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The long and winding road
Page 18
Page 19
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TV show Ice Road Truckers, a heady combination of cold, fatigue and a phenomenon known as highway hypnosis, has grabbed audiences. CM talks to two of its stars: 'Polar Bear' and newcomer Lisa Kelly.
Words: Joanna Bourke TEMPERATURES AS low as -56°C. a 400-mile journey, ice roads, cliffs, avalanches and a video camera are just some of the ingredients that make the History Channel TV show Ice Road Truckers such a hit.
As the programme enters its third season, CM caught up with two of the star HGV drivers: 47-year-old Hugh Polar Bear' Rowland and newcomer 28-year-old Lisa Kelly.
The programme documents the hauling of 2,000 loads of supplies from Fairbanks. Alaska, to the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay on the coast of the Arctic Ocean. This time-critical operation has to be carried out between January and April before the ice begins to melt on the steep mountains, frozen tundra and roads.
It's a risky job at the best of times, so what is it that attracts drivers to such a dangerous and cold lifestyle'?
"Money," the pair answer. Rowland reveals: "I have been driving since I was 18 and was brought up on the ice roads [he was born in Yellowknife, Canada!, so I'm used to the problems had weather can bring. However. this job is dangerous, so the money needs to be really good. He adds: "You miss the wife and home comforts though, so it needs to be worth it."
With three children and a wife fretting for his safety, it seems fair to say the financial rewards of ice-road trucking must be very tempting indeed.
Kelly highlights the hazardous elements of the job. "You are essentially driving a large vehicle with heavy loads on temperamental roads. It's a risky job, and I know many have died doing it."
Difficult parts of the journey include crossing the 'rollercoaster', a route full of awkward bends with near-vertical mountain grades on each side. Frequent blizzards leave drivers with virtually no visibility, or make them invisible to other road users,
Filming
In the words of the History Channel, which screens the show: "Hundreds of talented truckers have lost their lives navigating this route; drivers never know what will be waiting for them around the next hairpin bend, and only the strong, and lucky, survive."
It's not all doom and gloom. Rowland and Kelly arc passionate about their job. Kelly says: "I started out delivering pizzas in my own car. and then I started haulage locally. I found I had driven every road in Alaska, but I wanted to tackle the ice-road journey. I love driving, and this is a great job."
Kelly is the only female trucker in the show. "It is a predominantly male trade, so perhaps it was that much harder for me to get my dream job, but I didn't feel as if 1 had anything to prove," she says.
With the show comes fame. Rowland says the programme became more popular in Britain before it caught on in the US.
"I was approached by the documentary-makers and agreed to let them film in my cab, providing it did not disrupt what I was doing. The show only really hit big in Canada this year, but now I'm recognised wherever I go across the country," he says.
On the back of the show, he and Kelly have toured the US for promotion. including Los Angeles and New York.
Says Rowland: "I've enjoyed the promotional travelling and would love to do more,before charmingly adding: "I would love to visit the UK, so all you have to do is invite me."
The ice-road trucking season takes up only a quarter of the year, and Rowland is keen to make it clear he does not consider himself a diva or
superstar. -1 just go with the flow, but 1 run my own business and set about working with it for the remainder of the year. In fact, I'm sitting ill my shop as we speak (8.30am Canada time)." He runs an excavation firm, which has four trucks.
Love of driving Besides the obvious extreme landscape differences between Alaska and Britain, what else is 'poles apart-?
Learning about the high freight crime problems we have in the UK, including the use of violence and weapons. Rowland says: "I don't think we'd allow that here. Driving from Alaska to the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay, I have never been a victim of truck crime and there's 0% of it from what I have seer It sounds like it has not got as bad hen We are still able to carry guns, so I don' think any truck driver would put ui with nonsense here."
Being an ice-road trucker might b glamorous and exciting now, but it not necessarily a job for life. Kelly say you need to be tough to be away fror home for so long, because it ea inevitably put strains on a relationship
Rowland, meanwhile, hopes to retir when he is 55, but says his passion fc trucks will never cease. -1 love to driv+ and the dream would be to drive all th roads of the world," he says. m