- 5/31/2025
The Canadian ice roads exist only for a few months in the winter when the ice is thick enough. The only time of the year when goods can be transported up to Northern Manitoba. We accompany the truckers Vlad and Hugh as well as the aboriginal Canadian Scott with his pick-up on their long journey to a village called God’s Lake. A risky trip in icy temperatures, sometimes even below - 60 degrees Celcius.
The men are in constant danger of getting stuck and need to forget everything they ever learnt about driving on a highway in order to arrive safely.
The men are in constant danger of getting stuck and need to forget everything they ever learnt about driving on a highway in order to arrive safely.
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TVTranscript
00:00Manitoba, Canada. Temperatures go down to below minus 50 Celsius, one of the most inhospitable
00:12regions of the earth. As soon as the swamps and marshes are frozen, the ice road season begins.
00:21It's the only period of time in which the inhabitants of these isolated areas can be
00:28supplied with goods. It's a short period of time. Everything that people need for the course
00:35of the whole year must be brought there within two to three months. The problem is, no one
00:44knows for exactly how long the deep frozen swamps and lakes will be passable for the 40-tongue
00:50trucks. Every single trip to the north is a risky ride. Hot roads, the Canadian ice roads.
01:09We're going to offer a little bit of tobacco to the smudge here. We're going to put some
01:28of that tobacco in our pipe. We're offering this pipe as a way of acknowledging that you're
01:38going to have a safe trip. I want you to just pray with the pipe.
01:46Scott Campbell's ancestors belonged to the First Nation, the country's native people. He's proud to be one of them.
01:55Pray out loud for those things that you want on this journey. And then after that, you and I will smoke that pipe.
02:02Boy, you've got lots of hair anyway.
02:05Ahead of Scott lies a dangerous trip for which he wants to prepare himself spiritually.
02:12I pray to my family, mom, that they are kept safe when I'm on my long journey and to be able to come back home safe.
02:24Scott and Chief Calvin conjure up the mystic white buffalo woman, a powerful being and patron of the North American natives.
02:44Scott has promised a friend to transport an urgently needed snowmobile across the ice roads up north.
03:05With a snowmobile on the back of his truck, he sets off on a long, lonely trip. The white buffalo woman is supposed to accompany and watch over him.
03:17Scott is connected to traditions and customs and to family. And I find that every religion or race has their own beliefs. Native people tend to be very spiritual, very tied to the land. And to me, in my heart, if you don't know where you come from, you don't know where you come from.
03:23It's sometimes hard to find direction in life and find out where you're going.
03:53His journey begins in the heart of Canada, not far from the border to the USA. Winnipeg, the capital of the province of Manitoba.
04:09From here, the route leads almost 1300 kilometers further north to a little community called God's Lake.
04:16Last warnings on the way into wilderness. In wintertime, God's Lake, like many other villages, can only be supplied via the ice roads.
04:30The transportation of goods is a tough business. Most transports are organized by the state and are contracted out amongst the road haulers.
04:47It's a question of money and speed. Both man and material are extremely under stress.
04:53Anyway, the main part.
05:01Every truck that manages to return safely is put to the acid test before being sent out back into the cold.
05:10Oh, I guess I've done it somewhere.
05:14Hugh Rowland earned his money already at the age of 15 as a construction worker, building the ice roads.
05:22After 30 years in the business, his colleagues call him Polar Bear.
05:31I mean, people used to get up there and the truck would break down.
05:34And if your truck broke down, in 15 minutes you didn't get it going, you were stranded there.
05:38I've had guys freeze to death, freeze their feet, freeze their hands.
05:41And you can't leave your truck because of the wild animals.
05:45You get eaten by polar bears, wolves, so you have to stay with the truck and that's how people freeze to death.
05:50I mean, that 60 below up there, it's not a nice place to be with no heat.
05:56Vlad Pescott arrived in Canada as a young man with $42 in his pocket.
06:01Today, he owns a freight forwarding business.
06:05As soon as the first snow falls, he sits on the driver's seat of his 40-ton truck again.
06:11This is my baby, you know, I sleep truck, I eat truck, I breathe truck.
06:17I mean, if something happens to my truck, it's devastating.
06:21It can cost me my life.
06:23So everything's got to be tipped up.
06:24That's why I'm checking every single bolt, every single nut from bumper to bumper.
