History of the Ice Road:
Since its completion in 1979, the 417-mile-long Dempster Highway has provided Inuvik, the largest town north of the Arctic Circle in Canada’s Northwest Territories, with year-round road access to the rest of the country. Built from gravel and crushed stone piled high on top of permanently frozen ground, the Dempster makes for treacherous driving, especially during the winter months. Once you get past Inuvik, however, the situation gets even tougher.
Sometimes called the Amazon of the north, the Mackenzie River begins at the Great Slave Lake and flows north into the Arctic Ocean’s Beaufort Sea. During most of the year, towns in the Mackenzie River Delta region, such as Aklavik, located west of Inuvik, and Tuktoyaktuk, located 100 miles north on the coast of the Beaufort Sea, are accessible only by air or boat. When the weather gets cold enough to freeze the river (often in December but sometimes not until January or February) drivers heading north from Inuvik take their chances on the Mackenzie River Ice Road, opened for the first time in February 1981. Though the ice road is reportedly well-marked and plowed frequently to remove insulating layers of snow, extreme caution is necessary to navigate through often severe weather conditions and potholes caused by fissures in the ice. At kilometer 34, the road breaks into two branches, one heading west towards Aklavik while the other shoots up toward Tuk. The rough driving conditions only get worse further north, as the road reaches the mouth of the Mackenzie near Tuk and heads onto the frozen surface of the Beaufort Sea itself. Read the rest of this entry »
Dave’s a good ol’ boy from Alabama. He’ll have his no-nonsense, even-keeled temperament tested on the wild Himalayan roads, and hopefully his practical, rough-around-the-edges technique will prevail. Called in to replace Alex, he’s forced to learn fast and play catch-up with the others, but he’s got the skills to make it happen. With Alex gone, spotter Sanjeev jumps into the cab with Dave, and turns every drive into a jolly-good time. Again, the language barrier is yet another mountain to climb, but close calls and tight spots make a close-knit driver-spotter bond a necessity.
Lisa’s got the tough job to prove that she, a woman, has what it takes to captain her truck in a country where women aren’t normally seen behind the wheel of any vehicle. Don’t let her pretty exterior fool you, though, she’s a tough tomboy through and through, with the tenacity and guile to champion any road in the world. Lisa’s spotter is Toshi, the most bilingual out of the group, and Lisa makes it her mission to learn as much as she can from him. Pretty soon she’s interacting in Hindi, and making her voice heard on the road.
A veteran of the Canadian ice roads, Rick isn’t short on confidence, and he’ll need it every minute of every day on the Indian roads. Sporting his bright blue mohawk, he’s not afraid to announce he’s out of his element, but that won’t stop him from saying or doing what he wants, all with the goal of becoming king of the road. Rick’s biggest problem is dealing with his spotter, Abdul, or as he’s more affectionately known, Boyo. Complicated situations are only made worse when Rick is forced to put both his life and Boyo’s on the line, with each of them shouting in a different language.
