Original subtitles

[Art] I don't like the fog.

I don't like not being able to see.

This is a pretty deadly canyon.

[Jesse] I didn't think it was so steep.

[Chuck] There's a lot of wrecks all the time.

That would have been a ride.

Holy moly!

[Big Jon] There's about a ten-mile backup of traffic.

[Charlie] There's nowhere to go when things hit the fan.

-[Kory] I can't see! -[Dean] Hey, stop!

[Big Jon] Yo.

We need to get this road open.

We're gettin' a lot of heat.

[Art] We're gonna give 'er hell

and see what happens.

Whoa!

[radio weather report] Good morning, Colorado.

The weekend is coming up,

and before everybody heads out to the hills,

just a reminder

that the weather may scramble your plans.

A number of storms are lined up,

and we expect a few of them will land

in the next few hours west of Denver.

[Charlie] Yeah, weather's taking a turn in a big way.

Roads are slick.

It's definitely icy underneath,

where kind of rain started,

and then it snowed on top.

It is Friday afternoon.

Everybody's coming to ski for the weekend,

and there is a lot of traffic.

The phenomenon that we have is that when it snows,

people come to the mountains

because they wanna ski, right?

So the snow doesn't scare them away,

it actually attracts them.

[Narrator] Every weekend,

the local ski resorts draw thousands of visitors,

flooding I-70.

Friday afternoon is peak travel time,

the worst time for bad weather.

[Charlie] Then we've also got these truckers,

they're coming up these tall, steep grades,

they're overheating,

or they're jackknifing in the snow,

and all this kind of stuff.

This recipe that we have here in the mountains

doesn't exist anywhere else in the world.

[Charlie] Uh-oh.

I just rolled by probably a half a dozen vehicles

spun out.

Lots of things going on here.

[Charlie] This is a really bad spot.

Between mile marker 180 and 190 on I-70,

there are more accidents per interstate mile

of any interstate in North America.

We've got concrete barriers in the center median,

we've got concrete barriers on the shoulder side,

and there's nowhere to go when things hit the fan.

[Narrator] As Charlie heads towards the scene,

traffic is already backing up, for miles...

-[sirens wailing] -Uh-oh.

[Narrator] ...including an ambulance

with no way to move forward.

[Charlie] They're stuck in that traffic queue.

They're just completely immobilized right now.

[Charlie] You want to get through?

Let me back some of this traffic out for you.

We're going to get this ambulance through traffic,

'cause they're high priority.

[Narrator] If Charlie can create an opening,

the ambulance can make it to the shoulder

and escape.

[Charlie] Can you back up?

There we go.

Yup. See ya.

[Narrator] The paramedics are on their way,

but Charlie still needs to reach the crash

that's the source of the problem.

[Charlie] There is miles and miles of traffic.

[Narrator] Frustrated drivers

aren't helping the situation.

[Charlie] When it's stopped,

everybody gets out,

and they create this huge traffic hazard.

It makes it really dangerous for us.

It makes it dangerous for them.

Like, it's all bad.

This lady's carrying a baby

outside of her car right now.

Why? Why?

Why would you do that?

This is just par for the course

for the mountains.

Holy moly!

[Narrator] The semi lost control

on a patch of ice,

jackknifing into the guardrail,

and wedging in tight

across the entire westbound interstate.

[Charlie] This is a particularly urgent situation.

There is a lot of traffic.

It's backed up from the top of Vail Pass

all the way down to Copper Mountain,

over five miles of traffic queued two lanes wide.

[Narrator] 1,500 vehicles are stuck,

and the number is rising.

[Charlie] This is full closure Friday afternoon.

This is prime time for tourism.

This is prime time for trucking.

We need to get this out of the way.

[honking]

[Narrator] Help has arrived...

Big Jon and Kory

with their matching 50-ton rotators.

[Big Jon] Do we have enough room

to bring it all the way around?

[Kory] It's pushed into the guardrail.

You know, it's quite a tricky job.

It's across the entire highway.

We got quite a bit to work with here,

and got to get this highway opened up soon.

[Big Jon] I'm just a little bit worried

about, like, the box isn't closed.

It's broken right there.

A lot of the integrity of that trailer

is those doors being closed,

and holding it all together.

When you try to lift it up, I don't want to--

the whole thing to twist and snap and break.

Do you want to just winch it sideways?

[Kory] We got to try to maneuver this whole mess

out of here

without breaking something.

