Feast or Famine (Full Episode) | Ice Road Rescue

these roads are some of the most dangerous in europe when winter strikes transport routes traveled by 50 ton trucks turn into bobsleigh tracks and when the major commercial highways aren't highways at all but winding mountain roads it's a recipe for disaster but throughout norway there's a brigade of rescue workers it takes a special breed of men to keep the roads open [Music] [Music] i hate this bus in this episode of ice road rescue it can be maybe a big explode you get this wire in your head they're completely dead [Music] here in the southern mountains of norway it's an unseasonably mild start to the winter [Music] today today very quiet a little bit work we have but it's too quiet tord paulson is the boss of a six million euro rescue and repair business carrying his name his headquarters is in norway's southern mountains while snow means chaos and accidents to some tord makes his living off it money coming down from the sky [Music] but no snow also means no money few vehicles in distress means too much idleness for the crew [Music] tord takes matters into his own hands [Music] yes then we are going to drive a little trip and see if we can see some trucks have problem on the road uh if we don't find we make something come here and we hear that if we not go out maybe there is a truck stay uh problem on the road so we think it's good business for us to do it like this up ahead there seems to be a car having difficulties hardly a big job but work his work [Music] [Music] [Music] this was my mother she is more crazy than i ever have been so they say everything [Music] around 600 kilometers up north of thord winter has arrived and is claiming its first victims this is my first accident in my life and in norway it's a tractor semi-trailer lost control skidded and toppled over its polish driver is unhurt but visibly shaken i think maybe i died i don't know i driving and one moment i have accidents the fire department is first to the scene yeah it's okay the fire department determines there's no fire hazard here the truck is carrying only empty pallets so the road rescue team can begin work but immediately there's a problem the truck has tipped into a small river the ground underneath is so uneven it's going to make this a very tricky job [Music] oh jesus meanwhile the police are on the spot to regulate the traffic it may be only a two-lane road but it's a major commercial route it can be very dangerous we have another truck passing and you can go but yeah the time is not on our side so after an hour marius arrives and the work can begin on this job marius will be the one in charge his specific skills and his tools will be needed for this tricky job you gotta use some uh big airbags to lift the trailer up my specialty is topping big trucks and using these airbags if it's a big operation we have to use the airbags i will be the boss can you put in the iron back in the back and in the front i take the this truck in the front and they use the airbags and then they pull the whole on the rope we're gonna use four we have if you have five but i'm gonna use four here because of the three staying in the middle using four airbags the plan is to raise the truck to a point where they can wrap straps around it attach cables and then pull it back up onto its wheels traffic is beginning to pile up and will only get worse this could take a while the semi presenting a more complex problem than first anticipated very hard to get the airbags under there because the river was quite deep yeah this is a complicated operation because of the slope from the kitchen up the road it's very difficult it's heavy loaded and as many things can't go wrong the airbags can explode and go to the ditcher and the trailer can collapse and it's many things we have to think of everything here we'll try to lift it so much we can and then we take the trucks and we pull it up the road so i think maybe two hours this operation down south tord is out on the road looking for jobs believe it or not this is one of the major east-west commercial routes in the country and now the snow is finally starting to fly let's see it's a little bit cold today this is very bad that's worse it is that's better it is for me i like stress i like working quick and i like when everything go like without problems some are straight forward like this bus which is stuck on the hill but now it's sheer number of jobs that is an issue for toured maybe 20 cars i take up one bus two trucks it's crazy so today i little bit stressed but now i have to relax because it's not my heart stop because everybody calling help help help even more snow is expected so todd needs reinforcements he calls in olaf his right hand man for what promises to be a busy night this is my life when i not walk i drink and have fun oh love is a very good man i can call him when i want because he don't have woman [Music] i was a party yesterday but i cannot drive early i am late sleeper i think nine years now i'm working with the trucks that's a funny business olav needs to get to toured fast the jobs are piling up some are even returned business it's the third time i helped this person today so the first thing he said for me today you get richer on the bus he said for me but that's correct very bad problem to connecting the wiring for this i hope i can finish this work because uh i think these men have to go to the station with the people they've been with him maybe five six hour this day i hate this bus in the north