06:29Everything's got to be tipped up.
06:30If it's not, it can break down up there.
06:32There's no way to pull over and fix something.
06:36It's minus 40, you know, you freeze to death in half an hour.
06:39Departure at dawn.
06:49It's minus 30 Celsius.
06:51You and Vlad have to go to God's Lake too.
06:54Their load, school material and medical goods for the medical clinic.
07:00Ahead of them lies several 18-hour days and the constant risk of getting stuck on the road in these icy temperatures.
07:23In the beginning, it's only straight ahead on highway number 6 heading north.
07:28A thousand kilometers from Winnipeg to the little village of Norway House.
07:42The first leg of the trip.
07:52Well, when I was a kid, you know, I wanted to be an astronaut or a president.
07:57Actually, I wanted to be a pilot.
07:59But my father, he drove the truck his whole life.
08:02So I knew when I was young that that's going to be my future too.
08:07I was always interested in the truck and I got diesel underneath my fingerprints when I was really young.
08:15And I guess, you know, once you get a little bit of diesel in your blood, it's really hard to get rid of it.
08:22As soon as the road patrol releases the ice roads, the ice truckers are on the road.
08:27Every tour means cash.
08:37When I first started it, it was real adventurous and it paid good.
08:42And of course, you know, I raised my whole family driving the ice roads and everything.
08:47So I just got to do it.
08:48Now I'm just passionate about it.
08:50I can't wait to do it every year.
08:51I can't wait for the ice to come in.
08:52And I get up there and I get to drive them.
08:55And I wait for it every year.
08:57I love the ice roads.
08:58It gets in your blood and you just keep doing it.
09:00The loneliness of the northern hemisphere begins just a few kilometers outside the city of Winnipeg.
09:15Only very rarely do you meet people here.
09:22Jim Niedermeyer is one of them.
09:25He grew up here.
09:26In the summer, he works as a farmer and grows rice up here in northern Canada.
09:37During the long winter months, he works as an artist.
09:40He used to manufacture mainly furniture.
09:43By now, he sees more in wood than simply building material.
09:52You have to see what you're going to do in the wood.
09:55The wood has to have some kind of spirit in it that you have to see it.
10:02You don't know how it's going to turn out.
10:04You start up the saw and you just see what happens.
10:09You'll see it pretty quick.
10:16You'll know that you could see something in there.
10:19You know, there's an eagle and it's just, you know, the chainsaw is just removing wood.
10:25That's all it's doing.
10:26But this thing is underneath it.
10:28And it's a tool just for removing that wood and exposing that carving.
10:35Along the ice road, people know Jim Niedermeyer.
10:40The truckers regard his sculptures as symbols of their home country.
10:45Well, we have a lot of wood out here, a lot of animals.
10:52To me, it's got to be part of Manitoba.
10:55You know, it's just showing the creatures that are running out in the forest here.
11:01I try to bring them back to life in wood.
11:05That's my goal, is to bring them to life.
11:14In the meantime, Scott has reached the first frozen lakes.
11:18The smooth surface is a temptation for speeding.
11:21100 kilometres an hour, like on a highway.
11:25It makes you worry sometimes because as you're going across, you can hear the ice cracking.
11:30It actually sounds like thunder underneath your vehicle.
11:33But as long as you stay in the middle and you're safe and you do the right speed, everything's all good.
11:44Where Scott is driving right now is a lake in the summer.
11:47The ice roads exist only in wintertime.
11:50The through route to northern Manitoba lasts for a few weeks only.
11:55And no one knows for exactly how long.
12:01Each year in Manitoba alone, more than 2,000 kilometres of ice roads are built through the wilderness.
12:07But even in these arctic temperatures, you can't rely on the great rivers freezing over.
12:12Only permanent bridges can help.
12:20In the villages of northern Manitoba live mostly members of the First Nation, the indigenous inhabitants of Canada.
12:33The state's way of treating them is a dark chapter of Canadian history.
12:38Canadian government has just recently started to deal with some of these things that went on decades ago.
12:49But the after effects of the cultural genocide, forced assimilation, are seen not only in the big cities but some of the small communities and reservations throughout Manitoba.
13:01When you take a person and you rip out their culture and their traditions and you force them to do someone else's that is totally alien to them, they lose who they are.
