Original subtitles

(gentle upbeat music)

Manitoba, Canada.

Temperatures go down to below -50 Celsius.

One of the most inhospitable regions of the earth.

As soon as the swamps and marshes are frozen,

the ice road season begins.

It's the only period of time

in which the inhabitants of these isolated areas

can be supplied with goods.

It's a short period of time.

Everything that people need for the course of the whole year

must be brought there within two to three months.

The problem is, no one knows for exactly how long

the deep frozen swamps and lakes will be passable

for the 40 ton trucks.

Every single trip to the North is a risky ride.

Hot Roads, The Canadian Ice Roads.

(gentle music)

We're gonna offer a little bit of tobacco

to the to smudge here.

We're gonna put some of that tobacco in our pipe.

We're offering this pipe as a way of our acknowledging

that you're gonna have a safe trip.

Aright, I want you to, just.

Scott Campbell's ancestors

belong to the First Nation,

the country's native people.

You feel that you need.

He's proud to be one of them.

For those things that you want on this journey.

And then after that you and I will smoke that pipe.

Well, you got lots of hair anyway.

Yeah.

Ahead of Scott lies a dangerous trip

for which he wants to prepare himself spiritually.

I pray to my family,

that they are kept safe when I'm on my long journey.

And to be able to come back home safe.

(gentle music)

Scott and Chief Calvin

conjure up the mystic white buffalo woman,

a powerful being and patron of the North American natives.

(sings in foreign language)

Scott has promised a friend to transport

an urgently needed snowmobile

across the ice roads, up North.

With 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.

(truck engine revving)

Spirituality is connected to traditions

and customs and to family.

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,

sometimes hard to find direction in life

and find out where you're going.

(gentle music)

His journey begins in the heart of Canada,

not far from the border to the USA,

Winnipeg, the capital of the province of Manitoba.

From here the route leads

almost 1300 kilometers further North

to a little community called God's Lake.

Last warnings on the way into wilderness.

In wintertime, God's Lake, like many other villages,

can only be supplied by the ice roads.

(truck engine purring)

The transportation of goods is a tough business.

Most transports are organized by the state

and are contracted out amongst the road haulers.

It's a question of money and speed.

Both man and material are extremely under stress.

(gentle music)

Every truck that manages to return safely

is put to the acid test

before being sent out, back into the cold.

Hugh Rowland earned his money already at the age of 15,

as a construction worker, building the ice roads.

After 30 years in the business,

his colleagues call them Polar Bear.

I mean, people used to get up there

and the truck would break down.

And if your truck broke down,

in 15 minutes, you didn't get it going,

you were stranded there.

I've had guys freeze to death,

freeze your feet, freeze your hands.

And you can't leave your truck

because of the wild animals.

You get eaten by polar bears, wolves,

so you have to stay with the truck

and that's how people freeze to death.

I mean at 60 below, up there.

It's not a nice place to be with no heat.

Vlad Prescott arrived in Canada

as a young man with $42 in his pocket.

Today, he owns a freight forwarding business.

As soon as the first snow falls,

he sits on the driver's seat of his 40 ton truck again.

This is my baby, you know,

I sleep truck, I eat truck,

I breathe truck.

I mean, if something happens to my truck it's devastating,

it can cost me my life.

So everything has gotta be tip top.

That's why I'm checking every single bolt,

every single out from bumper to bumper.

Everything's gotta be tip top.

If it's not, it can break down out there.

There's no way to pull over and fix something,

it's -40, you know, you'll freeze to death in half an hour.

(gentle music)

Departure at dawn, it's -30 Celsius.

Hugh and Vlad have to go to God's Lake too.

Their load, school material medical goods

for the medical clinic.

(truck engines purring)

Ahead of them lies several 18 hour days

and the constant risk of getting stuck on the road

in these icy temperatures.

(gentle upbeat music)

In the beginning, it's only straight ahead

on highway number 6, heading North.

(gentle upbeat music)

A thousand kilometers from Winnipeg

to the little village of Norway House,

the first leg of the trip.

