On second thought, Hugh Rowland wouldn't be a martini--he's a beer, a very cold beer. Rowland, aka "The Polar Bear," is one of the stars of History Channel's hit show Ice Road Truckers, and has just written a book (with Michael Lent) about his life and experiences being both frozen and shaken in On Thin Ice: Breakdowns, Whiteouts, and Survival on the World's Deadliest Roads (Hyperion, $24.99, 9781401323684/1401323685, June 8, 2010).
Rowland drives trucks across the richest real estate (diamonds, natural gas, gold) on the planet--the far, far Northwest Territories. There are approximately two months out of the year when needed supplies and equipment can be trucked in to the sites, which is eight times cheaper than flying them in. The kicker: it's done on roads built anew each year over frozen lakes and muskeg. It's dangerous--people die every year both constructing the roads and driving on them. Rowland's book chronicles his life from the time he was an 11-year-old working in construction, parlaying his pay into cows, selling them and then buying a brand-new truck when he was 12, to his current job. A born entrepreneur and hard worker--bull riding, brawling, taking risks and going after the tough jobs--Rowland is pretty darn impressive. He explains ice road construction (and attendant environmental concerns) and driving the roads, with the dangers of avalanches, blizzards and breaking ice. "Page-turner" is an overused phrase, but perfect for On Thin Ice. We were excited that Rowland could take some time to talk about the book--in a bar over a few Alaskan Ambers, of course.
The book opens with all the ways a person can die when crashing through the ice. Chilling, pardon the pun.
Yeah, no one whose truck has gone under has ever been rescued.
I've lost 35 friends and relatives to the ice. Most of the truckers who've gone down--it was due to neglect, to lack of attention, to speeding. You have to listen to the ice--that's why I keep my window down even if it's 60 below. You have to hear it cracking and popping--it's breaking and reforming new ice as you drive--you can't not pay attention. Silent ice is dangerous ice. You can't speed. When you're on ice, you're pushing the water underneath in front of you--go too fast and the water will pick up enough momentum to break through the ice. Then you've had it.
Why did you write the book?
I was promoting the TV series, and thinking that it didn't show the way things really went down, and on some talk shows people would tell me that I should write a book. So instead of getting pissed off about what the show was saying about me and the other truckers, I decided to write about it.
How is the show filmed?
There's a camera in the cab trained on the driver and a camera on the dash, which is handy for filming the crashes into snow banks and ditches. Plus there is a chase vehicle, also handy for the crashes, truck breakdowns, and for the wildlife--caribou, wolves, polar bears, musk ox.
How are the truckers picked? They get tested for drugs, but then do you just wait for them to make it or wash out?
In Dalton, there's orientation classes and simulation driving. But in the NWT, you get orientation and off you go. If you screw up, you're gone. You do drive with another truck, but it's illegal to drive with someone else in the cab;
it's also illegal to drive over the ice roads wearing a seatbelt. That's bad if you go into the windshield, but good if you crash though the ice--it makes it easier for the rescue team to pull out your body.
I get over 400 requests from people from all over the world each summer who want to drive one of my four trucks, but with work permits and visas, only a few have a chance of trying out. And only a few Canadians want to try it.
The TV show portrays you and the other drivers as rivals, and it's good drama, but in your book the conflict is with the conditions, not people. Has the show changed the ice-trucking business?
The personalities get amplified for the show; in reality, it's all about teamwork. You head out with at least one other trucker at all times, and any rivalry is pretty friendly. Of course there will always be guys who piss you off, but it has to stay friendly, or else you'd kill somebody.
On the show, I'm gruff and profane. Well, yeah, I can be gruff, I am profane, but I'm friends with everybody, not a rival. The show hasn't changed the business, but it has changed the people who want to drive.
So you haven't been an ice trucker your whole life?
I've done a lot of other things, but I've been in this for over 30 years. I spent 15 years building ice roads, and 18 years driving them. But the rest of the year, I do other trucking and construction. I'm always working.
Because of all the experience I have driving, I do the snow stunt driving for the show--running into snow banks, sliding, swinging trailers into ditches.
Your wife, Dianne, likes to read Stephen King and Dean Koontz in the winter when you're away, so she must have a high fear tolerance. Has watching the TV show made your time away more difficult for her?
Yes, it definitely has. She and the kids knew what I did, but didn't really have a clue what it was like. One of my daughters, after seeing the first show, said, "Oh my god, dad, you shouldn't be doing that! You're crazy!"
You say in the book, "I love being out on the ice. It gets my blood pumping. I feel alive." How much longer will you do this?
'Til I'm not having fun anymore.--Marilyn Dahl