Throng

Tuesday 19th January 8.00pm

The documentary series exploring one of the world’s most dangerous professions continues. In this episode, Alex and Hugh get their first glimpse of the ice road. Lisa asks to haul the biggest load of her career to date. Rookie Tim finds himself lost in a blizzard on one of the road’s most treacherous slopes. And Jack helps a driver stuck in the snow.

This season, veteran Canadian drivers Alex Deborgorski and Hugh ‘The Polar Bear’ Rowland face a challenging new road – the Dalton Highway in Alaska. The boys join six other truckers who hope to earn big money plying the 414-mile route across mountains and tundra to the oilfields of Deadhorse. This historic highway, built in 1974 to service the Trans-Alaskan oil pipeline, has claimed countless lives over the years. Can the current crop of ice road truckers stay alive and safe as they deliver vital supplies to the coast?

Alex and Hugh have spent the last week on an intensive training course for new truckers. They are now ready to tackle the real thing – but their first journey on the ice road will be supervised by safety inspectors employed by their company, Carlile. For his part, Hugh is raring to go. “This is one [road] that I’ve always wanted to try,” he says. “I have all the confidence in the world that I’m gonna succeed. Everybody knows polar bears have the right of way!”

At 57, Alex has something to prove to his new employers. Last year, his season was cut short when he suffered heart problems. Now Alex is determined to stage a triumphant comeback. However, Hugh cannot help making a few jokes at his old rival’s expense. “He’s getting a bit long in the tooth!” he says. “I’ll probably have to pass him like usual a couple of times a day while he’s napping.”

Alex has his revenge when he overtakes Hugh on their first trip up the road and gleefully blows his horn in his pal’s face. Not to be outdone, Hugh catches him up, but both veterans soon hit problems on the road. After ignoring inspector Tony’s advice to slow down, Hugh skids around a corner. Tony orders him to sit in the passenger seat for the rest of the drive to Deadhorse.

Alex, meanwhile, is having trouble adjusting to his vehicle’s gearbox. With a storm blowing in, his instructor Phil decides to take over. “The weather can change in five miles or five minutes anywhere in the state of Alaska,” Phil says. As the two trucks proceed in convoy over one of the road’s mountainous passes, Hugh and Alex are chastened by the sight of an overturned truck in the ditch. The pass winds along with a huge drop on one side of the road. “If you go off one of them banks, you’re gonna die,” says Hugh. Are the veteran duo ready for the challenge of the Dalton Highway?

Elsewhere, 28-year-old Lisa Kelly wants to take on her first heavy load. “I need something a little more difficult, only because I’m tired of getting teased,” she says. Her boss sends her out with a trailer of giant tyres weighing 42,000lbs. “If she makes it through this one and does well, then it’ll be a real feather in her cap,” he says. However, on a curving patch of road called ‘The Taps’, Lisa’s wheels start to slide. Later, while tightening the straps on her load, a wrench breaks and almost hits her in the head. Can she make it in one piece?

Rookie driver Tim Freeman, meanwhile, teams up with old hand George Spears on his second drive up the ice road. The pair run into trouble when a storm hits them just as they are descending the ‘Beaver Slide’, a terrifying two-mile hill with a gradient as steep as a ski slope. With visibility down to zero, George loses contact with Tim. Is the rookie safe?

Also this week, 38-year-old Jack Jesse helps tow a pickup truck out of a snow drift. Later, he is caught up in a storm. Unable to stop, he has no choice but to push on into the gathering night.