Ice Road Truckers

Day 1 of the new Ice Road season begins. There are 6,000 loads of freight to move in just 12 weeks to the oil camps of Alaska's North Slope. The 400 plus miles stretch from Fairbanks to the remote outpost of Deadhorse, and is fraught with harrowing danger from steep mountain ice, to frozen tundra and the treacherous ice roads of the Arctic Ocean.

On Alaska's North Slope, a new ice road season has just begun. Carlile Transportation has less than three months to haul 2,000 loads from Fairbanks to Deadhorse--the gateway to the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Here, temperatures drop to 70 below, the terrain is some of the most unforgiving in the world, and the race to bring home the big bucks is heating up.

It's three weeks into the winter season in Northern Alaska, and Carlile Transportation has only moved 500 of the 2,000 loads it needs to transport to the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. The clock is ticking and an arctic storm is brewing. Hugh and Alex are joined by safety instructors as they embark on their frisky first trip to Prudhoe Bay.

A massive storm blows in and all traffic on the ice road comes to a standstill. And if wheels aren't turning, no one's earning. George, Tim and Lisa take shelter at Coldfoot, the only truck stop on the road. But this season's heavy haul ace, Jack Jesse, tries to outrun the storm. Hugh and Alex start out on their second runs.

Another winter storm drops nearly a foot of fresh, new snow, obscuring the road south. Veteran driver Jack and the less experienced Lisa are determined to not lose any more time or money this season. They set out for Fairbanks before the snowplows even arrive. Further north on the haul road, that same blizzard causes a major collision near the icy hill called "Slope Mountain.

Lisa Kelly auditions to be the first woman to break into the elite Heavy Haul division by commanding a convoy of pilot cars while hauling 80-foot sections of wide-gauge pipe. Having spun out before with a much shorter load, she faces a daunting task involving a 600 mile run through the Brooks Range mountains, over the wind-blasted North Slope, and across the ice road of the Arctic Ocean itself.

The race is on to make it to Prudhoe before a wicked storm turns fierce. After riding out the previous night's storm in Coldfoot, Tim and George decide to push on, despite the dire forecast. Twenty-five miles from Deadhorse, they run straight into the storm and are forced to slam through huge snowdrifts to make it to safety.

A deadly combination of unpredictable weather on the North Slope has made Atigun Pass more dangerous than ever. Record snowfall mixed with now warmer temperatures has turned this wicked pass into a devil's slide--slippery than ever and at all time high for avalanche risk.

With just three weeks to go, everyone is pushing it to the limit to get the freight to Deadhorse before the season ends. Lisa rushes to Carlile to pick up her next load. She's convoying north with Jack Jesse. On the road, he shows her how to avoid spinning out by shifting gears. Hugh and Phil have been doing short turns all week to get storm-delayed freight from Coldfoot to Deadhorse.

There's only two weeks left to pull in the big bucks and get all the loads to the oil fields. Hugh's impatience with his trainer driver Phil's slow pace nearly causes him to spin out on one of the steep slopes of the Atigun Pass--a place where the slightest misstep can send a truck over the cliff.

With only two weeks left of the winter season, the race is on to deliver the remaining loads before the ice roads melt away. But this late in the game, truckers are besieged by mechanical breakdowns and a volcanic eruption in Southern Alaska has put unexpected pressure on this remote road. The volcanic eruption has also shutdown Alaska's fuel refineries, leaving Deadhorse extremely short on fuel.

The truckers and their rigs are running ragged as they race to pull in the last loads. Lisa can't get out of the Carlile yard in Fairbanks--the trailer they've assigned her has a massive air leak. To stay in the running she accepts a new load: a van full of high explosives. The harsh icy conditions southbound on Atigun Pass cause Jack to spin out for the first time this season.

As the final 72 hours of the Ice Road season tick away, legendary driver George Spears calls it a career, Lisa Kelly makes a harrowing 300-mile run with no brakes, the rivalry between Alex Debogorski and Hugh "The Polar Bear" Rowland comes down to the final load, and polar bears--real ones--shut down the Ice Road in front of Jack Jessee, as the "Dash for the Cash" comes down to the wire.