13:12They lose their identity.
13:14The people living in the reservations are completely dependent upon state aid.
13:29And upon the transportation of goods on the ice roads.
13:34Scott visits old friends and relatives on each of his tours to the north.
13:45He has met up with Lee Cod to go ice fishing.
13:49Lee is a Pine Creek Indian and like Scott, fights for the remembrance of past injustices.
13:59What they did is, when your kid was five years old, they would come here, take all the kids, all the children, and then they would take them to residential schools.
14:12And then they would either Catholic, Presbyterian, I don't know, some kind of denomination, Christian.
14:21And it turned them out to Christianize them and believe in something that they weren't.
14:29You couldn't speak our language and you weren't allowed to talk to your family members, your siblings.
14:35And there was a lot of crying.
14:44Lee is trying to make the First Nation members more aware of their traditional way of life.
14:50It starts with very practical things.
14:55We would never have gloves like this.
14:57We would have like leather mitts, you know, that hides, caribou hide, has a fiber, has a hole in it for a good insulation that runs around this territory here.
15:13Lee wants to connect traditional ways of life with modern life.
15:19For example, an ice drill can actually be quite helpful if the ice is thicker than a meter.
15:28This balance between the past and modern age is not at all easy for many First Nation members.
15:34Ice fishing used to be an ordinary part of self-sufficient life for the people up north.
15:40Today, it's more or less a way to pass the time.
15:43Many First Nation members have drug and alcohol problems.
15:51Lee himself had a hard time too.
15:55Now, he helps young people and is engaged in revitalizing the traditions of the ancestors.
16:01It has helped him to get over his own problems as well.
16:10No bites. I think all the fish are in school.
16:12Yeah.
16:19Meanwhile, you and Vlad are still heading up north.
16:25Oh, I know that guy.
16:27Well, I just passed.
16:28Yeah, I'm going up north, going to centuries.
16:30How's the road?
16:33Ah, they're not too bad.
16:34Once you get up to about 220 there before you hit more on-hill,
16:37you're going to have to slap your chains on and pretty slick up there.
16:42So, basically the same old, same old, eh?
16:45Same, same, yeah.
16:47It looks pretty good out there.
16:49It's never any warmer than minus 25.
16:51Like last year, we had eight weeks of minus 60 below.
16:54It never got...
16:55There wasn't one day that was below minus 40.
16:57So, I mean, you get up there, metal breaks at minus 40.
17:01It breaks right in half.
17:02And then you're screwed.
17:03You're not getting out of there.
17:04So, you make sure you've got a sleeping bag that's good for minus 40.
17:08So, I mean, you've got to be prepared.
17:12Scott has relatives living alongside the ice road.
17:25He wants to stay the night with them.
17:27But he isn't going to make it before darkness sets in.
17:31The rare trail marks on the frozen lakes are hard to find.
17:38They're just simple branches at irregular intervals.
17:42And then the snowfall begins.
17:55Scott can only hope it's not one of those infamous snowstorms.
18:01A blizzard would destroy all trail marks for good.
18:06And the snow masses would make it impossible to continue driving.
18:12A whiteout is lurking.
18:17The white wall, which races across the open landscape as a snowstorm.
18:22The inferno of storm and snow makes all orientation impossible.
18:27The best thing to do in a whiteout if you're lost is just stay where you are.
18:34A lot of times people will spend hours and hours just walking in circles.
18:40To the point of exhaustion.
18:41And then just, that's it.
18:44Fortunately, the storm weakens.
18:47So Scott can drive on.
18:48He wants to make up for lost time.
18:51That's when it happens.
18:57In a short moment of distraction, he starts to slide and gets stuck.
19:06But he's fortunate in his bad luck.
19:08Scott is already within radio distance of the next village.
19:12Help arrives after a few minutes.
19:19Scott's truck is badly stuck in the snow.
19:22The second vehicle can't get any grip on the icy track.
19:26Finally, the men try to alternately push and pull Scott's truck out of the deep snow.
19:36The fourth vehicle can reach all Thor about the crutch Dass wenig riders on theliga lane.
19:54Done!
19:55And since everyone knows each other out here, a place to sleep is easy to find.
20:00Vlad and you have almost reached their destination for the day.