Well, when I was a kid, you know,

I want it to be a astronaut or a president.

(Vlad laughing)

Actually, I want it to be a pilot.

But my father, he drove the truck his whole life,

so I knew, when I was young,

that, that's gonna be my future too.

I was always interested in the truck

and I got to diesel underneath my fingerprints

when I was really young.

And I guess, you know,

once you get the little bit of diesel in your blood,

it's really hard to get rid of it.

As soon as the road patrol

releases the ice roads,

the ice truckers are on the road.

Every tour means cash.

(truck horn honking)

When I first started,

it was a real adventurous and it paid good.

Then of course, you know, I raised my whole family,

driving the ice roads, everything.

So I just kept doing it.

Now I just am passionate about it,

I can't wait to do it every year,

I can't wait for the ice to come in

and I get up there and I get to drive 'em

and I wait for it every year, I love the ice roads.

It gets into your blood, you just keep doing it.

The loneliness of the Northern Hemisphere

begins just a few kilometers outside the city of Winnipeg.

Only very rarely do you meet people here?

Jim Neidermyer is one of them, he grew up here.

In the summer, he works as a farmer

and grows rice up here in Northern Canada.

(chainsaw whistling)

During the long winter months, he works as an artist.

He used to manufacture mainly furniture.

By now, he sees more in wood than simply building material.

(chainsaw whistling)

You have to see what you're gonna do in the wood

and the wood has to have some kind of spirit in it

that you have to see it.

You don't know how it's gonna turn out,

you start up the saw and you just see what happens.

(chainsaw whistling)

You'll see it pretty quick,

you'll know that, you can see something in there,

you know, there's an eagle and it's just.

You know, the chainsaw is just removing wood,

that's all it was doing, but this thing is underneath it.

And it's a tool just for removing that wood

and exposing that carving.

Along the ice road, people know Jim Neidermyer.

The truckers regard his sculptures

as symbols of their home country.

Well, we have a lot of wood out here,

a lot of animals.

To me, it's gotta be part of Manitoba.

You know, it's just showing the creatures

that are running out in the forest here.

I try to bring them back to life in wood.

That's my goal,

is to bring 'em to life.

(gentle upbeat music)

In the meantime,

Scott has reached the first frozen lakes.

The smooth surface is a temptation for speeding.

100 kilometers an hour, like on a highway.

It makes me worry sometimes

because as you're going across, you can hear the ice crack.

And it actually sounds like thunder underneath the vehicle.

But as long as you stay in the middle and you're safe,

and you do the right speed, everything's all good.

Where Scott is driving right now

is a lake in the summer.

The ice roads exist only in wintertime.

The through route to Northern Manitoba

lasts for a few weeks only.

And no one knows for exactly how long.

Each year in Manitoba alone,

more than 2000 kilometers of ice roads

are built through the wilderness.

But even in these Arctic temperatures,

you can't rely on the great rivers freezing over,

only permanent bridges can help.

In the villages of Northern Manitoba

live mostly members of the First Nation,

the indigenous inhabitants of Canada.

The state's way of treating them

is a dark chapter of Canadian history.

Canadian government is just recently

starting to deal with some of these things

that went on decades ago.

But the after effects of the cultural genocide

forms of simulation or are seen not only in the big cities

but some of the small communities,

and some Reservations throughout Manitoba.

When 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,

they lose their identity.

(gentle music)

The people living in the Reservations

are completely dependent upon state aid

and upon the transportation of goods on the ice roads.

Scott visits old friends and relatives

on each of his tours to the North.

How you guys been?

He has met up with Lee Cod to go ice fishing.

Lee is a Pine Creek Indian

and like Scott fights for the remembrance

of past injustices.

Well, what they did is,

when your kid was five years old,

they would come here, take all the kids, all the children

and then they'll take them,

and take them to a residential schools.

And then either Catholic, Presbyterian, I don't know,

some kind of denomination Christian

and it turned them out to be, Christianized them,

and believe in something that they weren't.