marius is under the gun to get the truck upright in the south olav is heading out to help tord just like that towards getting more work than he can handle it's gone from business famine to feast it's the third time he's had to pull this same bus out of a snow bank finally he and olaf can head out to scout for bigger jobs i go scouting because if you don't do it maybe the competition get the work in the road rescue business it's first come first served todd needs to hustle and stay proactive i know we hope maybe somebody of this get problem to a person this being a main commercial route the chances of stumbling across trucks in trouble are good yes now we get little bit more work i hope hello your problem the train cabot it's a turkish truck on its way to bergen it's been driving without tire chains not a good idea on roads like these you want new no no no no you want you want help you want help okay so but you see this fire this is this is turns out the truck is not just missing chains even the tires themselves are wrong they're summer ones it makes driving through these mountains downright dangerous these people are crazy look for this fire they have it's crazy it's uh not not good for driving in norway because it's dangerous to start to go down you know it's uh it's not good this man is very lucky you know if he may be driving a little bit longer up and if the truck stops he finished the truck is on its way to pick up cargo so it's empty and light making it even riskier to drive in these conditions i really don't know what to do now because it's it's not good for me to call the police because this man have problems or maybe i give him more problem uh we have to do something maybe if i let him go from here you know maybe he go over the mountain and he crashed somebody then i don't feel good you know so they have to call the police sword makes the call and then tows the truck to the rendezvous point with the police immediately the police removed the plates in norway it's against the law for trucks to drive on the wrong tires i think maybe this man maybe stay here maybe two weeks before he can go from here because maybe he need new tires maybe he need all new chains so maybe he call home you know so maybe somebody coming with jane i don't know i think maybe he's the stay here for a long time [Applause] so today we have good morning now we are happy no way everybody can smile because now we got a lot of money for this school [Music] back up north marius is working to get the truck upright and out of the water a job that was supposed to take two hours is now already into our four the three small airbags are positioned on the sides the last and biggest bag in the middle the airbags are starting to inflate it's a critical moment the police again need to close the road with traffic building in both directions the ticking of the clock is getting that much louder [Music] it's very slippery and the bags can come out then you're gonna shoot yourself there's a problem as the team inflates the biggest bag it slides sideways marius has to start all over again meanwhile the traffic cues are getting longer and longer so we have to do this operation like the whole trailer took a little too long i think [Music] for their second try they move the smaller bags out to the corners hoping to create more stable ground for the big bag in the middle the side the trailer is resting on is beginning to bulge making it even harder to get the bags into position you get the airbags under and you see the trailer is damaged it's gonna so uh we're gonna try a little bit more but if you don't do the naked you have to empty the whole trailer by hand [Music] having a successful day up north marius is having his difficulties he's now been at it for five hours and due to the traffic the police are getting impatient marius is now worried they'll have to empty out the trailer by hand this may be good for marius's bottom line but for the polish driver it's all very upsetting i don't know how long the people take the truck to the road the trail is damaged and it's very all difficult wait i got the rescuers are going to give it one more shot using the airbags they really don't want to have to offload the cargo if they can help it still marius is unhappy with the position of the airbags the trailer needs to be absolutely stable in order to get the straps underneath taking this down the furthest the guys have to work under the trailer to help create more space for the airbags this is risky considering the bulging cargo hold certainly maybe the trailer can be damaged and the whole cargo is coming out it's very dangerous down in the southern mountains a few kilometers away from toured there's another rescue business this one run by just one man a lone wolf and local legend his name is bjorn [Music] this is a man's place that is my working place no one else bjorn legreed is the grand old man of these mountains and he's one of the most experienced tow rescuers in the area be honest my car brothers you're more crazy the work is that's better me and bjorn like it this is the oldest truck that i have the best car bjorn has just received a call a truck has driven off the road in the hardanga mountains and there's a major winter storm brewing six o'clock it's gonna be 10 meter per second seven o'clock 12 8 o'clock 18 18 meter per second no good weather you have to see what you're doing and if you don't see because of the wind and the snow you can't do anything that's very simple a double tractor trailer when skidding off