[Narrator] Big Jon will wrangle the heavy front end

off the guardrail

while Kory lifts on the rear of the trailer.

Together,

they'll carefully swing the trailer around...

I'm gonna lift the rear end of this trailer up,

and boom it out this way.

Okay, good.

Break, here we go!

[Narrator] ...but Kory can only lift

from one side of his truck.

[Charlie] On a previous recovery,

unfortunately, Kory's outrigger leg

on his passenger side broke...

[Kory] Whoa.

[Charlie] Something bad just happened.

[Charlie] ...and we haven't been able to get it fixed.

[Kory] Now that the outrigger's broke,

I mean, I can't really do any side work

off that passenger side.

[Narrator] With winter hitting hard,

Charlie can't afford the time

to send the rotator away for repairs,

so Kory can only lift from his driver's side.

[Big Jon] Time is of the essence right now.

[Narrator] Now that the scene is in his crew's hands...

[Charlie] All right, see you guys.

[Narrator] ...Charlie needs to head back on patrol.

[Big Jon] Um, Dean, you want to start

pulling drag winch?

Go to that front axle of the trailer.

[Narrator] ...but some extra rigging help

has just joined the crew.

[Dean] There's miles and miles of traffic.

The pressure's there.

A closure on I-70 during a snowstorm

is a big deal.

[Big Jon] Yeah, just over the top,

and I'm gonna come underneath

and give it back to you.

That'll work.

[Narrator] Forced to work from his truck's good side,

Kory squeezes into the narrow gap

between the semi and the barrier.

Our main concern

is just getting it winched far enough up the hill...

[Kory] This is an absolute tight squeeze

getting this thing turned around right now.

We do not have a lot of room to work with.

I don't wanna scratch a new truck.

I mean...

Definitely don't want that to happening today.

[Kory] It's crazy out here.

We got to get this thing opened up.

[Big Jon] Hopefully get this road open quick.

There's probably a 10-mile backup of traffic.

[Narrator] An hour into the closure

and 3,000 vehicles,

with thousands more travelers,

are now stranded.

[weather report] It's currently 23 degrees

on the edge of the Rockies.

We have fog that is rolling in and out

and creating problems all along I-80.

[Art] Okay, we're rolling here.

[Brendan] So, it's a little bit foggy out,

and we've been having overnight snow showers,

which basically turn the highway to ice.

So we have low visibility,

we have bad traction,

and people who don't realize

that there's ice on the highway.

[Art] There's gonna be fog.

It can make it quite a bit icier if it's sticky,

so we're gonna have to watch our backs

with traffic and everything else.

It could be interesting.

[Narrator] In Wyoming,

banks of freezing fog

have been rolling across I-80,

dropping visibility below a half a kilometre

and causing chaos.

Suspended water droplets can remain liquid

even when the surrounding air

is below freezing temperature.

When the liquid contacts a surface,

it can turn to ice.

The fog can blind drivers in an instant,

and under the right conditions,

freeze over the surface of the road.

That combination proved too much for one semi.

[tires screeching]

[Art] The whole front end's busted open.

So we need to get one of the big straps out

and get it set.

[Narrator] In this weather,

the fog can return at any time,

putting pressure on the crew.

[Brendan] This being my first rollover,

it's fun and exciting, but also a little scary.

[Art] So we're pretty much gonna need all those damn straps

out of that truck.

[Brendan] I just turned 25 years old,

and I grew up in Sacramento, California.

I moved myself and my girlfriend to Rawlins.

I don't know how a California boy

is gonna survive out here,

but we're going to try.

[Art] Get that strap laid up.

[Brendan] Art Farmer's a crazy Alaskan

who has tons of experience doing all of these crazy things,

both in Alaska and here in Wyoming,

and he's definitely kind of a one-man show.

He knows how to do more with less,

so that's kind of super cool.

[Art] Brendan is our light duty guy.

He's bringing out his medium duty flatbed

to give us a hand doing the rollover.

Come on, Brendan!

[Art] He hasn't done too many wrecks,

hasn't been on any big wrecks,

so this is his first big wreck in Wyoming with us.

[Art] You got your pants with ya?

[Brendan] No.

[Art] You're gonna get wet before the day's done.

Art's a gruff guy...

Get one of those on there.

[Brendan] ...but I love working with him,

'cause he knows what he's doing.

[Art] So, this is going to be an all-day thing.