20:10800 kilometers north of Winnipeg, they cross the Nelson River on the concrete dam of a hydroelectric power plant.
20:25Worldwide, Canada is one of the major producers of hydro-powered electricity.
20:30This is how the province of Manitoba produces more than 90% of its energy.
20:47The truckers drive across the last lake of the day in walking pace.
20:54Standing still would be potentially lethal because of dangerous cracks in the ice that might occur.
21:01Top speed, 5 kilometers an hour.
21:10There is air between the ice and the water surface.
21:13The weight of the passing truck presses the ice down a bit.
21:17It freezes underneath so the cracks are patched.
21:20In spite of all the experience, every single crossing of the ice remains a risky business.
21:43Vlad and you arrive late at their place for the night along the ice road.
21:54They have everything they need for the night inside their trucks.
21:57So how did we do today?
22:09How did we do today?
22:11Well, I think we did pretty fair.
22:13She's a pretty decent time getting up here today, Shroats.
22:17Hey, I'm good.
22:18I got my colored book all done.
22:19So I'm going to sack her down for the night.
22:24What time are you getting up tomorrow morning?
22:27We may as well get up around 6 and enter in.
22:33That gives me my 13 hours.
22:34Yeah, that's fine.
22:36Well, you need all the beauty sleep you can get.
22:38Yeah, you passed on down a long time ago.
22:43There is no return for you.
22:46I said I'm too ugly to be on TV to show me the money.
22:51All righty, man.
22:52I'll see you in 6.
22:54All right.
22:54Good night.
22:55All right.
22:56Good night, man.
22:56The second leg stretches from Norway House to God's Lake,
23:09almost 300 kilometers across snow, ice,
23:12and dangerously hilly terrain.
23:21The next day, in the summer, you'd find swamps and lakes.
23:26Impenetrable moor lands.
23:28Neither boat nor truck could pass here.
23:33The roads across snow and ice can only be built in wintertime
23:36and if it's cold enough.
23:43One of the things they do if they find out the ice isn't thick enough
23:46is they'll send crews out here with big drills
23:51that they pull behind a vehicle,
23:53and they'll drill a hole in the ice,
23:54and as the auger spins through the ice
23:56and it gets into the water, it'll pull water up.
23:59It's called flooding the ice,
24:00so they can actually add inches to the top of the ice
24:03to make it thick and safe enough.
24:05The ice must be at least 1.2 meters thick
24:12in order for the 18-wheeler to cross the ice safely.
24:23Vlad and you start their journey early, too.
24:26If all goes well, they'll make the last 300 kilometers to God's Lake
24:37before darkness sets in.
24:42They are a well-rehearsed team
24:44and have gone through a lot together.
24:46If I go with Hugh on a trip, you know, I feel much more confident.
24:59Hugh is a great partner to be on these roads.
25:02You know, every single trip something happens.
25:04I know I can rely on that guy behind me
25:06because he knows a lot.
25:08Well, me and Vlad, we're business partners
25:10and good friends, like best friends.
25:12So we get along real good.
25:14When we travel together, there ain't nothing we can't pull off.
25:17I mean, we know we ain't going to get stuck in the bush anywhere.
25:20We know we're going to get anything done that needs to be done.
25:23So me and him travel real well together.
25:25We know each other pretty fair.
25:30It's the beginning of March.
25:32The roads are still in good shape
25:34considering the time of year.
25:36It may get warmer any day.
25:38Then the roads will turn into impassable swamps.
25:42Vlad and Hugh are in a hurry.
25:47They want to drive as many truckloads as possible up north this season.
26:00The ice roads have only existed for the last 50 years.
26:04There used to be no vehicles up here in the north.
26:07It was the time of the sledge dogs.
26:09For Duane Kabaluk, a construction engineer along the ice road,
26:14the dogs are just a hobby.
26:19His dogs are Alaskan Malamutes,
26:23famous for their strength and endurance.
26:25They can manage up to 100 kilometers without taking a rest.
26:29Up in the north,
26:32well, basically,
26:33they moved around from place to place wherever the food was,
26:36and they brought their families and all their belongings with them,
26:39and that's what they used the dogs for.
26:41And your dogs back then were basically your home pets,
26:45treated well, just like family.
26:47And in summer months,
26:48when they were low on food,
26:50your dogs were basically let loose,
26:52and they fend them their own.