They couldn't speak our language

and you weren't allowed to talk

to your family members, your siblings.

And there was a lot of crying.

Lee is trying to make

the First Nation members more aware

of their traditional way of life.

It starts with very practical things.

You would never have gloves like this,

you'd have like leather mitts, you know, that hides,

caribou hide as a fiber, has a hole in it,

for good insulation, that runs around this territory here.

Lee wants to connect

traditional ways of life with modern life.

For example, an ice drill can actually be quite helpful

if the ice is thicker than a meter.

(gentle music)

This balance between the past and modern age

is not at all easy for many First Nation members.

Ice fishing used to be an ordinary part

of self-sufficient life for the people up North.

Today, it's more or less a way to pass the time.

(gentle music)

Many First Nation members have drug and alcohol problems.

Lee, himself, had a hard time too.

Now he helps young people

and is engaged in revitalizing

the traditions of the ancestors.

It has helped him to get over his own problems as well.

No bites, I think all the fish are in school.

Yeah.

Meanwhile, Hugh and Vlad

are still heading up North.

(truck horn honking)

Oh, I know that guy.

I just passed you, I'm going up North,

going to Saint Theresa, how's the road?

No, they're not too bad,

once you get up to about 220 there 240

at more on the hill, you're gonna have to

slap your chains on, it's pretty slick up there.

So basically same old, same old, hey?

Same, same, yeah.

It looks pretty good out there.

It's never any warmer than -25.

Like last year, we had eight weeks of -60 below

and there wasn't one day that was below -40.

So I mean, you get up there, metal breaks at -40,

breaks right it half,

and then you're screwed, you're not getting out of there,

so you better make sure you got a sleeping bag

that's good for -40 so.

I mean, you always, you gotta be prepared.

(gentle music)

Scott has relatives

living alongside the ice road.

He wants to stay the night with them,

but he isn't going to make it before darkness sets in.

The rare trail marks on the frozen lakes are hard to find.

They're just simple branches at irregular intervals.

(gentle upbeat music)

And then this snowfall begins.

Scott can only hope it's not

one of those infamous snow storms.

A blizzard would destroy all trail marks for good.

And the snow masses would make it impossible

to continue driving.

A whiteout is lurking.

The white wall, which races

across the open landscape as a snow storm,

the inferno of storm and snow

makes all orientation impossible.

Best thing to do in a whiteout, if you're lost,

is just stay where you are.

A lot of times people will spend hours and hours

just walking in circles,

to the point of exhaustion and then just, that's it.

Fortunately, the storm weakens,

so Scott can drive on.

He wants to make up for lost time.

That's when it happens.

(truck engine purring)

In a short moment of distraction,

he starts to slide and gets stuck.

But he's fortunate in his bad luck,

Scott is already within radio distance of the next village.

Help arrives after a few minutes.

Scott's truck is badly stuck in the snow.

The second vehicle can't get any grip on the icy track.

Finally, the men try

to alternately push and pull Scott's truck

out of the deep snow.

(truck engines revving)

Done.

And since everyone knows each other out here,

a place to sleep is easy to find.

(gentle music)

Vlad and Hugh have almost reached

their destination for the day.

800 kilometers North of Winnipeg,

they crossed the Nelson River,

on the concrete dam of a hydroelectric power plant.

Worldwide, Canada is one of the major producers

of hydro powered electricity.

This is how the province of Manitoba

produces more than 90% of it's energy.

The truckers drive across

the last lake of the day, in walking pace.

Standing still would be potentially lethal

because of dangerous cracks in the ice that might occur.

Top speed, five kilometers an hour.

There is air between the ice and the water surface.

The weight of the passing truck presses the ice down a bit.

It freezes underneath so the cracks are patched.

(suspenseful music)

In spite of all the experience,

every single crossing of the ice remains a risky business.

(suspenseful music)

Vlad and Hugh arrive late at their place

for the night along the ice road.

They have everything they need for the night

inside their trucks.

