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May 24, 2017 50 mins

Ice roads are more than just a clever way to truck supplies to isolated areas in the cold winter months. In fact, ice roads have played a meaningful role in history. Join Scott and Ben as they test the ice on this unusual method of transport.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car stuff from how Stuff Works dot Com. I had
weapon to car stuff. I'm Scott, I'm Ben. As always,
we're joined by our super producer, Tristan the Red McNeil

(00:22):
the Red. Yeah. Really, I don't know. It's dramatic. Maybe
it does. It does. Um, I don't have one right
at the top of my head. Maybe we'll find one. Yeah, maybe, So,
long time listeners, you you know this already, ladies and gentlemen.
In every episode, Scott and I endeavor to u to
give our super producer a nickname, oh, along with our

(00:47):
editor Dylan Fagan, and we try to be clever about it,
try to try, we make up, We make an attempt.
It doesn't always work. It doesn't always work, usually related
to the episode, mostly related to the episode. So we'll
try dur in the end of this one or by
the end of this one, uh, to come up with
something that's a little bit more fitting. Maybe. Yeah. And
if you think of one in the course of this,
go ahead and drop us a line somewhere via the

(01:10):
internet or you know, you could send a pigeon or
smoke signal. However you get the word out to people
carry your pigeon really, yeah, Or you could send a
truck across the Arctic waste. Hey, why not? I mean
it's I guess it's the end of the season. Maybe
that's not a great time to do it. But if
you are so inclined, you could drive a truck across

(01:31):
an ice road and deliver that message. And that is
the subject of today's episode, inspired by our friend of
the show who you've heard from before, Rudy Smith. Yeah,
Rudy wrote in, And actually it wasn't even really a
suggestion for a show, I don't think. I don't know
who it was. It was just kind of a link
to an article of interesting. It was of interest, by

(01:52):
the way, I mean, obviously we both decided to just
to make a good topic. So he sent in, and
I think it's called board Panda dot com um has
an articles that's that's called and this is a long title,
how we tried to deliver twelve tons of food to
Siberia's Arctic North. And I thought a lot that's interesting headline.
Let me clutch on the length and see what it says.

(02:12):
And it's all about ice road trucking in Siberia's Arctic North.
That's fascinating. I mean, the article and this is one
that I honestly I recommend you look look at it.
It's not going to take you more than five minutes
to read it because it's very light on text, but
it's heavy on pictures, and the pictures are really really
interesting because it gives you a good, um, a good
grasp of what these guys are up against daily on

(02:35):
this on this road. And this is just one of many,
many roads. And we'll we'll talk about lots of different
roads and where they are and some of the lengths
and some of the requirements and things like that along
the way. But I think just in general, ice roads
are really a fascinating thing. Their seasonal thing, of course,
and we're at the end of that right now. So um,
you know, keep this in your back pocket until next fall,
maybe the end of fall, and maybe you can head

(02:57):
out and hit one of the ice roads that are
out there. Because that's far more than I ever expected.
This is way more common than a lot of people
might imagine. So let's let's define the term first. An
ice road is obviously it's what it sounds like, but
there's a little more to it. It's also known as
an ice bridge because what we're describing is actually part

(03:20):
of uh system called a winter road. Yeah, and Ben,
just one quick thing before we before we progressed exactly
what they are and you know, to find them and everything. Um,
A lot of people will be familiar with us from
the show Ice Road Truckers that that's on any on
the History I guess the History Channel that that's owned
by any maybe, um, but it's ten seasons in at
this point, so there's a lot of you know, characters

(03:41):
that have you know, people have come to know and
love on that show. And it's just away again. I
don't know if you've mentioned this already or not. I
can't remember now because I've channeled us off somewhere else.
But it's a way to deliver goods that would be
more expensive to fly into certain regions when conditions are
so harsh or it's just such a remote location that

(04:02):
that's normally how they handle things. This is an easier
way to do it, really, believe it or not. So
there are ice roads seasonal ice roads, as you said,
across the planet. There's some in the United States, Sweden, Russia, Norway, Finland, China, Canada,
of course, Estonia and spoiler alert, Antarctica. Yeah, and get this,

(04:23):
I had no idea that in the United States there's
something like I think they're about five documented ice roads.
There's probably more than that. You know, these uh, I
guess you know, um what we call them not not
not authorized. I don't know how to unofficial, unofficial that's
a better way to say it, unofficial ice roads, probably,
but there are five official ice roads in the United States.

(04:44):
There's almost one hundred and twenty five miles of ice
road that appear and then disappear every season just within
the United States. Outside of there, there's many, many more.
I mean when you get into the Siberian region, you
get into you know, trade between Russia and China, and
there's a lot of that apparently on ice roads. Uh.
These roads are sometimes hundreds of miles along, hundreds of
miles long. Yeah, yeah, they they have to be because,

(05:07):
as you said, Scott, they're the best way to provide
crucial vital goods um. Not just survival supplies like food, um,
but also food and clothing for example, but also construction materials. Right. Yeah,
it doesn't it seem a little bit counterintuitive that you've
got such a heavy object that it would be hard
to fly it there, right, or expensive to fly it

(05:28):
there or wherever that may be. Let's say it's an island,
or it's a you know, it's just a remote town
that you know, to take the roads that go there,
you know, the normal summer roads would be more difficult
than than to do this because um, why I'm getting
off off track, but um, it would be many more
days travel to take the the regular roads because of
the conditions. You know that the road conditions versus on

