Ice Road Truckers

[Ruby Slippers]

My OH is an ardent watcher of this programme but I always find myself wondering how 'true life' it is! Then I thought maybe LLL can tell me! Does anyone else watch it?

[Horus]

I watch it on occasion, but it does seem to be the same sort of stuff rehashed over and over, slippy road, stuck in snow etc.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Actually I do NOT watch this show as it is 'too real' and I've LIVED IT! IMO it is very true and does happen here. The roads can really only be driven on when they are frozen. They're made of blast rock which is big and sharp so regular cars can't drive on them (tires get ripped and pierced) so IF you do take your car there you have to go real slow and often the pot holes are so big they'll rip the bottom right out of your car and in the summer the dust is so bad only one vehicle can pass through per however long it takes the dust to settle.

In the winter the trucks can drive on anything that will hold them however spring and fall when the roads start to thaw there is the heave of the earth and they can get stuck and DO significantly churn up the roads - make ruts which only make it harder later to drive on. Many of the first roads that went through were built for logging trucks and those they keep to the edges as it is easier to load them if they're hanging on the edge vs trying to get them inland. And as they flattening out areas it is also easy to just push the crud over the edge of the mountain too.

On the flat open areas it is called muskeg. This land is swampy half water half vegetation that often has moss growing on top. Once this freezes it can be driven on but obviously now during a thaw. There is also tundra which is further north and is land that is permanently frozen - permafrost. You might get a bit of thaw in summer in the top few inches but everything underneath is frozen solid.

I've been in trucks that 'on ice' can be literally PUSHED back onto the road when they slide off as it is that slippery. I've driven in blinding whiteouts where you can't see the road and after a bit does give a level of snow blindness. Your eyes just stop seeing other than white. Studded tires for winter help with sliding on ice and chains MUST be used.

This time of year I'm stuck between the "Malahat" which is the mountain I'd need to cross to get into the City of Victoria and the "Hump" which also precludes me from going to the west coast of the island UNLESS I equip my car/van with winter tires heavy tread as these high areas can snow up within minutes and have had so many accidents it is now required to use winter tires OR stop and put on chains. I do have "ALL SEASON" tires but here they're affectionately known as "3 season tires" as we can't use 'em in winter AND I'm not even that close to the ICE ROAD trucker crew!!

I don't know if it is shown on this show or not but 'way up there' approximately every mile there is a small shack with a barrel inside with kindle/paper/wood stacked up. It is so cold (I'm talking minus 20 and less) that IF you can get to a shack your first job is to light up a fire because once you take your mittens/gloves off you will get about 2 (3 if you are lucky) strikes of a match to light the fire. After that your hands will become so cold you will not be able to hold the match. You'll just slowly stiffen up.

Now that being said I'm sure truckers of today carry - hmm 'snaps' - they're small plasticized square things that have a metal snap inside. You snap this and these things generate heat for about an hour. Gradually the stuff inside them hardens and you have to dip them back into rapidly boiling water for a few minutes to get the inside stuff to liquefy again so you can "snap" them again if you need to. I keep 2 in my glove box in the car. They're absolutely crucial to keep your hands 'nimble' so you can use them in the extreme cold.

Tell you husband what he IS watching is pretty true.......I have NO desire whatsoever to return to my young professional days and return "up north"!!

[Horus]

Thanks for that LLL, puts a new slant on what we see here and of course have to put up with which is very slight compared to you.

[LovelyLadyLux]

I thought about it after I hit 'submit' but I should add that I do believe the Show embellishes for dramatic effect. MOST of the truck drivers around here are definitely "red neck" types whose utterances can turn the air around them blue and "back in the day" only sobered sufficient to drive without blowing a .08. I think the show has more 'refined' characters than you'd find in real life driving the ice roads.

Going to the north is definitely like going back in time. Coming out of the 'office' (which was really only a trailer) I've face both wolf and bear. All the vehicles could never be shut off and all are equipped with block heaters so nothing freezes up.

Size is also different. Here where I am on the Island you never see the actual 'size' of open spaces like up there. Flying over miles and miles and miles of nothing to land on a tiny airstrip in the middle of nowhere. Give you a real appreciation of the actual size of the planet.

[Ruby Slippers]

Wow! Thanks for that info LLL! I'm really glad I asked now. How interesting.

[Horus]

I agree and I also reckon that LLL could give us all some nice little vignettes of life up in the far North