

We're on a little bit of a crunch to get this thing going.

That's why we had to leave tonight.

NARRATOR: Jack Jessee preps for his next run, a colossal pipe

rack 17 feet tall, 16 feet wide.

It's used to connect the oil wells to the Trans Alaskan

Pipeline.

JACK JESSEE: Well, the challenge for this load

is that, you know, it's so high up that you gotta go slower

so it doesn't just flop it over on its side.

Everything look good back here, Mark?

RADIO: Yeah, so far so good.

NARRATOR: Tonight's first challenge--

to get out of Fairbanks without knocking down traffic lights.

So I-- I know I'm lower than the stoplights,

but I still have to go really slow so I can keep the bouncing

down.

That way I don't actually bounce up

and actually hit a stoplight.

Mark, can you get on the right side of me

and make sure that right side's been cleared just fine?

Right side clear?

RADIO: Right side's clear.

NARRATOR: Light after light, Jack crawls his way out

of town.

RADIO: Clear.

JACK JESSEE: Just getting out of town

can be its own special challenge.

We've got that one licked already.

NARRATOR: 75 miles up the road, the pavement drops off

and the ice road begins.

As Jack heads further into the Alaskan wilderness,

another hazard of the haul road emerges.

JACK JESSEE: A couple trucks had said earlier today

that a lot of moose out this evening.

So at night time, really hard to see the black and the brown

on them.

They're really hard to see at night

until they jump out right in front of you.

And hitting a moose is-- is just like hitting a brick wall.

You know, it-- it's just gonna tear your truck all to pieces.

RADIO: I'm going down that hill after 48 [inaudible]

a moose there.

NARRATOR: Up ahead, Jack's pilot car

spots a dead one in the middle of the road.

JACK JESSEE: Yeah, we just drove by the dead moose.

It was more or less blocking the southbound lane there.

NARRATOR: Jack asked the driver to do some damage control.

JACK JESSEE: See if you can--

see if you can do something, man.

NARRATOR: An Alaskan moose can weigh up to 1,500 pounds.

Pulling this animal off the road could save a trucker's life.

I've lived in Alaska for 39 years now.

This is the first time I've ever tied off to a moose

and tried to get it off the road.

Guess there's a first for everything, ain't there?

I'm sure somebody going into town when his cell phone start

working will--

they'll call somebody to come out and salvage it there.

We-- we don't let that kind of meat go to waste.

NARRATOR: Up the road there's another moose sighting.

Okee dokee.

Moose right side.

NARRATOR: This time it's on the move.

Jack scans the side of the road.

Slamming into a 1,500-pound animal could end both

their lives.

JACK JESSEE: Nope, I didn't see it.

NARRATOR: Suddenly without any warning--

Oh, there he goes right now.

[tires screeching]

JACK JESSEE: The pilot car really saved my skin

on this one.

Well, I mean if I had hit that moose, one,

I would've killed the moose, and that would've been a bad thing.

But it would've killed the truck, too.

That's one of the many hazards of the Dalton Highway.

NARRATOR: After a month of trucking,

Jack Jessee is in the lead with eight loads.

And even with a late start, Alex Debogorski

has overcome many challenges to complete his first run

on American ice.

ALEX DEBOGORSKI: I'm not done conquering the road.

Conquering the Dalton Highway is an ongoing process.

But there are girls driving on it,

so I think maybe I'll be able to.

[laughter]