How did we do it today?

I think we did pretty fair,

pretty decent time getting up here today.

I got my color and my cold on,

so sack her down for the night.

What time you getting up tomorrow morning?

Oh, we may as well get up around six and hit her hey.

Oh, that gives me my 13 hours, yeah that's fine.

Well, you need all the beauty sleep you can get.

(both laughing)

Yeah, you passed on that a long time ago,

there's no return for you.

I said, if you want me to be on TV,

just show me the money.

(both laughing)

Alrighty then, I'll see you at six.

All right, goodnight.

All right, goodnight man.

The second leg stretches

from Norway House to God's Lake,

almost 300 kilometers across snow ice

and dangerously hilly terrain.

(gentle upbeat music)

The next day, in the summer you'd find swamps

and lakes, impenetrable moorlands,

neither boat nor truck could pass here.

The roads across snow and ice

can only be built in winter time and if it's cold enough.

One of the things they do,

if they find out the ice isn't thick enough,

is they'll send crews out here

with big drills that they pull behind a vehicle

and they'll drill a hole in the ice

and as the auger spins through the ice

and it gets into the water, it'll pull water up.

It's called flooding the ice.

So they can actually add inches to the top of the ice

to make it thick and safe enough.

The ice must be at least 1.2 meters thick

in order for the 18 wheeler to cross the ice safely.

(gentle upbeat music)

Vlad and Hugh start their journey early too.

If all goes well, they'll make the last 300 kilometers

to God's Lake before darkness sets in.

They are a well-rehearsed team

and have gone through a lot together.

(truck horn honking)

If I go with Hugh on a trip,

you know, I feel much more confident.

Hugh is a great partner to be on these roads.

You know, every single trip something happens,

I know I can rely on that guy behind me

'cause he knows a lot.

Well, me and Vlad, we're business partners

and good friends, like best friends.

So we get along real good.

And when we travel together,

there ain't nothing we can't pull off.

I mean and we know we ain't gonna get stuck

in the bush anywhere

and we know that we're gonna get anything done,

that needs to be done.

So me and him travel real well together,

we know each other pretty fair.

It's the beginning of March,

the roads are still in good shape,

considering the time of year.

It may get warmer any day

then the roads will turn into impassible swamps.

Vlad and Hugh are in a hurry,

they want to drive as many truckloads as possible,

up North this season.

Come on boys.

The ice roads have only existed

for the last 50 years.

There used to be no vehicles up here in the North.

It was the time of the sledge dogs.

For Duane Campbellock, a construction engineer

along the ice road, the dogs are just a hobby.

His dogs are Alaskan Malamutes,

famous for their strength and endurance.

They can manage up to 100 kilometers without taking a rest.

Up in the North, well basically

they moved around from place to place, wherever the food was

and they brought their families

and all their belongings with them,

and that's what they used the dogs for.

And your dogs back then were basically your home pets,

treated well, just like family.

And in summer months, when they were low on food,

your dogs are basically let loose

and they fend on their own.

That's why the dogs still have

a bit of a prey instinct to 'em, compared to most dogs.

(gentle upbeat music)

The dogs are not only persevering and tough,

they are also capable of defending the freight

and their owner against polar bears.

(upbeat music)

Duane practices with his dogs almost every day,

along the ice roads.

He hopes next year, they will be ready for their first race.

(upbeat music)

Vlad and Hugh must stop,

in spite of all the hurry, it's safety first.

There is one kind of accident on the ice roads,

the truckers are especially afraid of, a jackknife.

That's what is called when the heavy trailer and the truck

twist and wedge together.

This must be prevented by all means.

No, we got about 30 clicks of rough road

and you're going to need some added traction

because it's really hilly

and with loaded trailers like that,

I don't wanna end up in the ditch or upside down,

so putting up chains

so I can basically make those hills up there.

But if I don't have the chains best case scenario is,

I just get stuck until somebody pulls me up.