26:53That's why the dogs still have a bit of prey instinct to them,
26:57compared to most dogs.
27:03The dogs are not only persevering and tough,
27:07they are also capable of defending the freight and their owner
27:10against polar bears.
27:11Dwayne practices with his dogs almost every day along the ice roads.
27:25He hopes next year they will be ready for their first race.
27:28Vlad and you must stop.
27:42In spite of all the hurry,
27:44it's safety first.
27:48There is one kind of accident on the ice roads
27:51the truckers are especially afraid of.
27:54A jackknife.
27:55That's what it's called
27:56when the heavy trailer and the truck
27:58twist and wedge together.
28:02This must be prevented by all means.
28:08Now,
28:10we've got about 30 clicks of rough road
28:12in front of us.
28:15And we're going to need some added traction
28:16because it's really hilly.
28:18And we load the trails like that.
28:20I don't want to end up in the ditch
28:22or upside down,
28:23so putting up chains
28:25so I can basically make those hills up there.
28:29Well,
28:29if I don't have the chains,
28:30best case scenario is
28:32I just get stuck
28:33until somebody pulls me up.
28:35Worst case scenario,
28:37I start sliding backwards,
28:39jackknife,
28:40and basically ended up in a ditch.
28:41Truck, trailer, load,
28:43you know,
28:44we're talking about $300,000
28:45in damages,
28:47so I don't want to end up like that.
28:48That's why I'm putting all those chains.
28:49The ride through the hilly terrain
29:09is an act of balance.
29:10If you drive too slowly,
29:18you lose the momentum
29:20and risk sliding backwards.
29:25But if you go too fast,
29:27you end up in the ditch
29:28and block the road.
29:30What's blocking the road
29:48with the truck to the trailer?
29:50Everything.
29:51Truck's right in the middle.
29:52I'll take you down here.
29:53One of Vlad and Yu's colleagues
30:00has landed in the ditch
30:01and must detach the truck now
30:04to clear the way.
30:09Without the weight of the trailer,
30:11the truck is hardly able
30:12to maneuver anymore.
30:15There's not much Vlad and Yu can do here,
30:17but help is on its way.
30:19Inch by inch,
30:22the fully loaded trucks
30:23work their way past the damaged truck.
30:44It's only later they learn
30:45that their colleague
30:46had to wait for two days
30:48before heavy machinery
30:49helped him out of his misery.
31:05Anything you learn on a highway,
31:07throw it out the window.
31:09I mean, basically,
31:10you can't hit your brakes on the ice.
31:11You've got hills up there
31:12and everything.
31:13If you hit the brakes,
31:14your load is going by you.
31:15If you're going to hit the brakes,
31:16you've got to use your trailer brakes.
31:17No tractor brakes at all
31:19and you've got to have
31:20a big set of nuts.
31:33Vlad and Yu want to make up
31:34for lost time and speed up.
31:38But a lack of attention
31:39for just a single moment
31:41is enough to cause danger
31:43water on these icy roads.
31:48How far are you?
31:51It looks like I went too fast
31:53and I got into the ditch
31:54and I need to pull.
31:56Oh, yeah.
31:57I see you now.
31:58There I go.
32:03A piece of ice
32:04was sufficient
32:05to derail Vlad's truck.
32:07And once a truck starts sliding,
32:09there's hardly any stopping it.
32:17Go ahead a little bit.
32:19Okay, I'm going to lock
32:20everything I got.
32:24I thought you'd just put her in gear
32:26and fucking step on the ground.
32:27Let's try slow if you can
32:29and just start bumping.
32:30Yeah.
32:30Okay.
32:31A towing maneuver
32:45with 500 horsepower.
32:47They got off lightly, though,
33:08just a slight damage
33:10to the bumper.
33:10All right, well, I'm hooking.
33:21Ah, yeah.
33:21You just touched her in there
33:23sideways.
33:24That'll be good.
33:25Let's rock and roll.
33:28Often enough,
33:29the two have experienced
33:31that they couldn't continue
33:32their journey.
33:33They had to hold out
33:34for days in their trucks
33:35until help arrived
33:37from Winnipeg.
33:38Many a driver
33:39has gone crazy
33:40in the loneliness
33:41of the north.
33:43Last year,
33:44a colleague had to be saved
33:45by a helicopter.