(05:50):
an ice road, which actually the conditions are better. But
it seems counterintuitive me, Ben, you would ship something so
heavy on ice that that you know, it's it's uh,
you know, otherwise too expensive or too heavy to ship
by air. You know, it's just to to cost too
too expensive. Rather, um, it seems strange that you would
head out on the ice with a truck, you know,

(06:11):
a tent ton truck or whatever it is, and uh
and and expect that to work. But it does. It
works in a lot of regions because the ice gets
so so thick. Right, Yeah, we're talking about uh, we're
talking about areas of the world where the temperature will
routinely be blow zero. Yeah like that, so so freezing
temperatures what thirty two degrees fahrenheit. Yeah, so in areas

(06:33):
like the border between China and Russia. Uh in January,
there's an average of negative forward and negative thirteen degrees fahrenheit.
That stuff is ice coal. Yeah, it's it's a nice, nice,
nice work. Yeah, it's it becomes very, very thick. And
we've probably all experiences are seen this. I guess maybe
you don't have ice fisherman head out on the lake.

(06:55):
They take snowmobiles with them, have you. I guess I
have a question for you, Ben. Have you were driven
a car on the ice to ice fish or anything
like that? I know the area that you're from, so
likely not I have, but I have. I've never done
it either, and I've never had the guts to do it.
I mean, I've been in areas that it's thick enough
to and I've seen it done. I've been. I've been

(07:16):
ice fishing, which is a crazy sport, but yeah, it's
it's it's fun. It can be fun. And those with
the whole cut, you know, I've been in that one time.
The other times it's just sitting not on the ice
on a bucket, and it's it's can be miserable. It
really can't be nice. You know a lot of solitude
out there, but it can also be miserable. But if
you're in one of these areas that has, uh, these

(07:36):
towns that kind of spring up overnight on the ice,
and they do. They have these incredible shanties that have
you know, wood wood fire stoves and um, you know,
the modern modern devices I guess inside shanties that well
that are drug out there under the ice. Yeah, and
they've got you know, fish finders and all kinds of
stuff and you know, lots of equipment, couches to sit on,
and it's actually pretty comfortable. It gets warm inside those things.

(07:59):
And they ride their trucks out there and they park
them right next to the shanty. But it's not just
like one truck and one you know, one shanty. It's
an entire almost like a village of people. They go
out and and they set up this camp almost like
and I see keep saying a town. It's like a
pop up town that appears. So there's hundreds of people,
hundreds of shanties or maybe you know, under a hundred shanties,

(08:21):
but somewhere around there lots of trucks and they are
completely trusting that that ice is stick enough to hold
them up, and and and a lot of I mean,
of course it is. You know, they have to check
the depth and they know what it will hold. And
I'm sure that they're they're conscientious of not parking immediately
next to each other, you know, so there's not too
many trucks in one area that's just sit for too long.
There's some spacing that that takes place, and they understand that.

(08:42):
But I just this is so foreign to me to
see a huge I mean sometimes it's semi trucks that
are traveling on these roads with loads that are you know,
ten eleven twelve tons, uh, in addition to the way
to the truck. It's it's crazy. It's just uh, it's
see like it shouldn't be able to happen that way, right.

(09:02):
So the strange thing is though, that it does. And
going back to our original distinction here, which a lot
of people don't make. The winter road is just snow
packed over land. Um an ice road could be a
part of that, and it runs over a river or

(09:23):
a lake or bay, and the way that they build
these things is um fascinating, and I agree it's a
very it's very foreign concept to me as well. Now
you've you've spent more time in northern climes than I have.
But I'm gonna guess I looked into this a little bit,

(09:43):
but I'm gonna guess, even up in Michigan, it's a
little too warm for an actual ice road. Ah boy,
you know, it seems like it might work it for
a very short amount of time that you get to
the northern part of Michigan, right at the midden, like
the very tip, like by the up the Upper Peninsula.
I think there's actually an ice road that operates for

(10:04):
it's a couple I think it's a couple of miles
between the Mackinaw streets and one of the islands up there,
and it's maybe a couple of miles long. But normally
it has um, you know, like a ferry service that
goes between the two for you know, good supplies whatever
between you know, from the mainland to the island. And
I think this is good for you know, just a
few months out of the year. Maybe it's not quite

(10:25):
you know, the lengthy season that maybe you might get
in Siberia or some some region like that. Um. But
it is something that's that's functional for several months out
of the year and they get their their goods and
materials that way. And I would suppose that people make
the crossing as well, you know, the same way, you know,
across the same road, because it's not just you know,
big trucks that we're talking about. It's also cars, it's snowmobiles,

(10:45):
it's any kind of vehicle that you want to cross
this road. Because I mean, obviously the bigger ones are
the more dangerous ones, um, you know, based on the conditions.
But they have some tricks around this tube and there's
a there's a way that they make the ice in
the ice road channel because they clear a pathway of course,
and so you're driving on essentially like what smooth clean
ice really with you know, I mean it's it's lake ice,

(11:08):
so it's a little bit rough, but um, compared to
the the roads in the region where you know, sometimes
you know, if there isn't like in this case where
you know, to get back and forth from the island,
but if you're talking about like getting to a distant
village or or something like that, a lot of times
the ice road will be a far superior road to
the to the the pavement road or the gravel road
or dirt road or whatever you're trying to travel because