Worst case scenario, I'll start sliding backwards,

jackknife and basically ended up in a ditch,

truck, trailer, load, you know,

we're talking about $300,000 in damages.

So I don't want to end up like that,

that's why I'm putting all those chains.

(gentle upbeat music)

The ride through the hilly terrain

is an act of balance.

(truck horn honking)

If you drive too slowly, you lose the momentum

and risk sliding backwards.

But if you go too fast,

you end up in the ditch and block the road.

(gentle upbeat music)

What's blocking the road,

the truck or the trailer?

Everything, trucks right in the middle,

it will be a while to under it.

One of Vlad and Hugh's colleagues

has landed in the ditch

and must detach the truck now to clear the way.

Without the weight of the trailer,

the truck is hardly able to maneuver anymore.

There's not much Vlad and Hugh can do here,

but help is on it's way.

Inch by inch, the fully loaded trucks

work their way past the damaged truck.

It's only later they learnt that their colleague

had to wait for two days

before heavy machinery helped him out of his misery.

Anything you learnt on a highway, throw it out the window.

I mean, basically you can't hit your brakes on the ice,

you've got hills up there and everything.

You hit the brakes, your load is going by you.

If you gotta hit the brakes,

you got to use your trailer brakes,

no tractor brakes at all.

And you got gotta have a big set of nuts.

(gentle upbeat music)

Vlad and Hugh wanna make up for lost time

and speed up.

But a lack of attention for just a single moment

is enough to cause danger on these icy roads.

(truck horn honking)

Hey Hugh, how far are you?

It looks like I went too fast

and I got in a ditch, I need a pull.

Oh yeah, I see you now.

A piece of ice was sufficient

to derail Vlad's truck.

And once a truck starts sliding

there's hardly any stopping it.

(truck engine revving)

Go ahead a little bit.

Okay, I'm gonna lock everything I got.

Just put her on gear and fucking give it all we got.

Let's try and slow, if you can,

then just stop bumping hey.

Yeah, yeah. Great

(suspenseful music)

A towing maneuver with 500 horsepower.

They got off lightly though,

just a slight damage to the bumper.

(both laughing)

All right, well how's it looking?

You just touched her in there, sideways out again.

Let's rock and roll.

Often enough, the two have experienced

that they couldn't continue their journey.

They had to hold out for days in their trucks

until help arrive from Winnipeg.

Many a driver has gone crazy in the loneliness of the North.

Last year, a colleague had to be saved by a helicopter.

It's truly a dangerous job.

But 30,000 people in Manitoba

depend on the transportation of goods on the ice roads.

(upbeat music)

For the last part of the trip to God's Lake,

the trucks need snow chains.

Scott and his light pickup truck are almost there.

The snowmobile on the back is still undamaged.

(gentle upbeat music)

The village, God's Lake, with it's 2000 inhabitants

lies at the shore of the lake.

In summertime, one of the best fishing grounds in Canada.

Here, a highlight is awaiting the drivers

after a long trip, Healey's Lodge.

It's the only comfortable lodging

in an area of many hundreds of kilometers.

Not only the breakfast is legendary.

The homely sitting room is a reminder

of great hunting and fishing adventures.

For decades, owner Goldie Healy has been making sure

that travelers feel at home here.

Good morning Goldie, how are you?

Oh, good morning Scott.

Good to see you. Nice to see you too,

you made it.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

It was a long trip, so it was almost 26 hours,

but we made it.

Yeah, the road is better this year than most years

'cause we haven't had any melt, I guess it's pretty cold.

It's good though 'cause the roads nice and tight,

it was -51 this morning,

so everything's frozen pretty good,

so it made for some good going.

Yes, I'll let you have your coffee.

At Goldie's, practical information

as well as tales of the truckers greatest deeds

are exchanged. Yeah, I'll be right back.

Before Scott delivers his freight

to a place, a few kilometers outside the village,

he uses the opportunity to go out on the lake.

His old friend, Brian,

who still goes fishing in the traditional way,

even in winter time,

has to bring his nets in and has asked Scott for help.

