This fascinating series reveals the virtually unknown occupation of ice road trucking, one of the world’s most dangerous jobs. In the second of this week’s two episodes, the end of the ice-road season sees grizzled veterans Hugh Rowland and Alex Debogorski battling to be crowned leader of the pack with the most hauls to their name. TJ Tilcox is given the honour of leading his last convoy, and a massive hill lies between Jay Westgard and his final destination.

The days are growing longer and the temperatures hover above freezing as spring reaches Yellowknife. The ice-road engineers are keeping a close eye on the highway. “There’s no set date for when the road is going to be closed,” says one official. “We just got to kind of watch the road. They say the road’ll talk to us.” The problem for the drivers is that they may not know how brittle the ice is until it breaks beneath their wheels. “In the springtime, your ice melts from the bottom up, not the top down,” explains local historian Walt Humphries. “So the surface looks exactly the same as it did before, but the ice is becoming thinner and thinner.”

Of the 800 truckers who began the season, only 125 remain. With most of the supplies having been delivered, the drivers must now compete for loads. The hottest competition is between the old hands of the road, Hugh Rowland and Alex Debogorski, who enjoy a friendly rivalry as they seek to pull the most loads of the season. Hugh, with 36 loads to Alex’s 35, is the person to beat. “Alex just goes and goes... I’m not even worried about him at all,” Hugh says. “Unless I have a major breakdown.”

Unfortunately, bad luck is just around the corner when Hugh is clipped by an oncoming truck and sent sliding off the road. Some of the corrosive powder he is carrying spills out and starts eating into the ice, prompting a desperate clean-up operation. Hugh and the safety officers manage to limit the damage to the road, but his battered rig has suffered a bust axle and must be abandoned. “You got to take the bad with the good, and today it happened to be my turn,” Hugh says. He is unwilling to give up, however, and heads back to Yellowknife to see if he can start another of his trucks. If Hugh can get back on the road with one more load, the title will be his. Alex, however, is determined to fight on. He has a load ready to transport, but no one to drive with him. He succeeds in convincing the dispatch office that his trailer is small enough to qualify him as a “hot shot” – or single-axle – driver, which means he can opt out of the ‘buddy system’ and travel alone. Alex is gambling that he will not run into trouble on his long night-time drive. “At the very worst, I’ll freeze to death,” he muses. “They’ll find me in springtime or the bears will eat me!” Alex completes his 36th delivery, but he must make a mad dash back to Yellowknife to collect another consignment if he is to draw level with Hugh.

Which of the two titans will emerge victorious?

Elsewhere, TJ Tilcox is granted the honour of leading his convoy as he sets out on his 23rd and final run of the season. TJ is one of the few rookies still driving, and he has survived the worst the ice road has had to throw at him, including blizzards, crashes and injury. “That boy’s got more tough in his little finger than most of these drivers got in their whole body,” secure check officer Gerry White says. “Either that, or he’s just not smart enough to know when to quit!”

Meanwhile, heavy-haulage specialist Jay Westgard will not let the season rest without one more challenge. He is tasked with delivering a gigantic rock truck to a gold mine. He must pull the 42,000-pound load over a melting ice road with a weight limit of 40,000 pounds. Jay successfully clears the ice, only to get stuck halfway up a steep hill in the middle of nowhere.

Will anyone come to his rescue?

Friday 7th March at 8:00pm on five