Ice Road Rescue

These Norwegian roads are some of

Europe's most dangerous.

Whether it's in the Northern wilderness

or the southern fjords.

Drivers face down hostile conditions.

Stop, stop, stop.

It's enough to send even the best of them over the edge.

BJOERN (off-screen): Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Throughout Norway, an elite force of rescue

workers keep the country on the move.

BJOERN (off-screen): I'm the king of this mountain.

This season they're taking on new territories.

THORD (off-screen): My empire is growing bigger and bigger.

This is good for business.

New responsibilities.

OLE (off-screen): Now I am in charge, all the pressure is on me.

Together they battle to keep the ice roads open.

We don't want to die here.

BJOERN (off-screen): To survive in this business we have to fight.

God bless the winter.

When we die, we die together.

THORD (off-screen): Teamwork makes the dream work.

It's winter in Norway when freezing

- temperatures reach - 30 degrees Celsius.

And when business hots up,

for ice road rescuer Thord Paulsen.

THORD (off-screen): The thing I love with bad weather,

that you can be out and you get a lot of works and you feel

you are alive when you're out and it's storm and really bad weather.

I like it.

From his garage in Odda,

Thord has built a business empire worth over 7.5 million.

Now you see how we do it in Norway.

He's a man who can rescue,

mend and master just about anything on four wheels.

But this morning he's met his match.

Thord's 15 year old son, Eirik,

spends one day a week with his dad,

learning the tricks of the trade.

Today Thord scheduled a business meeting

on the other side of the mountain.

But plans and priorities always change

when an emergency call comes through.

There is a truck who are driving out of the road

and they tell me that we have to come with a

big truck to help them.

A Lithuanian driver took a sharp turn too tightly

and wedged his 38 ton truck against the rocks.

The trailer's carrying a heavy load of concrete

and it's stuck fast.

Blocking the road on a blind bend,

only cars can squeeze past.

With this crew caught up on other jobs,

Thord takes it on himself.

He hopes it will be a simple solo mission

so he can still go to his meeting.

THORD (off-screen): It's always like this.

If you want to do something, something always happen.

And then we have to take it later.

Thord arrives with Eirik and discovers a more

complex crash scene then he'd anticipated.

I've just come to the place and now I only want to see

what I have to do.

He hit the rocks so now he don't can drive anymore.

He is mine now.

THORD (off-screen): He is like the fish in the net,

he don't can go anywhere before I help him.

The crash site is at sea level next to the fjord

where temperatures are warmer.

The ice that caused the accident is melting,

making Thord's rescue even harder.

THORD (off-screen): It would be very easy work if it was slippery in the,

on the road.

But here is not slippery, here is only black asphalt.

THORD (off-screen): And it's not so easy.

Because now the trailer don't want to slide and it's fully loaded,

so it's very heavy.

THORD (off-screen): So now we have to make a good plan.

If Thord gets it wrong,

and the trailer grinds against the rock face,

he will cause more damage.

Fixing that would be at his expense.

Oh, aye, aye, aye, aye.

How heavy the truck is in the front?

22 tons, 22 tons total.

Total inside? Yes, yes.

If he tries to pull the heavy trailer straight out,

it could sink deeper into the ditch and wedge even

tighter against the rocks.

Thord takes time with Eirik to think the rescue through.

To prevent the trailer sinking,

Thord plans to lower the support legs,

then detach the cab.

He'll reposition the cab at a better angle,

reattach and then reverse the trailer out of trouble,

back onto the road.

I have find a solution but I'm a little bit afraid the,

the ground inside there for the support legs, so.

The rising temperature risks the ground

thawing and softening.

If the ground is not safe then the support legs will go down

and then we have a big problem.

A rescue Thord reckoned on turning around

quickly has become a complex and difficult operation.

He calls colleague, Tor Steinar.

With the roads now closed and traffic backing up,

Thord needs help getting this mission on the move.

Tor Steinar has worked for Thord for 16 years.

TOR (off-screen): When me and Thord work together,

we don't have to talk.

He's Thord's brother-in-law and an

experienced rescuer.

He brings a second tow truck.

As soon as he arrives, Thord briefs him.

Before releasing the trailer support legs,

they have to build a solid base of wood on the softening ground.

With the wood in place,

they wind the support legs down.

Tor Steinar tries to crank the legs higher,

but he's hard against the rocks,

with no room to work in.

The problem is there is no space enough between the trailer and the rocks,

so we don't can get it really up.

Thord comes up with another plan.

The trailer has adjustable air suspension.

If the driver raises the trailer,

Thord hopes it will create enough space to build a higher

support base for the legs.

But there's a risk.

If he raises the trailer too far,

its roof could crumple against the rock face.

The driver starts the engine to raise the suspension.

Little bit more. Easy.

Stop, stop it.

Thord calls a holt.

His plan is not working.

THORD (off-screen): The first plan was not very good,

so now we have to come up with a better solution.

Thord realizes he'll not make it to the business

meeting and phones to cancel.

He's standing up an old friend and his new business partner,

Bjoern Laegreid.

A veteran rescuer with over 32 years' experience,

Bjoern is the boss over the other side of the

Hardangervidda mountain.

I'm the king of this mountain.

His new partnership with Thord has opened up a

larger territory and he needs more staff.

We need more people to drive because we have bigger space.

Recruitment was on the agenda for today's meeting.

There's coffee and cake waiting.

That was Thord and he's not coming cause he's too busy

and there's too much to do.

So there won't be any meeting today.

So now we have to eat the cake myself.

But there's no time for coffee and cake.

Bjoern's soon on the move heading out to help

a stranded pickup driver.

BJOERN (off-screen): Now I get a phone I have to go up in the mountain.

There's a man calling me that his car has broke down so he

waiting 'till I come up, cause he's going back home from his cabin.

Norwegians enjoy weekends in their mountain cabins.

But when a snowstorm strikes, cabin life comes at a cost.

BJOERN (off-screen): In this kind of weather,

all jobs can be tough.

The broken down pickup needs taking to a garage,

but it's stuck in deep snow, 20 kilometers away.

It is standing down in a hill and it's icy

and too much snow.

In the mountains, for every 1,000 meters above sea level,

the temperature drops seven degrees.

Every kilometer Bjoern climbs,

driving conditions become more treacherous.

BJOERN (off-screen): It's very heavy wind.

It's not so very nice weather being out working.

Bjoern's navigating his way through a blizzard.

He spots the cabin up a steep track.

It's coming much snow, so it's very slippery.

And he's driving into danger.

Bjoern's sliding backwards.

It's impossible to drive up the hill so I have

to put on the chains, hopefully to get up the top.

Snow just keeps on coming.

The track is so slippery even an expert driver

like Bjoern needs snow chains.

To save some time I only put one chains

on one tire to hopefully that's enough.

He sets off at a run.

But still struggles to get any grip.

What seemed a simple rescue job

is slipping through Bjoern's fingers.

In Odda, Thord and Tor Steinar are rescuing

a Lithuanian driver who's 38 ton truck carrying a full load of

concrete caught ice and crashed on a steep bend.

The problem is there is no space enough

between the trailer and the rocks.

THORD (off-screen): So we don't can get it really up.

The road is closed, but one hour in,

Thord's rescue is going nowhere.

So now we have to come up with a better solution.