33:46It's truly a dangerous job,
33:49but 30,000 people
33:50in Manitoba
33:51depend on the transportation
33:53of goods
33:53on the ice roads.
34:06For the last part
34:07of the trip
34:07to God's Lake,
34:08the trucks need snow chains.
34:11Scott and his light pickup truck
34:13are almost there.
34:24The snowmobile
34:25in the back
34:26is still undamaged.
34:28The village God's Lake
34:43with its 2,000 inhabitants
34:44lies at the shore
34:46of the lake.
34:47In summertime,
34:48one of the best
34:48fishing grounds in Canada.
34:50Here,
34:51a highlight
34:51is awaiting the drivers
34:53after a long trip.
34:54Healy's Lodge.
34:55It's the only
34:56comfortable lodging
34:58in an area
34:58of many hundreds
34:59of kilometers.
35:01Not only the breakfast
35:02is legendary.
35:05The homely sitting room
35:06is a reminder
35:07of great hunting
35:08and fishing adventures.
35:10For decades,
35:11owner Goldie Healy
35:12has been making sure
35:13the travelers
35:14feel at home here.
35:15Good morning,
35:18good morning.
35:19Oh,
35:20good morning, Scott.
35:21Nice to see you, too.
35:23You made it.
35:24Yeah,
35:24it was a long trip,
35:26so it's almost 26 hours,
35:27but we made it.
35:28Yeah,
35:28the road is better
35:29this year
35:30than most years
35:30because we haven't
35:31had any melt.
35:32It's pretty cold.
35:34It's good, though,
35:35because the road's
35:35nice and tight.
35:36It was minus 51
35:38this morning,
35:38so everything's frozen
35:40pretty good,
35:40so it made for
35:41some good going.
35:42Yes,
35:42but I'm going to let you
35:43have your coffee.
35:43At Goldie's,
35:44practical information
35:45as well as tales
35:47of the trucker's
35:47greatest deeds
35:48are exchanged.
35:50Yeah,
35:50I'll be right back.
35:59Before Scott
35:59delivers his freight
36:00to a place
36:01a few kilometers
36:02outside the village,
36:03he uses the opportunity
36:05to go out on the lake.
36:07His old friend,
36:08Brian,
36:09who still goes fishing
36:10in the traditional way
36:11even in wintertime,
36:12has to bring his nets
36:14in and has asked
36:15Scott for help.
36:28Brian has put out
36:29the nets between
36:30two ice holes
36:31a few days ago.
36:38If you're doing it
36:38the old way
36:39with the picks
36:40and the chisel,
36:40you've got to dig
36:41a three-foot-wide hole
36:43probably, you know,
36:44three, four feet of ice
36:45and that's a lot of work
36:47but you do what you've
36:48got to do
36:48in the north.
36:54Basic supplies
36:55for the locals
36:56comes via the ice roads
36:58but a diverse diet,
37:00especially one
37:01containing fresh vitamins,
37:02can only be achieved
37:03by hunting and fishing.
37:05Brian fishes mostly
37:06for his own needs.
37:08He sells the surplus fish
37:09in the village.
37:11Oh, it's a nice one.
37:17Only a few moments
37:18after they come out
37:19of the water
37:20the fish are already
37:21deep frozen,
37:22ready to be taken home.
37:24An exceptionally yummy dish
37:26if fried in the pan.
37:31I used to do a lot
37:32of hunting and fishing
37:33with some of my family
37:34and that
37:34and to be back out
37:36in the community
37:36of God's Lake now
37:38to help some of my friends now
37:40it felt really good
37:41you know,
37:42doing things the way
37:43they used to do things
37:44and knowing that
37:45whatever I put into my day
37:47with them
37:47was going to help
37:48his family out
37:49so it was good,
37:50it was worth it.
37:51I really enjoyed it.
37:52Vlad and you
38:01are still at work
38:02but they too
38:03have almost arrived
38:04at God's Lake.
38:11A few kilometers
38:13from their destination
38:14the last great crossing
38:16of the lake
38:16is waiting for them.
38:18A safety distance
38:21of 500 meters
38:22and walking pace
38:24are obligatory.
38:38When you come onto the ice
38:40it deflects the ice
38:41and makes a wave
38:42under you
38:43so all the time
38:44you're going across that ice
38:45you're actually deflected
38:46and you've got a big wave
38:47pushing in front of you.