(gentle music)

Brian has put out the nets between two ice holes,

a few days ago.

If you're doing it the old way

with the picks and the chisel,

you got to dig out a three foot wide hole,

probably, you know, three, four feet of ice

and that's a lot of work.

But you do what you gotta do in the North so.

Basic supplies for the locals

comes via the ice roads.

But a diverse diet,

especially one containing fresh vitamins,

can only be achieved by hunting and fishing.

Brian fishes, mostly for his own needs.

He sells the surplus fish in the village.

Oh, it's a nice one.

Only a few moments

after they come out of the water,

the fish are already deep frozen, ready to be taken home.

An exceptionally yummy dish, if fried in the pan

I used to do a lot of hunting and fishing

with some of my family

and to be back out in the community of God's Lake now,

to help some of my friends now, it felt really good,

you know, doing things the way they used to do things

and knowing that whatever I put into my day with them

was gonna help his family out so,

it was good, it was worth it, I really enjoyed it.

Vlad and Hugh are still at work.

But they too have almost arrived at God's Lake.

A few kilometers from their destination,

the last great crossing of the lake is waiting for them.

A safety distance of 500 meters

and walking pace are obligatory.

(upbeat music)

'Cause when you come onto the ice,

it deflects the ice and makes a wave on the end.

So all the time you're going across that ice,

you're actually deflecting

and you've got a big wave pushing in front of you.

So now he's got a wave in front of him

and I got a wave in front of me.

You don't want my wave to catch up to him

cause the wave will hit his back tires,

break the ice out and he'll sink.

You gotta go slow, steady and slow,

respect the ice at all times.

Go slow going on, go slow coming off

and keep your spacing between the trucks.

'Cause you're not only gonna like kill yourself,

you're gonna kill somebody else

if you don't respect the ice.

Even after 30 years,

the men still hold a great respect for the ice.

It's their life insurance on the ice roads.

After two days of driving Vlad and Hugh

do not want to lose more time.

As soon as the are within radio range,

they try to reach their contacts in God's Lake.

Hugh, tell me one more time,

which load is first and which load is second.

Okay, the health unit is at the back

and the admin is at the front.

You going to the main office,

that's the first load.

Then I will head out,

but I'll meet you at he main office

and drive you over to the complex and unload the second.

Okay.

So is somebody gonna Marshall us from the corner up here?

Yeah, I'll have helpers taking care of it.

Unloading is manual labor, it takes time.

Especially if you arrive at the wrong time.

Today, they are lucky, the helpers arrive quickly

and they make good progress.

While 40 tons of load are stored box after box.

The driver's thoughts are already one step ahead.

I mean the whole season,

you know, it's like rollercoaster,

it's like long lasting marathon, you know,

you load and you stop thinking about the trip.

When you get there, you start talking about unloading,

when you unload, you start thinking

about how are you gonna get back.

And when you get back, you're thinking about the next load.

'Cause that's the name of the game,

you got to get all these loads up here before the ice melts.

And you've seen it today, it got down to only -6.

That's too warm for the roads.

If that happens for a whole week, we're finished already.

The biggest thing I'm looking forward to

is getting my paperwork signed

and get back for my next trip.

Scott too has arrived at his destination.

Hey buddy, it's me Scott, I just made it in.

Glad to hear buddy, how was the trip?

Oh, it was good, it was good, it was a long trip,

but I got here and I got the sled on the back,

everything's all fixed up.

I was beginning to get a little worried,

thought you might have had some trouble.

No, it was a good trip.

I'll see you shortly.

It was a long trip

but I'm glad it's over.

It's almost 30 hours on the road

and roads are pretty decent.

But it's only half over now,

I gotta unload this and turn it around,

and then I gotta head back.

(gentle upbeat music)

In delivering the snowmobile,

Scott has completed his mission.

Just like Hugh and Vlad,

he will now head back as soon as possible,

back across Canada's ice roads,

for as long as the ice still carries.

(gentle upbeat music)