[Art] There's a lot of fog today.

It's coming in, going out.

I have a hard time seeing as it is.

I don't need help with things clouding me up.

We've been stopped for about 45 minutes to an hour now.

We're supposed to be over in Grand Junction.

I've heard that, you know, winter can be dicey on I-70

up in the mountains,

and now I'm seeing it.

[Narrator] With stuck drivers stretching back

for almost ten kilometres down I-70,

Big Jon and Kory are under the gun.

He is going to get some pick, I'm going to get some pull,

and we're going to hope it slides

over the top of this guardrail.

[Narrator] With the limit

on where Kory can position his truck,

the remote is his only way to operate

with a clear view of the jackknife.

[Big Jon] Oh, his rotation,

it was sticking on his remote?

[Narrator] But for some reason,

his remote isn't responding.

[Kory] Broken.

Oh, no...

Oh, that's not good.

With this broken outrigger

that I still got on my truck,

I'm not able to swing my boom around.

So yeah, now my remote's not working.

It's so frustrating.

[Big Jon] We need to get this highway open.

We got... I don't even know

how many miles of traffic backed up,

but there's a lot of pressure to get this open quickly.

[Art] Brendan, come look.

See that orange hook?

[Brendan] Yeah.

See how the hook's into the tire...

-Yeah. -...or gonna be?

We try and avoid that,

so we're gonna spin that around.

Okay.

[Narrator] In Wyoming...

freezing fog is blowing in and threatening visibility

as Art guides the rookie.

Brendan's role out here is going to be pretty simple.

It's his first wreck with me.

I pretty much just need him to do what he's told

and pay attention.

[Narrator] With 25,000 pounds of courier freight

in a trailer that's already ripping open,

Brendan's learning curve is a steep one.

[Brendan] I'm not skinny enough.

[Art] No?

You get any skinnier, I'm going to fire you.

[Brendan] I'm pretty sure that's illegal.

[Art] You're probably right,

but I told you I wasn't going to make a good boss.

[laughing]

[Narrator] Art is aiming to do a reverse roll.

It's a complicated maneuver

where the semi is pulled upright,

away from the wrecker.

[Art] You gotta put it through that first.

[Art] I prefer the reverse rollover

because you're not bringing it to you.

You have a lot less chance of things going wrong,

coming into your truck, coming into your people.

It makes it a little safer

for what we have to do, you know,

'cause things happen and things break.

There you go.

[Narrator] To clear the scene before the fog rolls in,

Art will lift the compromised trailer

with the load still inside.

-No, you're good. -[air hissing]

[Narrator] That will require another wrecker,

and some extra help.

Mornin'!

[Art] Jim, he's a new hire.

He's been here three weeks.

So we're going to do everything we can

to not buckle this any more.

[Jim] I'm going to be there to assist

in any way that they might need,

so an extra set of eyes, extra set of hands.

It also serves as a learning experience

for me to see how Art likes to hook these things up.

[Art] So normally,

I put a shackle there.

You start pullin' on that, you get into that.

[Art] Working with two guys

that I haven't worked with before,

that can be challenging.

We got everything set up.

We just need to push that strap under there.

[Narrator] A network of lines between the two wreckers

will roll the trailer,

but Brendan will be in the lead,

pulling on the tractor

to help coax up the entire semi.

-[Art] Brendan? -[Brendan] Yes.

[Art] We're going to feed this through right here.

-[Brendan] Uh-huh. -[Art] Go under...

All the way.

... and then we're going to work it back and forth...

-Grab that... -...then grab it

and pull it through. -Okay.

[Brendan] I know Art knows what he's doing,

but I'm kind of staring at what's going on,

trying to make sense of it.

[Art] Yeah, right there is right where I want it.

[Narrator] The intricate rigging

is taking time,

and visibility is dropping fast.

[Brendan] Fog's coming back.

So, as we're rigging, it starts getting colder,

and it's starting to get harder and harder to see.

[Jim] We have some fog rolling in,

and it's reducing the visibility.

That creates a significant hazard for us.

[Art] If you're in the median,

you have people coming east and west.

You're right in the middle of everything.

I'm worried about the traffic.

I don't like the fog.

I don't like not being able to see.

So you gotta pay attention.

The original estimate was two hours,

but they bumped it back another hour and a half.

Kinda getting the whole experience.

I try to tell them to travel in pants,

but they refuse.

I like my shorts.

[Kory] This interstate's one of, like, the main arteries.