(11:29):
of weather conditions. And this becomes a better driving service
really for you because you have tree you don't have
any trees, whether you have you don't have any rocks,
you don't have any other obstacles. It's just a straight drive.
The hard part about it is of course understanding that
you know, you gotta keep moving, you gotta watch out
for holes in the ice. You gotta watch out for
um bandits in a lot of cases. Yeah, that's something

(11:53):
we'll talk about. But um, the road construction itself. And
I started to get to this and I got a
little bit derailed there, but um, this is really weird.
I had never thought of these, you know, unusual construction
techniques for it. Sometimes they'll augur holes on the side
of the road and allow water to flow out onto
the surface that they've cleared in order to in order

(12:13):
to thicken the ice in just that one area. So
they'll make it wider than you know, the truck would be,
of course, so wider than the lane. But they thickened
the part of the part of the lake that is
uh supposed to be for just the the you know,
the trucking lane, I guess, and it's pretty smart. I
mean they're auguring holes in the side, and you don't
have to augur a lot of holes in order to
get a lot of water flatter there. You pump it out,

(12:34):
of course, and that stuff freezes so quickly on top,
it's faster than it would build up from beneath. I
think that's the theory behind all thing. So you can
wait for the you know, the full hard freeze, or
you can kind of rush things along by creating a
thicker road. Service and ladies and gentlemen, let us know
if you have firsthand experience with an ice road, because

(12:55):
the stuff that we're about to explore is going to
be unfamiliar to most people, even maybe fans of ice
road truckers, but very very important, especially if you're on
the road in these conditions. So when we're talking about
how you build an ice road, the most important part,
of course is safety. And ice roads are, make no

(13:18):
mistake about it, dangerous, no matter how how cautious the
construction crews are. I love that you mentioned the drilling technique. Um,
they also go through various types of vehicles in the
construction of an ice road. So when the ice let's

(13:40):
take Estonia for an example. In Estonia, the ice roads
can only be built when the ice thickness is at
least eight point seven inches along the entire route. You
know what, one quick thing. These are monitored by road
administrations and that's why the depth and everything is checked
by a regular agency if some kind. Yeah, very important point.

(14:02):
So so I step is really important. I step is
really important. And when when that is determined and when
you know it meets that threshold, typically what they'll do
is they'll send out something like an argo that's a
lighter wheeled amphibious, a TV smart move there. If they

(14:24):
break through, that's okay, they climb right out, right right,
and that happens. How about one of those shirt vehicles
remember that? Oh yeah, yeah, it'd be a fantastic use
for one of these. In fact, you probably have to
add extra weight to it, you know, and maybe make
a few crossings just to see if it would it
would hold up. But those things can climb right out
of a hole that's in the ice. It's really impressive.
What can't they do? They could do every drive the
space in one of those Yeah, I think you can.

(14:46):
Let's try it. Build the ladder. So even when from
the first step here literally the first step, the staff
where survival suits and they have flotation devices in there
just in case, because if you fall into the ice
in these temperatures, it can be a very quick death. Yeah,
it's a death sentence really, I mean in a lot

(15:07):
of cases, because you're out in these extremely remote locations,
I mean just on its own. Ice roads are there
because you're in a remote location. So a lot of
times you have to travel long distances to get to
where the ice road begins. And then even you know,
the final destination is is far farmer, more remote, days
and days away, even days traveled by the ice road

(15:27):
in some cases, because it's a slow go, right, And
they as they're doing this, they are progressively moving to
different types of vehicles. So maybe they start with hand
drills naggers, like you said, not just to build the road,
but also to measure the thickness in the beginning, and
then they move up to UH radar. Essentially, they call

(15:49):
it an ice profiler, so like subsurface radar, and then
once they determine the thickness, they can start to map
out the route, which might change, Uh, might have some
variations season to season. Isn't this weird? So, so the
road is different every year every time you travel it.
So and not only that, I mean from crossing the

(16:09):
crossing it's going to be different as well because conditions
have changed. You're five days away, you know, in another village.
You don't know what's happening. There could be a storm,
you know, winter storm on one side of the road
and not on the other. Um. It's just it's a
really bizarre situation, it really is. And there's other tactics
that they follow to like if they're on rivers, sometimes
they'll try to hug the shoreline so that, you know,

(16:31):
for obvious reasons, I mean, it's gonna be shallower water
if they go in, Uh they only go across the
deep part if they have to do that in a
lot of cases, so that's like a you know, river crossing.
The crossing are a little different than uh, you know,
major bodies of water. You know, when you're trying to
cross you know, an enormous lake that's again it takes
you five days to get across or something because you're
just at a crawl to are actually, I mean, the

(16:52):
speeds on these are so slow. I mean we're talking
like some of them are limited by those those agencies
that we talked about are the road administration, some of
those you know, speed limits are you know around you know,
like sixteen miles an hour or something like that, you
know what I mean. They're really that kind of is
I mean, um, and a lot of times they're they're
even slower than that. Sometimes they're a little bit a

(17:14):
little bit faster, but really you never go on up
about twenty five miles an hour. And now if you are,
I think you're probably pushing it. You're probably you know,
taking your own life in your hands, you know that
kind of thing. Is you're on you're on a road
covered with ice, and at the end of the day, yeah,
at the end of the day, you're driving on water
that happens to be a little bit more friendly at
the moment. And if there is a faster speed limit,

(17:35):
please right in and tell me, because I've only seen
twenty five is the maximum on these on the roads
that I've read so far. And here's here's another important
thing that maybe counterintuitive to some people. This would an
ice road should not have snow on it. They don't
want to snow road, and this is very important. So
once they've set the route, they move away from the

