Truckers driving the ice road in Canada's Northwest Territory

money is not everything these guys are crazy

my wife showed me this program the other night, when we were settling in to go to sleep (see discussion on sleeping with tv on, lol). and of course, i couldn't go to sleep then, i had to watch it. truly amazing. i don't know if i could do that or not. it sure does look fascinating. but the fear of going through the ice........ thay said it was -45 degrees and the water freezes almost instantly if you break through. not my idea of the ideal way to leave this earth. the ice is 2 feet thick and some of the trucks way over 5 tons. doesn't seem possible. it is a very interesting show and i may watch it again. at least until they show an unsuccessful trip. nice topic.

There are quite a few ice roads in the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in Canada. Sometimes the lack of ice roads leads to shortages in supplies in isolated communities. There is an interesting site with lots of pictures of the conditions that these truckers encounter. If you have a minute you might find this site interesting. www.thedieselgypsy.com. I think the truckers deserve every penny they earn. Just look at some of the pictures.

Those guys deserve those excellent wages, as they are very brave courageous souls. I don't envy them their jobs one bit. I don't think I would ever even attempt to do something like that, ever! LOL

ummmmmmmm.....I'll still take the dog team and sled please. The way my luck runs, I would be one of the unlucky ones that falls thru the ice.

That's amazing. It moments like these where you start to take everything for granted and are just relieved that these items and supplies can be picked up from the local supermarket and so.

I am a truckers wife, everyday my husband leaves here, drives 100Km to work in his car, then gets in his truck and drives all day, gets out of his truck and drives home. You never know if he will make it home safe and every wife I have ever talked to feels the same as me, I worry about him I am scared that something will happen but we go on. When we lived in Alberta I was even more afraid for him because of the snow, cold and long distances and hours he traveled. We watched the same show the other day and I couldn't handle that, those guys are crazy. The job needs to be done and the pay is what it is because of the danger in it but those wives would be going crazy until their men came home. My Aunt watched it also and she said the same thing. My Uncle and her where in a bad accident last year and she realized then just how much danger truckers face daily without the added danger of ice roads.

Wow. I just don't know if it would be worth that chance of being one of the dozen to fall through the ice. I would be worried sick if my husband was one of those truckers. That is just scary. I don't know if I could have watched that show. Thanks for sharing this interesting information.

Well, I do not really envy them at all. The money might be pretty good but I am not a fan of driving in a weather like that at all.

WOW a years wages in 2 months? That sounds pretty damm good! I would love to make that kind of money... then they can vacation or just rest the rest of the year. cool!

Luckily they spray water on the ice to make it thicker. 2 months to make a year's wages compared to a years wages in less than 2 wks with being a crab fisherman. I think I would go with the lesser of the dangers. At least on a crab boat, you can see the dangers. I enjoy watching both of these shows, wish they were on the same channel. I can't wait for Sunday night to watch as these bunch of crazy men drive on these roads made out of ice.

I have never seen this but I have heard about it and was literally stunned! I know the money must be an incentive and it would be an incredible experience for the driver but such a risk - I don't think I would like my partner to do it! Having said that it is a neccessary job and it would be awful if no-one was prepared to do it! xxx

I don't know if the risk is worth it. That is very scary! I did see something on that awhile back. I don't know if I could personally do something like that. I know my husband would do it, because he likes risk like that and of course knowing he can work for two months and spend the rest of the time at home the rest of the year, would make him happy lol. Those odds just don't add up for me personally!

If it was not for the brave truckers the people of the Northwest Territory would not get supplies. My stept mother's sons lived up there trying to make a living doing construction. You can only work out side certain times of the year. The isolation is horrible. The truck drives are brave men

Oh my goodness. That would be too scary for me to even think about doing. I would not drive a truck over any type of lake, no matter how thick the ice is at the time. That is too dangerous and risky for me since those trucks are really heavy and would probably break the ice. You could not pay me enough money to do something like that. I would not even walk across the lake.

Shows you that some jobs are hazardous. They perform a valuable service and I am not sure I could do it. The weather and environment changing might mean that this too will have to change when the ice thaws if it does like they say it will. I hope to catch this show since it is based on real jobs and will be highly informative. Thanks for sharing this today.

Interesting. It sounds to me like the odds are extremely low that a trucker will fall through the road. A dozen deaths in 75 years is incredible. That is a safe bet in my mind. Making a years wages in 2 months sounds good to me. I don't much care for the 40 below thing though. But hey, global warming is upon us and who knows, people may some day take vacations on the sandy beaches of the Arctic.

I was going to watch that! Shoot! It was on the History Channel right? Maybe I can catch a rerun of it before a new episode. It reminds me of Deadliest Catch, where the fishermen earn a year's worth of salary just by working the crab season.

This looks pretty scary ,but when they say a years wages,does anybody know how much money were talking about. It could be a new adventure for me if its worth it