It is just so important

that we get this roadway opened up as soon as possible.

[Big Jon] Good, good!

[Narrator] Three hours into the closure on I-70,

pressure is mounting.

[Big Jon] We squeezed Kory's truck down there.

We got him positioned.

Um, his remote's not working.

Uh... just issues.

[Narrator] With no remote,

Kory is working blind...

[Kory] I can't see over here.

[Narrator] ...and wedged against the barrier,

he's got to swing around the trailer

without smashing his own truck.

[Dean] I'm going to watch for you, Kory.

You're clear right now.

You have about a foot clearance up there.

[Big Jon] Whoa, whoa!

Don't pull it too close to your truck.

Boom out.

[grunting] I can't-- ooh.

Right now, I got about a foot

from the Jersey barrier in my truck,

and that trailer is about an inch away from my truck.

Pulled it back a little bit

when you tightened up,

and boom out right there.

[Dean] Pause. You're coming in.

It's coming in closer to your truck, Kory.

Hey, stop!

You're touching.

[Kory] It's going to be hard.

It's going to be a fight.

[weather report] We have a rolling fog advisory

on a section of I-80

between Rock Springs and Elk Mountain.

Please use caution out there today.

[Art] Let's get this one hooked up right here.

[Art] With the fog rolling in,

it changes the temperature on the road.

You can be driving along

and all of a sudden, hit some black ice.

Most people hit their brakes.

If they're on that ice,

we could have them coming into us pretty quick.

I need you to back up,

and we're going to get really fricking close here.

[Narrator] Conditions on I-80 are deteriorating by the minute,

so it's time to put Art's complex plan into action...

a big moment for the rookie.

[Brendan] I'm definitely excited

to break it down with Art

and see the Art Farmer way in action.

I'm going to have you on the back.

I'm going to be here on the front.

Brendan's going to be on the nose.

[Narrator] Pulling on the tractor,

Brendan will be leading the pull

and helping coax the trailer over.

Art calls this the crack-the-whip effect,

and what that's going to do

is as the front end comes around,

and as they're lifting the trailer,

that tractor is going to come down first,

and it's going to kind of pull the trailer down with it.

Like a whip.

Have you rolled a front end before?

No.

[Brendan] It's definitely a little nerve-racking,

not really knowing how everything works,

and not knowing if I'm doing everything right.

You have to be a foot ahead of everything else.

I want that whole truck in a twist,

and you have front end pulling down,

because actually, that front end pulling down

takes pressure off all this.

[Jim] It'll be interesting to see how he works out on it.

It definitely takes some experience

to really get the feel for it.

Sometimes the best way to learn is just to jump in

and take every challenge and opportunity

and just hit it head-first.

Okay, give me that line.

[Narrator] To lift the 60,000 pounds,

Art will use a combo of eight snatch blocks

to reduce the load on each winch line.

I was a virgin once too.

[laughing]

[Narrator] Snatch blocks are heavy-duty pulleys

that double a winch's pulling power

wherever they're applied.

You're going to use your winch the whole time,

but it's up and out.

[Brendan] I get what is coming out of his mouth,

and I know we set it up to how he wants it,

but it just kind of looks like, you know, there's...

there's cables going this way and that way.

[Art] Okay.

Can you see that? -Yeah.

-See that angle? -Yup.

You keep that far ahead of us the whole time.

-Okay. -Okay?

[Art] I think we're going to give 'er hell

and see what happens.

You ready?

[Brendan] We're rolling it.

[Art] Okay, you're going to have to winch.

[Art] We're rolling it.

[Brendan] My only thought is

I hope I'm not too far ahead,

so I'm focusing on tapping my button,

making sure that tractor's coming over

about where he said.

Just keep winching in.

[Jim] I'm winching in.

Okay, you're going to have to go out with it.

Go out.

[Jim] My snatch blocks are coming into each other again.

[Art] So go out with your boom.

Now you're going to have to go up.

[Art] So if your snatch blocks are getting too close together,

it makes that line twist in ways it's not supposed to,

and it can break.

You can be in 100% control,

and then something move,

and then you are not in control at all.

Whoa, [bleep].

Whoa, [bleep].

I didn't like that.

[Narrator] On I-80 in Wyoming,

the reverse roll has hit a rough patch.

In the process of rolling this trailer,

I didn't have the strap

in the exact right spot,

and the strap shifted.

When it shifted,

weight moves.