the road its back trailer twisting and falling on its side the mountain is a dangerous place when a storm hits but bjorn is determined to come to this driver's aid arriving on the scene bjorn assesses the situation i won't say anything before i have seen it on the other side well we have to go out and talk with her hi hi when i was first come and see the track guys it or think about themselves this one's not going to be easy the driver is norwegian in these mountains even experienced local truckers can get ambushed by the conditions it was my first time it had to come diern soon realizes this job is too big even for him with a storm headed in their direction he's in a hurry there's only one man he can trust just have to call phone to toured bjorn called me and there is a truck and a trailer so go out of the road and he tell me that we have a lot of work up there so so now we are going up there and see what we can do working with tord is no problem he has been doing this for four years i've been doing this for about 17 18 years so i trying to learn him something and maybe something sometimes he see things that i don't see the truck is loaded with delicate building materials glass and light wooden frames it needs to be handled with care the first thing is it's a heavy thing normally they're loaded when you begin you have to use a few minutes extra to see not just take a wire here and wire there and try to cool then you can break a lot of things that's very expensive up north marius is still working on getting the truck up on its wheels this is the last attempt if it doesn't work they'll have to empty the entire trailer by hand finally marius is satisfied with the position of the airbags the crew can connect the wires and start pulling the trailer upright yeah getting some chainsaw and we're getting ready to plant off this tow trucks and we're gonna use the airbags to get it over and we're gonna hold it to the trucks and pull it off the road first they're going to wrap recovery straps around the trailer then with the right balance of tension between the airbags and the wires connected to the straps they'll tilt it upright hopefully without further damage to the truck or its contents when the airbags are filled the wires connected to the truck will tighten with the trucks heavy weight the tension distribution is crucial yeah so far so good it's gonna be easier and easier at this point they've raised the truck just enough to get a second strap around the trailer we're gonna put on these traps under the trailer if an airbag or a wire snaps now it could crush somebody foreign the airbags are finally fully inflated now it's all up to the ropes around the trailer to tilt it back onto its wheels [Music] while todd and bjorn are figuring out how to approach their problem marius and his crew are now on their sixth hour and the traffic cues are stretching out in each direction everyone is losing patience [Music] however the risks are far from over the truck may now be up on its wheels but the job is only half done they now need to pull it out of the watery ditch marius is pushing the machine to its max but the truck simply won't budge another angle to try to lift it up the wire is screaming and could snap at any moment under time pressure it's easy to overlook the obvious another check of the truck reveals that the brakes are still on that's simple oversight fixed and they're ready for another go so while marius is fighting against time and traffic down south bjorn and toad are about to fight an even tougher foe mother nature an immense winter storm has them right in its crosshairs the plan is now that we are going to tillanga off the track and then we want to take the truck on the road the plan is to disconnect the back trailer from the front trailer and then winch them up on the road one by one we start the work and we hope everything go good oh funny the problem is that when the back trailer flipped the coupling got twisted there is a little bit problem to take them still some jobs are just a matter of elbow grease and a hammer this trailer must be disconnected manually and to disconnect it they decide to pull the front trailer with wires to get a better angle [Music] i know we try to move a little bit on it so we get the till hangout then it's off so now the the trailer is free so so no way uh it's everything is better it's now been several hours finally the real work can begin the storm is building time is short we try to find a good place where we can take the wiring so to take it on the road but there is not so good places if we were attached the wire at the wrong place then maybe the whole trailer would tip off and then we have a big big bad situation the delicate cargo has a total value of about two hundred thousand euros todd and bjorn have to be careful not only trying to save the truck but hopefully without damaging the contents can be maybe a big explode it can happen that the one of the belt for the truck maybe explode so it's like you shoot somebody maybe a little bit higher the air bellows for the the truck is very dangerous when we're towing the truck sidewise or something this can explode and it's a very big sound when this explodes in the southern mountains the storm is closing in bjorn and tord have to hurry to get the trailer up before it gets buried in snow besides running the risk of cracking the bellows of the air brakes the guys also need to consider the strength of the wires always it's a something can happen you know maybe one wire can cut off because