(17:56):
argo or the argos to a snow cat or something
heavier on some tracks, and it has like a plow essentially,
it's like what they used on snow slopes. Yeah, and
it's not quite as heavy as you know, a proper
plow truck. But the reason they do this is because
they want to remove the snow that's on top of
the ice. Because the snow is an insulator, so the

(18:19):
ice firms up much better in a much more consistent,
reliable way if it doesn't have the snow covering it. Okay,
I get it. So so it warms it up. Actually,
it could be warmed prematurely in that case, is that right?
It could It might not freeze as uh completely. Oh,
I see they want to They want a solid freeze

(18:39):
solid ship. I get you, I understand now. So yeah,
that makes sense that they would start, you know, use
a much smaller vehicle than a snowplow to begin with,
because again they're they're well, they're testing the ice. Really,
that's that's what the old sake. That's probably where it
comes from. But it fits in this case, right. And
then the third the third stage of vehicle is once
the ice is thick enough to allow heavy machinery, right,

(19:02):
it can handle that distribution of weight, then that's when
you see snow plows and trucks go to work. And
then give it a week or two or so, uh,
they will open the road to the public. YEA was
still with constant monity monitoring. Rather they you know, uh,
ambient temperature as well as you know, you know, the

(19:24):
ice thickness is continually measured throughout that time. So yeah,
there's there's a lot of um, a lot of rules
and and safety measures put in a place. That's not
to say that it's safe, because it's constantly changing every
time a truck drives over that thing. And I didn't really,
I couldn't fathom this. Really, I have a hard time picturing.
This still creates waves underneath the ice as a truck

(19:47):
drives over it, and those waves can cause trouble outside
of where the road is. It can cause cracks and
fissures that you know, um that then lead to cracks
and fissures that work their way towards the ice road
and cause a lot of trouble. So um, this whole
idea that you know, causing waves under the surface of
the ice, is it as it drives along, you know,
causing maybe big you know, sheets of ice to dislodge

(20:10):
from the area that you know, the uh that the
ice road is in also a big danger, I guess.
I mean, we hear every year about you know, a
simple simple thing, you know, like ice fishermen go out
and it's a little bit too warm, but they still
make the track out there. It seems solid in the
area that they're in, and they're out there fishing and
they don't realize that, you know, a giant chunk of
ice has broken off from the main piece and they're

(20:32):
floating out into the lake. And it seems like it
happens every year. The coast Guard has to go out
and rescue these guys or you know, um or um,
maybe they don't have, you know, a boat because they recommend,
you know, at certain times the year that you take
something along with you, like a boat that you can
then get into and make your way back to the
main part of the ice or the mainland attached part
of the ice. But a lot of people don't do

(20:53):
that and they find themselves adrift. And that's that's a
real serious situation. Yes, And because the chunk that breaks
off can be so large, you might not realize that
you're you know, floating away. Well, I suppose that can
happen in this case, but it seems like what would
be more likely in this case would be that the
trucks would break through the ice. And that does happen.

(21:15):
That is something in the in the article which will
post on social media too, so you can check it
out for yourself and see these amazing pictures. In the article,
there is a photographer who rides with two truck drivers
and they're transporting twelve tons of food and they're they're

(21:36):
going on ice road. To the two drivers, this is
like a every year thing, right, and they're cramped conditions.
It's a brutal environment. So they essentially the three of
them have to eat, sleep, and work in this cab
designed for two people. This is not an extended bed
or extended cab. No, no, no, And you know what,

(21:56):
I think we'll tell you a little bit more about
this after the first break and we're back and Ben,
we're gonna kind of track through our truck through this
this article a bit. I don't recommend that you print
it because it's picture heavy. As I said, it's you know,

(22:17):
only got a little bit of text to it. But
it introduced the people, the materials that you know, the vehicles, um,
some of the strange characters along the way, the route,
all of that. It is really an interesting articles. The
one we mentioned at the head, you know, the twelve
tons of food to Siberia, Siberias Arctic North. I'm having
a trouble. I have a little trouble with the words
Siberia today. I don't know what's going on Siberia, Siberia. Yeah,

(22:38):
I'll get it. I'll get it by the end of
the podcast, I hope. But um, there's all kinds of
just crazy stuff that happens along the way. I mean,
you said that they're they're pretty much crammed in this truck,
and that that situation is a little bit exasperate, exacerbated
by the end because initially there are two people and
you know it's still it's already cramped enough, and you
know they're trying to do everything in there. They're trying

(22:59):
to sleep, they're trying to eat, they're trying to you know,
just well just even driving itself. I mean it's difficult
because he's one guy is Russian, the other guy is
not Russian. When us he's US citizen. Right, Let's let's
set the scene. Oh sure, yeah, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Let's we've got well, we'll set the scene. So Amos Chapel,

(23:21):
that's the name of the author, says Uh. For ten
days and nights, I rode with Uh, driving named Ruslan
and his young helper along the India Grika River to
deliver twelve tons of food to a town called Balaya Gora,
which sounds like something out of a fantasy novel. Well

(23:43):
it does, But what you just said there, that's a
ten day trips. So that's five days there, five days
back because they don't waste any time when they're there,
They turn around and come right back because time is
money in the situation. Situation, because he wants to make
as many runs as possible. So the the trip that
is outlined by is it anton you said Amos as
by by Amos he is Uh. He is. He's pretty