38:48So now he's got a wave
38:49in front of him
38:50and I've got a wave
38:51in front of me.
38:52You don't want my wave
38:53to catch up to him
38:54because the wave
38:55will hit his back tires
38:56break the ice out
38:57and he'll sink.
39:04You've got to go slow
39:05steady and slow
39:07respect the ice
39:07at all times
39:08go slow going on
39:09go slow coming off
39:11and keep your spacing
39:12between the trucks.
39:13If you're not only
39:14going to like kill yourself
39:16you're going to kill
39:17somebody else
39:17and you don't
39:18respect the ice.
39:23Even after 30 years
39:25the men still hold
39:26a great respect
39:27for the ice.
39:28It's their life insurance
39:30on the ice roads.
39:37After two days of driving
39:39Vlad and you
39:40do not want to lose
39:41more time.
39:42As soon as they are
39:43within radio range
39:44they try to reach
39:45their contacts
39:46in God's Lake.
39:47Hey Hugh, tell me
39:50tell me one more time
39:50what's loaded first
39:51and what's loaded second?
39:53Okay, the health unit
39:54is at the back
39:55and the admin
39:56is at the front.
39:57You're going to
39:58bed office
39:59that's the first load
40:00they're going to
40:01unload you
40:01and Ella
40:02from health authority
40:03is going to
40:04meet you
40:04at the bed office
40:05and drag you
40:06over to the complex
40:07and unload
40:08the second hour.
40:08Okay, so is somebody
40:11going to marshal us
40:12from the corner
40:12up here?
40:14Yeah, Ella's
40:15taking care of it.
40:17Okay, come on.
40:22Unloading
40:22is manual labour.
40:24It takes time
40:25especially if you
40:27arrive at the wrong time.
40:28Today
40:29they are lucky
40:30the helpers arrive
40:31quickly
40:31and they make
40:32good progress.
40:33While 40 tons
40:35of load
40:35are stored
40:36box after box
40:37the driver's thoughts
40:38are already
40:39one step ahead.
40:47I mean
40:48the whole season
40:49you know
40:49it's like roller coaster
40:50it's like
40:50a long lasting marathon
40:53you know
40:54you load
40:55and you start
40:56thinking about
40:56the trip
40:57when you get there
40:59you start
40:59talking about
41:01unloading
41:01when you unload
41:02you start thinking
41:03about
41:03how you're going
41:04to get back
41:05and when you get back
41:06you're thinking
41:07about the next load.
41:08because that's
41:08the name of the game
41:09you've got to get
41:09all these loads up
41:10here before the ice
41:11melts
41:11and you've seen it
41:12today
41:13it got down
41:14to only minus 6
41:15that's too warm
41:16for these roads
41:16if that happens
41:17for a whole week
41:18we're finished already.
41:20The biggest thing
41:21I'm looking forward to
41:22is getting my paperwork
41:23signed
41:23and getting back
41:24for my next trip.
41:25Scott too
41:34has arrived
41:35at his destination
41:36Hey bud
41:38it's me Scott
41:38I just made it in
41:39Hey
41:41glad to hear buddy
41:42how was the trip?
41:44It was good
41:45it was good
41:45it was a long trip
41:46but
41:46I got here
41:48I got the sled
41:49on the back
41:49everything's all fixed up
41:50right on
41:52yeah
41:52it was beginning to get a little worried
41:54thought you might have some drones
41:55no
41:56it was a good trip
41:57I'll see you shortly
41:59right on
42:00I'll be waiting
42:01it was a long trip
42:04but it was
42:05I'm glad it's over
42:07it's almost 30 hours
42:09on the road
42:10and
42:10roads are pretty decent
42:12but
42:14it's only half over
42:16now
42:16I've got to unload this
42:18and
42:18turn around
42:19and then I've got to head back
42:25in delivering the snowmobile
42:30Scott has completed his mission
42:32just like you and Vlad
42:35he will now head back as soon as possible
42:38back across Canada's ice roads
42:41for as long as the ice still carries
42:45μο 없어요
42:51you
42:52you
42:58you
43:02you
43:03you
43:07you
43:07you
43:09you
43:09you
43:12you
43:13you
43:14you
43:14you
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