maybe there is stone or something you don't know maybe some parts from the trailer maybe from the truck and only and then you get it maybe in head you can kill yourself we have to take it forward now when he has connect then they put special iron grids in front of the wheels to give the truck extra traction but still the weight is enormous bjorn's towing truck starts to slip there is a danger that it could tip over whilst bjorn and tord are racing to the storm marius is now into his eighth hour on this job everyone's exhausted still they have to be extra cautious especially since the attachment broke trailer snaps off under a pool and that is very very dangerous if you get this wire in your head they are completely dead the traffic is still piling up in both directions they have to solve this fast but stay [Music] smart [Music] the tow truck can full 45 tons but they have to figure out a plan so it doesn't slide while it's pulling after giving it a think marius comes up with a plan he'll use what the landscape gives him my truck doesn't doesn't stand on the road i have to attach him in a tree on the other side of the road with a cable attached to the tree hopefully they'll prevent the tow truck from sliding [Music] the trailer is already damaged the only focus now is to get it back on the road as quickly as possible the crew are fighting both time and the weight the road has to open and the only way to do that is to get this truck out of the way [Music] then you were able to pull the truck up on the road again place it uh in the side of the road here and they're gonna take the traffic and then you're gonna pack it all together [Music] finally the truck is back on the road a nine-hour job has come to an end and the police can open the road again a tired crew can finally [Music] you're tired and relax you're gonna inject the the trailer from the truck you're gonna hitch off the trailer on this truck and you're gonna drive it to troll the truck is on the road ready to get towed away but down south things are getting tense it's not just the job toward and burn are also going to have to fight the elements [Music] unlike the truck up north this one seems to be in a good shape the successful rescue is putting the guys in a good mood you know in winter you see we use this for trucks and in summer we use it for greeley at beyonce's place we grill with it you know fire right there and food up this is special the secret we have in norway we grill with it with the summer but the good mood is short-lived on closer inspection they discover there actually is damage to the truck when we uh get the the truck on the road we see the excel was off the guys have to fix the broken axle so that the truck can make it down from the mountain but now the heart of the storm is just minutes from their position and they still haven't started towing the trailer toward and bjorn have just found out they have a major problem with the truck they just pulled out of the ditch plus there's the back trailer that's still on its side and they're about to be hammered by a major storm the axle is not excellent so we try to make something so he can drive easy though we have to do this as quick as we can because the weather will be worse than it is now so it's a difficult job [Music] foreign after a cherry rigged fix the truck can be driven down the mountain but the storm is raging and the trailer is still in the ditch i was told that i could drive down to uh bjorn in 8th floor and leave the truck behind there and take ordinary car and drive home then they're going to fix this big truck for me and i'm going back and pick it up when they are finished but we have to do it because if we would leave the truck we get a whole day of extra work we have to get a machine to pull away all the snow and that's what me and thor talk if we don't do it tonight it will be much much more work to let it stay but then it will be frozen in the snow the storm is now getting so fierce that bjorn orders our camera crew off the mountain i think it's best that you are going down with the other man driving the truck follow him and we are staying here it's too bad better it's much better that we are here and we know that you are safe that much better this is the real mountain in norway maybe they're coming some animals we can eat tonight reindeer yeah you know it sometimes it's a animal worked through the storm and got the trailer down from the mountain the morning after maybe we used one and a half hour or something the trailer was on the road hard work but it go very nice [Music] we don't destroy any things the trailer was rescued without any damage to it or the cargo and the driver is thankful [Music] [Music] as a thank you for their help [Music] this driver hits the road again happy about having his trailer back drive carefully yeah yep it's been a long couple of days but the teams in both the north and the south can rest easy winter's finally here time to make hay while the snow [Music] flies [Music] you

Channel: National Geographic

Views: 427,616

Keywords: national geographic, nat geo, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, documentary, Feast or Famine, Feast, Famine, Ice Road Rescue, Polish truck driver, Polish, truck driver, Odda, Thord Paulsen, Thord, Paulsen, Olav Eike, Olav, Eike, Turkish driver, Turkish, driver, Norway, Norwegian police, Norwegian, police, Hardanger, Bjørn Lægreid, Bjørn, Lægreid

Id: XGPReaxXSfk

Length: 43min 45sec (2625 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 09 2021