(24:07):
freaked out through the whole thing. Really yeah, I mean
it's scary, it's not something. And and I guess the
guys that normally drove this drive this. I think his
name is Russlan is that right, is the main character
in this whole thing. And he's pretty much he's stone
cold on this whole thing. You know, he's he's just
he's got icy nerves. Maybe that's how many how many

(24:28):
more ice puns can I get in here? But the guy, no, honestly,
the guy has seen just about everything. So he just
kind of rolls with it, you know. And there's another
one anyway, sorry, So he rolls with it, right, and uh,
and the other guy, he's a little bit unnerved by
the whole situation because first you're driving on ice with
a twelve ton truck. The second, as you're in such
desolate regions, he doesn't know what to expect. You know,

(24:50):
it's dangerous. He's with the guy that doesn't speak the
same language he does. But I think there's you know,
minimal communication between two of them. It's an assignment. And
then and then you know, add to the fact that
there's this third person sit in there, because ideally, when
you're driving in this kind of condition. You want to
use as corny as it sounds, you want to use
the buddy system. You want to have a second person

(25:12):
minimum with you. So this area, just to give everybody
a picture of this, this area of Russia, the Sako
Republic is five times the size of France. The country
of France in five times enormous place and they're very desolate,
and so they measured distance in days. What's interesting about
this journey is about six of it is on an

(25:36):
actual highway and then the last all ice Yeah, yeah,
on a river. Right, A lot of it is on
a river. I don't know about the whole thing. There
might be I'm trying to look for the map right now,
but um, yeah, I think a lot of it is
on a river because that's where the technique that I
had heard about where they're kind of hugging the coast happens. Um.
In fact, I think maybe the whole thing is on

(25:56):
a river. Really now to think about it. But but
interesting tactics that are used throughout the whole way, and
one one thing or more than one thing, we'll get,
you know, just several weird things that happens in this trip.
But um, they were talking to another guy. I think
his name is Andre and Andrea head it looks like
a minivan of some kind, maybe a Toyota minivan or something.

(26:17):
And uh, he's talking to him, no problem that. He
decides to hop in his own car and drives off.
They go around the corner and Andrea has flipped his
vehicle over several times, is destroyed. Now they have to
take Andrea on the trip with him as well. So
the cab that was already cramped to begin with, that
becomes even more cramp because he has people. He has
no choice. He's in the middle of nowhere. He has

(26:38):
to he has to tag along with him. He knows
that he's now got a ten day trip that he's
gonna have to make u It's just it's just again,
all of this is really really strange. It's it seems
so much of it seems counterdoited to me. It's it's amazing.
And then at the halfway point, so after after Andre
Rex and they get a new passenger on their track
towards Civilization, that's when they hit the ice at the

(27:01):
halfway point. So as they're as they're driving through, they
stop in the road because the driver Ruslan sees a
truck shaped hole in the ice in front of them. Yeah,
what do you think is there? You know, it's there's
a chance that it was pulled out, but there's also

(27:22):
a chance that it's still it's below the surface there.
And because, um you know, one thing that we haven't
mentioned here is that on this route alone, something like
five people die each year, each each winter, each season
on this route that they're on right now. And you
know when they when they're driving and you said it's
clear ice, right, they try to clear all the the
snow off of it. You can see the current in

(27:43):
this river moving beneath the ice as you're driving over
top of it. Now, how unnerving would that be to
to be able to see that? Because you know, it's
stick enough to carry this truck, or at least you
hope it is. It's cracked, it's got fissures all over it.
But again, to see the current beneath there, it's it's
pretty much black ice really when look at it as
blue cracks and things. But um man, that's got to
be scary, and especially the first time out, and he's

(28:06):
just not familiar with it. You know this, this author
is not familiar with the lifestyle. So again, pretty it
seems like a grim situation. You know, when you see
a hole, a hole in the ice that shaped like
a truck or the size of a truck, you know
what happened. And the journalist begins to get hill little
nervous and starts doing the what if scenarios, the worst
case scenario kind of stuff in his head, and Russlan

(28:31):
tells tells the guy, you know, if the truck goes
down cab first, then you're screwed. And so he's thinking
to himself, if the truck goes down on my side,
I'm gonna jump out and just land on the ice
to take my chances, because underwater, in a crowded cab,
it would be nearly impossible to get out because there
would be three other dudes struggling. Yeah, and the current

(28:54):
of the you know, the current of the river. You've
got a very relatively small hole in the ice where
the cab went through, but you know, maybe there's not
even any gap where you can get back out. Um,
all this is working against you. Of course, the cold
is working against you. Everything is against you in this situation.
And it's not just the cold. Actually the climate becomes
your enemy too, because this they're driving towards the end

(29:15):
of the season, the spring melt is occurring. Yeah, that's right.
Oh that's right. I forgot about that. Whole angle to
this thing is that, uh, this is not you know,
the first cross into the year or even in the
middle of the year. This is at the end of
the season. So ice is a little bit soft in
some regions, as we've heard about with the you know,
the the truck shaped hole in the ice. And not
long after this guy starts to develop his his escape plan,

(29:39):
you know exactly what he feared. Happens. Yes, the ice
shatters under the wheels on the river on his side,
and so he pops open the door and he jumps out,
and the truck is toppling, and it's uh and he's
scrambling across the ice trying to get away from it.
And then, well, can I stop you for a second.
I'm looking at the photo that right now, and what happened.

