It’s time to hand out the awards for last night’s episode (Season 9, No. 2) of Ice Road Truckers.
While this week’s episode lacked some of the drama of the season’s launch (e.g. Polar owner Mark Kohaykewch lecturing Art Burke on how he was taking a risk hiring him only to have Art get stopped almost immediately for a paperwork check and not having his truck’s registration.) it certainly had its moments of drama. They deserve to be recognized.
The “Where Am I Going Again?” Award goes to Lisa Kelly.Who’d have thought there could be two similarly-named communities along the desolate reaches of the same ice road in Manitoba, Canada? Lisa Kelly found out the hard way that Brochet and Lac Brochet are not the same. Nor are they even that close.
After making a difficult trek over a road that in one stretch was covered in flowing water, Lisa had to retrace her steps, this time uphill most of the way, losing precious time and endangering her new partnership with Darrell Ward.
“I feel like I’m failing Darrell and the company,” she said.
But, in the end, she delivered the load on time. Score one for the new Darrell/Lisa partnership.
Todd DeweyThe Hardest Working Ice Road Trucker Award goes to Todd Dewey.
For the second straight episode, Todd delivered a mini-speech on how he will do whatever it takes to help Polar Industries be this season’s winner, and then has to prove it by getting himself unstuck.
Last week he used one of his truck’s drive wheels, a stout tree and some straps to winch his truck out of a ditch successfully.
This Sunday night, he had to resort to some non-mechanized snow removal equipment to get himself out of another snowbank. Running hard and late at night, Todd got stuck in snow again and had to shovel his way out. And, he did a whole lot of shoveling.
In the end, he made his delivery on time.
Darrell WardThe “Is This Ice Really Safe to Drive Across?” Award goes to … It’s a tie between Darrell Ward and Art Burke!
Desperate for business, Darrell agreed to take on a job we learned “no one else wanted.”
For Darrell, that meant making the first crossing over ice that had recently been shut down because of safety issues.
“This ice has some issues,” he said before taking a deep breath and easing onto the ice. “I might have some issues before I get across here.”
Luckily, for Darrell’s new company and the show, the ice crossing was tense but ended well.
Art white-knuckled his way across a 10-mile stretch of ice. At one point, we’re told he is driving over part of the lake that is 200 feet deep. In the end, with no small amount of “F Bombs” being bleeped out, Art cleared the ice, dropped his load and headed home.
Alex DebogorskiThe Trip Was Easy but Gratifying Award goes to Alex Debogorski.
This could also be titled the Feel Good Load of the Year Award as Polar donated a run to deliver some much-needed food to a First Nation’s village.
Alex made a mostly uneventful run to deliver the food to a remote village where he was warmly received and honored for his work.
“This is the best part of doing what I do,” Alex said as he got in his Mack to head home.
Best Quote of the Episode goes to Darrell.
“The more loads I deliver on time, the more loads I will have to deliver.”
Ice Road Truckers Episode 3 airs at 9 p.m. Eastern Sunday, Aug. 16 on the History Channel. Consult local listings.
Truckers News will again be live Tweeting during the show and commenting on Facebook.