I don't like weight moving,

but it happened,

so here we are.

[Brendan] Oh, crap.

Being there at the controls,

you know, obviously you want everything to go right.

You don't want the truck to fall back to the ground,

or a cable to snap and somebody get hurt,

so it's a little scary.

[Narrator] Now they've got to hope that the strap

and the loose load inside

have settled into place.

[Art] Keep going, keep going.

Yeah, this is definitely a trial-by-fire thing for me.

[Art] There it is.

[Brendan] That was frickin' cool!

[Art] You like that?

-Yeah! -[Art laughing]

[Brendan] I liked that a lot.

[Brendan] So getting the truck back on its feet,

it feels great.

Frickin' pumped.

Was I too far ahead, twisting...

-No. -...or that was perfect?

Oh, it went really well.

The trailer's upright, truck's upright.

We can tow it away.

[Art] You don't win them all.

Nobody ever does.

Go up there and undo those snatch blocks.

Please. And thank you.

So to give a new kid a win on the first one

is pretty good.

[Art] Good job.

Good job. Damn good job.

-Thank you! Good job. -Later. Okay, we got to go.

[Jim] Being able to go out in the field

and on the fly, just set up a rigging system like that,

it really demonstrates

that Art is a master of his trade.

[Brendan] Seeing the final results of this

was a great feeling.

[Art] He was tickled pink.

He enjoyed the tar out of that.

He knows how to teach... me at least,

I don't know about other people,

but I work good with him.

I feel like he works good with me.

[Art] We do things a little differently

here in Wyoming

than he does in California,

but that ain't no hurdle for a stepper man.

We'll be okay.

[Big Jon] Swing counter-clockwise.

[Narrator] On I-70 in Colorado,

Kory has finally inched the trailer around,

but the work is far from over.

[Big Jon] All right, we got to switch you

to the other side of the trailer.

Winch out.

Well, we got it moved,

and we didn't hit my truck,

so that's a partial win.

[Kory] We've gotten to a point

where we can hopefully move this thing

a little bit farther

away from that guardrail,

and pull it back onto the road.

[Narrator] Kory will now rig to the wheels

on the other side

to help Big Jon

as he pulls the semi around on the road.

Swing clockwise till that winch line drops over.

[Narrator] It's been over three hours

since the highway shut down.

[cell phone ringing]

Yo.

[Charlie] My phone's blowing up.

We got traffic backed up, like, ten miles.

I gotta get this road open.

[Charlie] Full closure on the interstate,

this is the worst that it gets.

We don't want this road to be closed.

CDOT's on us, CSP's on us.

Yeah, whatever you guys need to do

to get that thing out of there,

we need to get this road open.

Uh, we're getting a lot of heat.

[Kory] We got a lot of eyes on us right now.

There's a lot of traffic waiting, and getting antsy,

and wondering what the heck's going on.

They want to get moving.

[Big Jon] This thing's pulling hard.

Want to get this trailer over now.

We've got this concrete barrier.

We know it's going to be really close.

If we run out of room,

we're going to have to come up with a different plan.

I'm not sure what that plan is yet.

That's way too close for comfort.

[Dean] You're on the wall now.

[Big Jon] Keep coming, keep coming,

keep coming, keep coming...

Couldn't have planned that any better, we just fit.

[air hissing]

I'm going to lift the front end up

and over the rest of that debris there,

and get it back on the roadway.

[Big Jon] We almost got it out of here.

[Kory] Now that I got this thing lifted up

and pulled off this guardrail,

Dean's going to whip in and hook this thing up

to get it out of here.

[cell phone ringing]

-Yo. -Quick as you can.

Gotta get this road open.

[Big Jon] We're going.

Okay, thank you, bye.

[Big Jon] All right, Charlie's getting real antsy,

we gotta go.

Drag it out of this hole.

We gotta get out of the road.

There's a lot of traffic

that needs to come through here.

Yo.

Go kind of fast.

All right, Charlie, road's clear.

We're out of here.

[passengers cheering] Whoo!

We need to make sure

that I-70 stays clear and open at all times.

I take that very seriously.

I take that to heart.

That is my mission, opening this road.

[Kory] We're all cleared up here.

Traffic's moving.

I am just relieved I don't have--

I could just breathe for a minute.

This has been a ridiculous time.

[Big Jon] Man, that was a fighter.

That was a good one.

We are headed to Highway 6.