(30:01):
And I don't know what they were thinking when they
were crossing this particular part of your this this area,
because it's like deep slush ruts that are filled with
water and they're in the middle of that and then
their truck is on one side, like it's tipped over
all the way over. Why were they even in that area?
I guess maybe they had to. But that goes back
to the you know, the melt, because in the in
the prime season, that would be frozen solid. So I'm

(30:24):
sorry I interrupted, but perfect imagine even even bailing out
into that would be miserable. I mean, you would be
soaking wet and freezing four hours after that if you
made it, for hours, if you made it. And that's
the thing, I guess, given a choice, it's better to
bail out and be freezing and cold for a long
time versus dead. They got really lucky, Scott. They were

(30:45):
fortunate because the truck held there kind of similar to
you know what. It reminds me of This happened so
often in action movies where there's like a car or
a plane that teetering on the edge of a cliff
and the protagonist has to like slowly redistribute their weight

(31:05):
jump out. At the last second. It looks like it's
it's hanging that way, about to fall into the water.
But somehow these guys who were pros managed to pull
the truck out. Yeah, it looks like they were attaching
chains to the wheels and stuff like that. It makes
you wonder why they didn't have those on to begin with,
but I guess they need them now. So extra traction

(31:27):
allowed them to back them back themselves out. And from
that point forward, this is crazy nighttime. You know, we're
talking Siberia freezing cold, even though it's you know, towards
the end of the season, still freezing cold. They are
they are just barely creeping along this this river with
a guy out in front in the headlights with a
probe but metal probe, and he's testing the thickness of

(31:48):
the ice as he go along. And then he probes
for you know, several feet, motions the truck forward. They
come on, you know, come on up another eight feet
or whatever it is, six ft and then he does
that same thing again. And that's how they progress all
the way through the night. That's awesome, well it is,
but it's also terrifying. I kind of you know, I'm interested,

(32:08):
I'm interested. Would you really? I would ride along, but
I would not want to drive on it. Well, let
me let me pose this to you then, Ben, Alright,
what what if this was a shorter route that is
one that's in the dead of winter where it's definitely solid.
You see big cargo trucks, you see cars, you see snowmobiles,
every kind of vehicle on this road. It's a short road,

(32:29):
but you're in a car and you need to get
let's say, from that Straits of Mackinaw area to that
island that we talked about, would you drive that? Would
you do that? Probably? Yeah? I mean if if there
were that many people doing it. But again, what about
like a situation where those pop up towns appear, you know,
for the for the ice fishing. Would you would you
park your truck on the ice because I think I've

(32:50):
seen photos of you know, even though all that's going on,
they found a soft spot. Yeah, and a truck goes down.
I'm not I'm not trying to congregate with the community
of people standing on a lake. You're saying, just keep
the Monte Carlo moving in your fine not my style. Yeah, yeah,
I'm gonna drift through like a stranger in a Western film.

(33:10):
You probably have a rental car. You would even take
the Monte Carlo on the ice. I wouldn't think so,
I don't. I don't think that I would ever risk it.
I just I just don't feel comfortable enough. I've seen
too many even snowmobiles, you know, dropped through the ice
when you know they had misjudged the thickness or um.
I've never seen a person fall through yet. Yeah, I
haven't heard that. I haven't seen that. And you know,

(33:32):
there's been a lot of I've been to a lot
of places where there's ponder lake, you know, um skating,
but but never any dangers, always thick enough. And and
but like trucks and things like this, and and where
you're probing for the ice thickness, you know, to move
along ten feet at a time. It's just a it's
a completely different scenario. But they make it through. That
was sort of the dark night of the soul for

(33:53):
these guys. And the next day the weather is clear,
not a cloud in the sky, the road as rock
solid as they say. They see a tiny, tiny church. Yeah,
it's like a phone booth a little small town. And
and you know this church, they say it's a church.
But if you've ever seen that show tiny houses, yeah,
it's like the size of a tiny house, but it's

(34:14):
it's got a giant steeple on the top. It's the
strangest looking thing with a person standing next to it,
because it looks completely out of proportion. But again that's
why you know, looking at this article is is something
interesting because there's so many great photos here. There's probably
photos really a lot of them are spectacular, they're really
really good. But um, I think the guy that, um, um,

(34:37):
the guy that that's running this whole thing, Russlan, who
guy to use his truck? Doesn't he have a he
has a house or an apartment in this little town. Yeah,
apartment there. So after five days four guys stuck in
this cab, they got to his. It looks like a
tiny one bedroom apartment, but they all get to take
a shower. And I imagine just sleeping on a floor

(34:58):
where you could stretch all the way out was like
a feather mattress. It magic for them. Yeah, And honestly, like,
can you imagine being a tiny cab of truck with
with four guys that that can't shower, can't change clothes. Uh,
it's just you know, you're eating, you're you're doing everything inside,
you're sleeping in there. That's got to be pretty miserable. Really,

(35:18):
by the end of the five days and then they
had a they went further up the river while the
journalists stayed behind the town. That's right. And now he
crossed out because I was scared, But he says, you know,
I wanted to photograph the village, right right, So yeah,
I don't think I don't know, I don't think so.
But you know, the guys were gone for a long time,
and uh, actually more time than he thought they were

(35:41):
gonna be gone. He was actually getting kind of worried
about them, that they that they had maybe dropped through
the ice. But finally they returned. There's no way to
call them, of course, because cell phone coverage in that
area is is sparse, if you know at all. Um,
but if they returned, and before they left, they offered
you know, um, they get kind of an offering, I
guess to the the shaman spirits. You know. They got

