At what age does the 'alpha male' thing based on 'coolness' begin to wane?

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• Hey there Ice. I have a question for you. Have you ever driven on ice roads in your travels?

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  by Anonymous on November 22nd, 2009

• Hi there. Yes I have, many, many, many times. Muskeg, tundra, rivers, lakes and the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean. That's how I got my nickname. :)

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  by Ice man on November 22nd, 2009

• How common is it for vehicles to go through the Ice? My husband is north of Fort St. John. He'd never traveled on those roads before. He called last night to tell me how his day went. He went through the Ice. Or half the truck did.

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  by Anonymous on November 22nd, 2009

• Oh, yeah. His first day of work up there! How many more times ya figure he'll go through?

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  by Anonymous on November 22nd, 2009

• Holy Fuck, it's way too early to be on rivers and lakes !!! The ice isn't thick enough yet. If he's hauling water from a river tell him to keep the truck on shore and drag out extra hoses. If he's driving over the winter trail, (flooded muskeg) that is at the end of the permanent road, to Fort Chipewyan - it will depend on how long the snow has been plowed off. The longer the trail is bare the deeper the frost can penetrate and freeze the road, the colder it is the safer he'll be. The heavier you are the worse it is, if he has to stop for a piss tell him to do it on the high spots as that is solid ground, the low spots are muskeg. I need more info to advise you better, what type of truck ?? What's he hauling ?? Where is he going ?? I know that country like the back of my hand.

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  by Ice man on November 22nd, 2009

• Ok. Not real sure of the details. He is about 2 hours north of Fort St. John. I believe a semi hauled the track drill rig up and dropped it off at the site where they are doing monitoring wells or checking the ground. He leaves camp and goes to the site in a pick up truck. That is what he went through the ice in. The phone reception sucks up there, satellite, so can't really get any details from him but it sure scared the hell out of me when he told me. And yeah. I thought it was way too early as well. Are they taking big risks or what?

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  by Anonymous on November 22nd, 2009

• Alaska highway

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  by Anonymous on November 22nd, 2009

• Oh. He is north of Fort Nelson not Fort St. John. Quite a bit further north.

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  by Anonymous on November 22nd, 2009

• That would put him in northern BC, just under the Yukon. That's a lot farther north and much colder than the area around McMurray. Winter starts around Labour Day up there. They should be safe and good to go, as long as the roadway has been plowed off and exposed. There are different things that affect the ice, currents, springs, shallow spots, wind and the sun. The main thing is to drive at a constant speed and not fast, not to get off the exposed road ( the ice will be weaker) and not to stop or follow too close to another vehicle. The ice sags and bends beneath the weight and needs time to recover before another truck goes over the same spot. He has probably had his big scare for the winter and the chances are that he won't experience it again.

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  by Ice man on November 22nd, 2009

• Thanks Ice. Sounded pretty scary. I was just talking to a fellow, my snow plow guy. He has been up that way and had experienced the same thing. He told me a lot of companies lose equipment on a regular basis. I wanted to chat with him a bit more about it but he had shit to do. Dishes I think> ha ha. I will talk to him again soon. Thanks again for taking the time to talk.

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  by Anonymous on November 22nd, 2009

• Yes it is normal for things to fall through the ice, but it doesn't happen every day. It usually happens when it's too early in the season, when people don't follow the rules, and when the season is over and somebody gets greedy and isn't smart enough to quit and go home. The outfits that I thought were the most foolhardy were the seismic testers. They tend to hire young inexperienced workers and send crews into raw and rough terrain with overloaded equipment, long before anyone else goes there. They are the first step in the exploration for oil and gas.

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  by Ice man on November 22nd, 2009

• Ya know. With all this safety safety safety stuff going on that surprises me. Safety orientations all the time. Compo is on their asses all the time now.

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  by Anonymous on November 22nd, 2009

• You're right, they preach safety and pump sunshine up everybody's ass. There was a time when we were safe working in the bush, everybody looked out for each other. These days they're told to be safe on one hand (nobody wants to fill out incidence reports) and then on the next breath they're told to go like hell and get the job done. Before I left I was witness to countless stupid accidents that were caused by inexperience and speed. I equate it to this - You can take a bush driver and put him on the highway and he'll never have a problem. Put a highway driver in the bush and you have an accident waiting to happen.

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  by Ice man on November 22nd, 2009

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