We're going to the Diamond Fork area.

[Chuck] This is a pretty deadly canyon.

There's a lot of wrecks in this canyon,

all the time.

[Jesse] Highway 6 is known

for being one of the most dangerous highways

in the country.

There's a lot of truck traffic

that goes from Denver to Salt Lake City.

People fall asleep,

they cross over lanes,

and it can be deadly.

[Narrator] Snaking through canyons

and surrounded by sharp, steep drops,

this twisting, narrow highway

demands careful attention from drivers.

Well, let's get at 'er.

[Jesse] I didn't think it was so steep.

[Chuck] This guy got really lucky.

[Narrator] Last night,

the box truck and trailer failed to make the curve

when a whiteout storm hit the highway.

[Chuck] Wow.

Yeah, he went a ways down there.

[Jesse] A gentleman was moving to Oregon,

and he was caught off guard a little bit by Highway 6

and the snow that had come quickly,

and he ended up driving off the side of this cliff.

[Chris] It was kind of sliding sideways,

and I'm like, "Okay,

it should slow down in just a second here,"

and it never slowed down,

but I couldn't figure out why we weren't slowing down,

but once I got out, and I looked up,

and saw it was on a 30-degree embankment,

I realized why.

That would've been a ride.

Driver got lucky.

I mean, he got extremely lucky

that he didn't go about another 20 feet,

'cause if he would have, he would've been in a reservoir.

Yeah, he got extremely lucky

that he didn't hit something solid, too.

Oh, yeah.

Still upright and still hooked to the trailer.

It was kind of mind-blowing.

[Narrator] The 250-foot reach

and 30-degree slope

will require Jesse and operator Chuck

to agree on a careful plan...

not always easy.

[Jesse] No matter what I do,

it seems like I ruffle Chuck's feathers.

'Cause it's gonna take about every bit of cable

on this drum.

[Chuck] Come dig that side, man.

[Chuck] It's going to be pretty challenging.

When he went off the road

and went down the hill,

it just, like, acted like a snowplow.

[Jesse] That truck probably weighs

somewhere around 26,000 pounds.

The snow will add a little bit of resistance.

The incline will add a little bit of resistance.

[Chuck] If you're bringing that up that incline like that,

and something fails,

it's going to end up going back down the hill,

and hopefully it stops where you found it,

but a majority of the time, it don't.

It ends up further.

[Chuck] We're going to be pulling

up a pretty steep incline.

[Jesse] Marry the hooks together!

And I need one of them clevises down here, man.

[Narrator] On Highway 6 in Utah,

the Stauffer's crew has worked out a plan.

They'll pull truck and trailer all at once,

saving crucial time for the customer,

who was in the middle of a cross-country move

when he took the unplanned detour.

Hold onto it.

[Chuck] He was trying to get there,

and get unloaded,

and be ready to go to work that Monday.

They've already got enough problems.

Try to help 'em to where they don't have more.

Let's just bring it up together, you know?

Pull this side!

That side?

[Narrator] But that plan comes with a risk.

[Jesse] I had thought of separating them

because we didn't know

what type of condition the hitch was in.

I mean, this guy drove off a cliff.

I don't want to be winching on the moving truck,

and the hitch come unhooked,

and that car go back down the hill on us.

Okay, pull your slack.

[Narrator] With six years of history together,

Jesse's agreed to Chuck's plan,

but their relationship didn't start out so strong

when Jesse's family company bought out Chuck's old employer.

[Chuck] Well, I was working for Larry's,

and then Stauffer's came along.

[Chuck] Give me some cable!

[Jesse] Chuck at first, you know, played pretty hard...

Give me some more!

...and didn't want to, like, be friends at all.

Winch this one!

[Chuck] If you're a towing outfit

and there's another towing outfit,

you're always in, you know, a competitive thing.

Sorry, my bad, the other one!

[Jesse] But this has been

one of my proudest things in my life

is being able to work alongside Chuck,

and kind of build that relationship

that was rocky at first.

Tighten it up a little!

[Chuck] We're all, you know, one family, actually,

all of us, the employees, Stauffer's, you know,

whatever your last name might be.

Keep going!

[Narrator] So today,

Jesse's trusting his operator.

They'll winch truck, trailer, and car together

over 250 feet

up the 30-degree slope to the highway...

[Jesse] Okay, ready?

[Narrator] ...with one member of the crew inside

to steer through the deep snow.