(36:01):
to this kind of it looks like a tree maybe
where they tie ribbons and things like that, you know,
for a safe passage. Prayer. Yeah, say some prayers before
they go, and um, talk to some other ice road
truckers you know that are either you know, headed one
way or the other, and then head back out on
the road. But here's the problem. The roads melting fast
now on the way back on that last leg, so

(36:24):
Ruslan is saying, look, we're gonna drive through the night.
We have to do this, and uh, the other guy says,
all right, I'm gonna hang out on the outside of
the truck. Amos Yeah, now yeah, he decides that he's
going to ride on the outside of that. He's so
scared he's gonna ride hanging onto the outside of the truck. Again,

(36:44):
I keep saying this, it's Siberia in the wintertime. I mean,
it's the end of the season, it's warmer. But come on,
I mean that you've got to be really scared, you know,
clutch onto the tire, a tire on the back of
the truck, or you know, hanging on the the the
running boards on the side. But but when I look
at this photo that goes along with you know this
part of the story, we're in the ice road has
turned into something that looks like a river itself. It's

(37:06):
like a river on top of a river. There's there's
standing water, there's floating chunks of ice. They're driving through
that knowing that, you know, the ice below them is
continually eroding, so last they go through the dark. Something
smart they did, Scott. They since they only had the
driver and aim Us in the cabin the first truck together,

(37:29):
it was just the two of them. On the way back,
they partnered up with another crew, so there were two
trucks traveling. And this is important because when they were
traveling at night, to stay on the safe side, one
of the other truckers came out and used a pole,
was literally walking in front of the truck with a pole,

(37:50):
testing the ice and walking forward before waving the truck
on a very slow process. Again, I think that's the
second time they did it. Remember the first thing that
did at night because they just couldn't see what is
going on as clearly as you can during the day.
But that that pole probian thing that that would completely
freak me out, I think if they were doing something
like that, but um, I don't know. Interesting interesting journey

(38:11):
really And you know they're they're drinking from the water
right from the river. You know, they're channels that form,
you know, so that you can see where they're um
uh you know stopping to replenish you know, the water,
the use for cooking. The water they're using the cab,
you know, just getting a drink out of this channel
of water that's formed on the road. Um, it's really
it's crazy. But they're getting closer and closer to the
end here, and we'll reach the end after a word

(38:34):
from our sponsor and we're back. Yeah, and Ben, we
had kind of said that we were near the end
of the road here. But when they finally got back,
of course, huge celebration. Right okay, I'm another pot, I
get I get it now. Uh so, yeah, they're they

(38:54):
get back to dry Land, big celebration. They're very happy,
you know that they made it and they have this
they still have kind of a long road journey to make,
you know, to get back to the home base. As
we said, you know it's like what ice road, you know,
standard road really this whole this whole trip round trip.
But they noticed that off the side of the road
there was someone that's pulling, um, a truck a lot

(39:15):
like there's off the off the all out of a ravine.
Maybe that's a better way. And it turns out that
the truck head plunged right off of a cliff and
I think it killed the driver on impact. So you know,
it's another fatality on the ice road, or sort of
on the ice road. It's the road to the ice road, maybe,
but it's it's dangerous all around. It's not just the
ice it's also the road that gets you there, you know,

(39:36):
the snow covered road that's out in the middle of nowhere,
also dangerous, maybe even more dangerous than ice road, who knows.
And on March eighth, they hit solid ground off the
ice rolling back, rolling, rolling back homeward bound. Right finally,
and this is the thing. Uh Amos is done with

(39:59):
the rotten and he's he's going back to where he
lived at the time. But Rusla and the driver's going
to spend a couple of days of town and then
drive back up to belah Gora and he would spend
the summer there. Okay, I have a note here at
the end of this said this article that I'm glad
you said this because I was gonna bring this up anyways.
I cannot believe, after what I just read, that this

(40:21):
guy is going to spend a few days in the
town that he's in and then he's gonna head back
onto that same road, knowing that conditions are only going
to get worse. So what's he up against on the
next route, because I think his next trip is a
one way trip, right. He spends the he spends the
time in that distant village, you know, the summer months,
and then he jumps back on the road again in
the winter and that's where he makes all his money.

(40:42):
But um, what is he thinking going back on that
road again for that? I mean another five day journey
across ice that was already several days before that soft
you know too soft? Really well, he it appears that
first off, this is nothing new to him, and he
under dands the terrain very well. But it's a it's

(41:02):
a dodgy thing, you know. Uh, but you're risking at all.
I mean, you're not only risking your livelihood with your truck,
you know, because I mean that's it's going to be
expensive no matter what. Let's say it goes under and
you somehow can get it out, which I don't know
if a lot of them get out. Um, but let's
say that you can get the truck out, it's still
an expensive repair or it's a complete loss, and that's

(41:23):
your livelihood. But even worst case, you lose your life.
And probably one of the most infamous brutal calculations of
that sort also occurs in Russia. This is one of
the things that I found fascinating. And what a war.
Warn you ladies and gentlemen, that's it gets pretty morbid. Uh.

(41:48):
During the Siege of Leningrad, which lasted for twenty nine
months from September to January nineteen four, over a million
people in the city died from starvation, exposure, bombs. But
one of the only ways that the people who did

(42:11):
survive survived, and I mean this was nasty scott people
resorted to cannibalism. You know. Can I tell you something?
You said? You know the number of the million people, right,
of that million people, only three percent died from the bombing,
which is what you would you would think it would
be a much greater number of that was from starvation.
And the only reason that so many people survived was

(42:34):
because of an ice road route called the Road of Life,
and it was across Lake Ladoga and it was the
only access to the city while the German Army and
the Finnish Defense Forces maintained the perimeter for the siege.
But the problem was with so many people depending on

(42:59):
this one route for everything, food supplies, medicine, UM escape
escape as well. People drove on the people drove on it,
knowing that they were in some cases attempting a suicide mission.

