Ice Road Truckers

So I've become very fascinated in the last week or so, with a program on the History Channel...

it's called Ice Road Truckers....... for two months every winter, 3 diamond mines in the North West Territories bring in all of their annual supplies by truck ....

The roads are only open for 60 days..... The main road, in this show is just over 300 miles long... and it winds northeast from Yellowknife....

The road is 85% across frozen lakes.... and 15% across portages ... which are man made ice roads, across tundra..... bulldozers cut a path between the lakes, and then water trucks flood the paths and make it a virtual skating rink that trucks traverse....

The supplies are collected over several months, and stored in truck yards in Yellowknife...... From there, they are transported by truck ... in frigid temperatures..... the drivers at some points working and driving in 24 hours of darkness....

The task is mammoth......10,000 loads in 60 days....which works out to 4-truck convoys leaving dispatch every 20 minutes......

One of the diamond mines ( one is Tiffany's, one is Debeers, ) harvests 15 pounds of diamonds per day.... which is worth $4 million....The cash flow is staggering.

The truckers can earn a years' salary in 60 days.... but the risks are great...

The breakdowns are frustrating , very costly and can be life threatening if they break down somewhere along the lake .....

Sleep deprivation makes the risks even greater

This is an incredible show...

It's very very dangerous work.... and completely fascinating to watch......


If you have some time.... go to the history channel's website ( Click HERE )

Click on TV Shows and then from the drop down box, click Ice Road Truckers.... You can watch entire episodes from the first two seasons.....

sigh..... it's addicting!!!!

















The roads are constantly flooded by water trucks.... in the end, the ice is much thicker on the "road" portion than any other spots on the lake..... the danger is if you go off the road, you could easily go through cause the ice is thinner off to the sides....






This is the sonar machine that measures the ice thickness


Cracks like this are a constant danger.....