Overlanding to Tuktoyaktuk... IN THE WINTER! The Finale-X Overland's Solo Series S1:EP5

the Giordano's have been held up again with bad weather in the far northern region of the Northwest Territories hopefully after being stuck in Inuvik the road will open soon and then we'll be able to make it to the top of the world before having to head back which could be a whole other challenge in itself Exce Overland's solo series is presented by General Tire and the grabber ATX the official tire of the Arctic series available at tire rack calm and in association with patriot campers and peak or systems let's go coast to coast to coast and we are reaching the treeline tundra so about that years earlier on the Alaska Yukon expedition we had to travel to tuk by air because of this road not existing in fact we observed its construction out the window of our flight there now 7 years later the finished Road has changed the daily life of residence and tuk this is a monumental achievement for Richard and Ashley as well for XO to see another team make it back to the far north and for the Giordano's to have completed their version of the pan-american [Music] yeah we're in touch we just saw the sign so close to the Archdeacon the first stop on the list is the dew radar station looks like the dew line is over here there's kind of a road that hasn't been plowed the distant early warning line or Dew line sites are found across the Arctic spanning from Alaska and Canada over to Greenland and as far east as Iceland the building of a distant early warning line the dew line as we call it above the Arctic Circle had been the most needed step in creating a continental air defense the dew line is backed up by the Mid Canada Line and the two lines work closely together this line of interlocking search radar stations is able to detect air attacks coming across the north polar regions and to give warning in time to our defense centers to the south the dew line was decommissioned in the late 80s and it was replaced by the north warning system though many do sites are gone the ones left tell a story of a tense time in history next up is the Arctic Ocean though we doubt the Polar Plunge is on the list this time we made it to the Arctic [Applause] 4,200 oh Kentucky huk huk nowhere to go pass out that way this moment for the Giordano's has been years in the making their journey from canada uija argentina and now at the Arctic Ocean in Tuktoyaktuk is complete it may not be the true pan-american but it's close enough in our book Congrats to the Giordano's your journeys have reached epic proportions most places in tuk are closed for the season and in addition with all the delays on the way up the temporary vehicle import permit on the Tacoma is expiring soon richard initially have to make a big push south while the weather is good and with clear skies miles come easy at least for now how's the road great great I'm so surprised see it's over actually it's nice to be able to pick up the pace when we also are itching to make tracks home their luck has run out the Northwest Territories from Division website updated 20 minutes ago or something and said that this road is actually [Music] maybe if we can see the weather is getting worse and has the potential to jeopardize the road from being opened the only way to find out is to keep moving to the gate and hope it's not closed I remember a gate up here when we came by unfortunately arriving to the gate confirms their fears let's really talk to one of the truck drivers back there hey how are you yeah exactly you they just lose this gotcha you expect that it would open up today okay wait few happens yeah what's the latest Arctic update Arctic update how many hours have you been here two hours maybe just a little over two so then what is closed between here and the Yukon border due to weather supposedly you mean I guess is that allegedly closed due to weather we've kind of been watching trucks come in and out but they actually locked and closed the gate fully which yeah exactly it's kind of signaling to us that today is done and we'll probably have to sleep here tonight yeah we could turn around but the closes town is Fort McPherson and then back to Inuvik is something like 150 miles it just doesn't seem like a good idea when we are this close to being done this section and getting through yeah and we've seen that we can get word that this road is open to innovate by the time we get here it's closed so it probably makes the most sense to say you know yeah so we've decided to stay here there several trucks parked here and apparently once the wind dies down they can bring the grater through this bad section of road we might be able to get through but no guarantees all up to Mother Nature at this point hopefully we don't have to spend the night here but I guess we're prepared to do so if we have to so the weather continues to worsen winds are now reaching gusts of over 40 miles an hour down [Music] I don't know if you noticed but I just didn't notice I just turned the truck around and luck did science so obviously it's windy outside and we had to crisp the top for fear of damage damaging so now we're inside the closed habitat you might hear the heater it's gonna be loud it's too bad it's cold outside yeah so that's it I guess I would appreciate a six-foot fed instead of the 5 foot bed at this point because my legs are gonna be all jammed up but we here probably spending the night here like this I'm gonna say if it doesn't open by we're all early afternoon that we go back to Inuvik yeah we're gonna have to call it maybe we're getting carbon monoxide poisoning creepy there's a carbon monoxide detector over here that's I don't know there's a sticker I could press the button and see how long do you how long's this test button a little unnerving well we don't know if we have a cover monoxide poisoning because the carbon monoxide detector doesn't seem to be on okay don't worry the batteries just fell out of it zero parts per million I can handle that so fun new development the here will no longer start let's keep it on a little bit of black smoke that's why we have -4 degrees even bags back up also that means that we cannot until we get this sorted out that we can't open up the hab and then close up in like minus 15 because we won't be able to close it without the heater remember how we were like oh yeah you have to get to the summit of the mountain and