(43:19):
People hopped on with the idea that even just the
possibility of getting food to civilians was worth in some
cases the overwhelming odds. Yeah, they knew there was a
slim chance that they were ever even gonna make it.
But but they went for they persevered. And uh. And
actually the Road of I mean they call it the

(43:39):
Road of Life, this ice road, and it was really, honestly,
it was very beneficial to the area, of course, I
mean it saved saved so many people. Um, well over
five fifty thousand people were evacuated on the Road of
Life in just one hundred and fifty two days between
two alone. That's the first year the the of the

(44:00):
German blockade. But in nineteen forty two there was another
again the remainder of ninety two, there was another five
forty thousand people that were evacuated via boat crossing. So UM,
you know that that that part of the uh, the lake,
I guess was it was critical for them to escape. UM.
In between nineteen forty the end of ninety three, Um,

(44:22):
I mean, I guess over the span of three the
ice road was open for a total of one hundred
and one days, and I think something like eighty nine
thousand people left at that time too. So uh, the
number of people that escaped were great. But man, the
number of people that died in this in this blockade
or because of this blockade of Lenograd, Uh, just staggering

(44:44):
number of people. A million people, can you imagine? Incredible.
And the only reason that what worked actually worked was
because the Finnish forces we're not comple eatly dedicated to
enforcing this this massive war crime. So what they did

(45:07):
instead was they intentionally left the supply route open so
that people could make it. But one thing we didn't
add is that these truck convoys and they were sending
people across on horses. Man, the trucks and the horses
didn't just have to worry about safety on the ice.
They also had to worry about aircraft and artillery because

(45:30):
the German forces were coming down hard. As as the
young folks would say, they were hard on the paint. Oh,
the bombing didn't stop, that's what you mean to say, right,
I meant honestly, like it's great to finish allow you know,
allowed us to happen. You know that they kept it
open um, you know, allowing people to have just a
glimmer of hope. I guess in this dire situation because

(45:51):
it lasted a long time. We said it lasted what
was it three or three and a half year or
something like that. That's just a twenty nine months the
sane amount of time, uh to be going through something
this difficult. I mean, I'm completely understating this, I understand,
but um you really if you want to read up
on that, on that time frame or that time period

(46:11):
and when what happened there has Ben said it gets
really maccabre fast. So you know, cautious with that if
you're if you're squeamish about it. But um, yeah, people
resort to whatever they had to do in order to survive.
I will I will mention one thing that is impressive
from a engineering perspective is Lake Ladoga is one of

(46:36):
the largest lakes of its kind the whole European continent.
And in addition to being enormous, it's a hundred and
thirty six miles long, eighty six miles wide. I mean,
that's it's huge length to drive. Yeah, it also has

(46:57):
unpredictable weather conditions. It's notorious for that. So people thought
it would be impossible to create this until people had
to survive. And the ingenuity there um tremendously impresses me.
And I keep thinking about what what it must be

(47:19):
like to have to make that decision. You know. Yeah,
they had out head out onto the ice in the
first place. I mean it's a matter of uh, saving
other people. It's a matter of you know, bringing back people,
you know, rescuing people, bringing supplies, you know, whatever it
would be. Um. So, yeah, there's there's a lot of
decisions to go into this. But again, you know, war
brings out the best and the worst of people, and

(47:40):
I think in this case, it brought out the best
and a lot of people that were coming from the
finished side um over to uh you know Lennon grad
to you know, do what they hate that whatever they
could to help the cause, you know, to uh, you know,
anything at all possible, and again putting every everything that
they had at risk, everything, And let us not forget

(48:02):
that people are still doing that today every year. Uh,
small towns across the planet, villages, you know, isolated communities
rely on these transportation routes. So we want to Scott
and I wanna dolf our caps in respect to some
of the most accomplished and I'll say it badass drivers around. Yeah, definitely.

(48:26):
I mean these guys are true cowboys still, right and uh,
you know, like like the guy Ruslan headed back out,
you know when he knew the ice was thin. Um.
But but that's just what he does. I mean, that's
that's his lifestyle. He doesn't know anything different. I suppose
maybe he's probably grown up with this, you know. I
don't know if it's what his dad did or whatever.
But um, if this is something he's done for decades, um,

(48:47):
then he just knows that he's confident with it and
he's he's okay with the risks as well as the rewards.
And we hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for listening,
and let us know if you have experience as an
ice road driver, you know, whether that's transport for civilian goods,
whether you did it in the military, perhaps we'd like

(49:09):
to hear about your experience firsthand. You can find us
on Facebook and Twitter where we're car Stuff HSW and
that's where you can also find this article, which will
post on the Twitter. Uh I just said on the Twitter,
I sound like somebody's grandfather. Put it on. Put it
on the Googler, put it on the Goglar. Getting closer
and closer every day, man um, but before I lapse

(49:33):
into full time delirium. You can also write to us
directly if you have a suggestion for topic we should
cover in the future. We are car stuff at how
stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands
of other topics. Is that how stuff works dot com.
Let us know what you think. Send an email to

(49:55):
podcast that how Stuff works dot com.

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