[Jesse] We always have somebody

that's sitting in the driver's seat

as we're winching it out

so the steer tires can guide it

to where we want it,

and it just assists us

to get it to where we want it to go.

Let's make sure everything follows suit

like it's supposed to,

so we don't lose a trailer down further.

Let's go!

[Jesse] Other way, other way.

We're moving it.

[Chuck] Tighten it up a little!

[Chuck] We're all gamblers...

always, you know, rolling the dice,

hoping that the outcome is what you want.

Chains are still there.

[Jesse] Okay, hold it.

[Chuck] Good?

Just one sec.

Dang!

[Chuck] 'Cause once you commit, you have to commit.

In the middle of the pull, you don't wanna really stop,

because once you're rigged up and you start to bring it,

a lot of times, you can't stop.

[Jesse] You have any sort of lean,

that's when it gets a little scary for us.

[Chuck] Yeah, I want to see where he comes up.

[Jesse] We'll just have you hook it,

and then as you winch, it will just pivot.

[Narrator] With the truck

approaching the top of the slope,

the crew pauses to re-rig...

so they can divert the truck away from the rotator

toward the open space on the shoulder.

[Jesse] How does it look?

[Jesse] As soon as you turn it on that steep incline,

it could roll over,

and so we just got to make sure

that we rig it in a way that that doesn't happen.

[Chuck] You want me to start pulling?

[Jesse] Yeah.

Hold on, Chuck.

Let me catch up.

Okay, go ahead.

[Chuck] The gamble you take

is if all of a sudden

the trailer decides it wants to break off,

then it goes back down the hill.

You know, Murphy always has a way

of poking its head out

and saying, "Hey, yeah,

this would be a good time to mess with you."

[chuckling]

I'm just trying to keep up with ya.

[Narrator] Success hinges on Jesse and Chuck

working in sync.

[Chuck] If you're not,

then one cable loses tension

and could have the tendency of coming unhooked,

then you're going to end up in trouble.

[Chuck] I'm just trying to keep the tension on my cables

so if something goes wrong...

[Jesse] I can get the front up here.

Go ahead and bring yours in a little.

[Chuck] Let me see if I can suck him all the way to me,

and you just bring that back end to you.

Careful. Down!

[Chuck] Yeah, yeah, I see it.

[laughing] No, I--

You're gonna slide right off your stinger.

I meant to do that! [laughing]

It's okay, man.

[laughing]

Old school, new school.

Whatever, man!

Long time, short time! [laughing]

[Chuck] To be honest with you,

I really am trying my best... [chuckling]

to learn from Jesse,

because he does know quite a bit of things.

-You ready? -Yup.

[Jesse] We've actually grown to be pretty close friends...

Good, boom in.

...and he knows that I'd do anything for him,

and he'd do anything for me.

[♪♪♪]

[Chuck] Jesse's all right.

He's an all right guy.

[laughing]

[honking horn]

[♪♪♪]

[Narrator] It's a big day

at the Stauffer's shop in Rawlins.

[Art] I live in Cheyenne, man. I'm just going home.

[Narrator] Art got a call from head office in Utah.

He's permanently transferring 250 kilometres east

to their Cheyenne location.

[Brendan] It's going to be weird.

-Me? -Yeah.

Only one way to find out.

[Art] Brendan, he shows a lot of promise

just because the kid has common sense,

and that's not as common as you'd think.

I'm not too worried about these kids here in Rawlins.

They do good,

and if there's problems, they make phone calls,

and that's what I'm here for.

[honking horn]

[Art] You know, I ain't gotta go hug him and kiss him.

Just another day.

[Brendan] Between him and Jim,

hopefully I learn a thing or two,

and in five years, be better than them, but...

That's a little disappointing, to see him leave,

'cause I came out here for him,

but... it is what it is.

I know what Art would say.

He'd say, "Let's go play,"

so me and Jim are just gonna have to do it without him.

[honking]

One little incident on the highway

can really cause a mess.

[Charlie] We can't do that, no, no, no.

[groaning]

Big excavator fell into a sinkhole.

[Josh] Holy moly!

[Ciaran] We're going to need some big chains.

They have the canyon completely closed.

[Austin] Look at you and your big bad boy cables.

[Ciaran] Let's get this sucker up out of here.

[Big Jon] Gotta get up this big embankment.

Be a little bit of a fight.

[Kevin] Ciaran, hold on!

[Charlie] Stop!