then descending is just as hard if not harder than going up I should never have said that yeah so welcome to our roadtrip did you do that winter done what could go wrong had a good night's sleep aside from being crunched up removal ball did you I mean it was 545 per minute waiting this thing out so we talked with a couple of the plow and grader drivers and they said we're not going to make it southbound today and so we made the decision to head north again we don't have any heat and there's just no point staying here the biggest thing is we don't know how long yeah we have no idea so we knew it was gonna be tomorrow maybe but I think what we need to see is more consistency in the weather that's what I'd like to see before we attempt this again those were the Richardson mountains they don't take kindly to people trying to pass them apparently yeah so instead of waiting for an unknown number of days up there at the gate we decided to turn around and come back to the new big in a pile of weather for the gorge a lot of no zero visibility seconds quite slow but every time good to see we just stop wait for the wind to blow away the snow can you a little bit and stuff slowly made our way through and now it's a beautiful day on the Dempster it's never fun to lose ground when over landing but sometimes your hand is forced it's one of the aspects of over lending that can stretch a person and it's an exercise in patience and good judgment it's just not a fun pill to take [Music] now with time to spare Richard dives into the heater is getting this heater up and running again is a priority but when the road opens up heater or not they will have to go so let's say heater exhaust is this dark black super-city exhaust and my assumption is that it's not getting enough air take him bust any more than that or it actually burned clean so I'm just gonna pop under the truck and see if the intake air is actually clean or was clogged with Dempster ice snow and mud which is my assumption and hope because if that's the case that's an easy fix let's see it seems fine hmm disappointing alright next step pull this fuel filter out see if it's clogged so we check that the exhaust and the intake tubes are there snow or debris or anything and even though this fuel filter has fuel in it it doesn't mean that it's necessarily getting through I guess so I'm gonna try running it without the filter just to eliminate something else setting the temp to 95 on full and not like diesel so we'll see if this helps if it's been clogged did not allowing anything through or if it was a water in the tank Richard later discovers it was bad fuel that they picked up somewhere along the way and he replaces the fuel with kerosene for the trip home four days later ashley received some promising news that there is good weather window to the south if they leave now it might just make it to the Yukon border [Music] and I can in order to complete [Music] we were in Fort McPherson sky is still clear the roads clearly here and still open so we're gonna make our way down to Eagle Plains does this waypoint here all we have to do is cross the reducing mountains that should be easy right done it once out of the two times we've tried so far confidence levels 91% it's pretty high a few days ago the weather made the Richardson mountains impassable with the blowing snow and near whiteout conditions today fresh plowed roads are making all the difference in getting the miles in before dark and another possible road closure to the south okay cool Road still open [Music] I just can't wait to see our beloved Eagle Plains again on a place now safely in the Yukon the Arctic provides one last parting gift the Northern Lights are in spectacular display the Inuit of Alaska believe that the lights were the spirits of the animals they hunted the seals salmon deer and whales but now we know the dancing lights of the aurora are collisions between electrically charged particles from the Sun that enter the Earth's atmosphere the world is ever-changing and it clearly is right now governments of the world are taking every precaution to slow the spread of an invisible killer kovat 19 known as the corona virus it has in short amount of time spread around the world they receive word the next week all travel in Canada will be suspended and stay at home orders will be in place it just goes to show that the world is unpredictable and no matter the level of planning the unknown will find you getting back to the hangar at this time isn't an option and Ashley's parents offered to let them quarantine and Kelowna British Columbia to wait it out until they can get back to Montana with the roads open through the Yukon the Giordano's have over a 3,000 kilometer push to get there after a few days of good roads and clear skies Richard and Ashley make their miles from the Dempster to Ashley's hometown and it's finally above freezing [Music] despite some rough patches the trip was an epic success it's the first time EXO has sent an individual team out on an expedition of their own our goal of showing you more of the world through the eyes of our team members has shown to be incredibly rewarding [Music] I'm tired man I'm not a man I'm tired my love [Music] the Eagles have landed [Music] while Richard and Ashley wait out the quarantine in British Columbia waiting for the travel of restrictions to lift long term friends of ours Brian and Megan Walthall are in the planning stages of their upcoming solo adventure it's going to be another first for XO so check back later here at expedition overlap we X Overland would like to extend our thoughts and prayers to all our fellow over Landers who have been displaced and confined to the various locations around the world we as overlanders are an adventurous and curious Bunch and I hope that your positive perspectives problem-solving and perseverance will be infectious to your community wherever you are thanks for watching and supporting our sponsors in series the whole team here at XO is very grateful [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Expedition Overland

Views: 177,056

Rating: 4.9211183 out of 5

Keywords: xoverland, expedition overland, solo series, arctic overland, winter camping, winter road trip, overlander, overlanding, toyota tacoma, overland build, tacoma overland, arctic ocean

Id: mJLFxNVUKKI

Length: 23min 5sec (1385 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 18 2020