Ice Road Truckers

During the harsh winter of Canada’s Northwest Territory, remote villages and work camps are cut off from the world. To keep them supplied, a tenacious group of long-haul truckers drive their rigs over hundreds of miles on ice roads cut across the surface of frozen lakes. Sometimes the ice cannot support the heavy rig, and driver and cargo plunge through the ice and sink to the bottom. Hitch a risky ride along with the Ice Road Truckers as they drive headlong into bone-chilling danger.

This season, Ice Road Truckers is in the remote communities of Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, over 100 north of the Arctic Circle. Two clients, the Mallik Gas Hydrate Research Project and MGM Energy, rely on the short ice road season as the sole supply for their energy ventures. In about two months, or until the ice roads melt, these clients collaborate with three competitive trucking companies who must work together to move hundreds of heavy and oversized loads over frozen river and ocean water through fatally cold and often dangerous storm conditions.

This season, Ice Road Truckers is headed to Alaska—250 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Trucker legends Hugh “Polar Bear” Rowland and Alex Debogorski return to take on the most death-defying road so far. Hundred-foot cliffs, hairpin curves, avalanches and -70 degree temperatures are just a few of the challenges that await them. And here in Alaska, Hugh and Alex are no longer considered the kings of the road. Their co-workers at Carlile Transportation, including veteran George Spears, the “King of the Haul Road,” and the fearless Jack Jesse, know what it’s like to haul everything from giant loads of construction materials to oversized drilling rigs across the deadliest ice passage in North America, and they’re looking to show Hugh and Alex a thing or two about driving in Alaska.

The Ice Road Truckers return to Alaska, hauling their biggest loads ever across the most dangerous terrain they’ve faced. But this year, trucking critically needed cargo north to the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay is just the beginning. The drivers will tackle frozen rivers and swamps out beyond the Dalton Highway, hauling supplies to some of the most remote towns of the Great White North. Reigning king Jack Jesse looks to defend his title, and Lisa Kelly, one of the only woman truckers on the haul road, fights to prove herself in the male-dominated profession. Rookie Ray Veilleux, who recently lost his business in the lower 48, has come north to run the road and keep his struggling family afloat. And, continuing their decades-long rivalry, veteran drivers Hugh Rowland and Alex Debogorski are back racing neck and neck. The stakes are high as the dash for cash is on again.

This season, from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to northern Canada’s Manitoba Province, the ice road truckers will risk it all to deliver essential goods and supplies to the oil fields and villages that dot the planet’s harshest landscape. Along the way they will battle temperatures that plunge to -40 degrees, blinding snowstorms and thinning ice. Three new faces will take on veteran drivers Hugh Rowland, Alex Debogorski and Lisa Kelly to see if they have what it takes to win the dash for the cash.