Quite a few of us enjoyed this series last summer, so I figured that we might as well talk about the show while the filming of the second season is still underway. If you are really curious, the very latest information is available on the Producer's Blog. Things are quite a bit different this year, and reading the blog and these three articles might be a spoiler, or a tease, depending on how you look at it.

From the CBC:

Producers of a documentary television series about ice-road truckers in the Northwest Territories want to shoot a followup, but the group of companies that built the winter road says it won't be part of the second season.

Ice Road Truckers, a series that debuted last year on the U.S.-based History Channel, tracks the adventures of six truck drivers as they haul huge loads of supplies from southern Canada, via Yellowknife, along the Contwoyto ice road.

Most of the Contwoyto ice road is built on frozen lakes and streams and it services the Diavik and Ekati diamond mines, as well as DeBeers' Snap Lake project.

The first season of the series was filmed last winter and began airing June 17, garnering 3.4 million viewers in the United States. The network hailed the series a blockbuster and is now selling a three-disc DVD set of the first season's episodes.

A fan of the show, Erin Sega of New York, said she was attracted to the high-stakes drama behind the truckers' job, as they deal with frigid northern temperatures and risk falling through the ice road.

"It's suspenseful, because you're like, 'Oh my God, he was getting ready to do this big load, he's really tired and we know he can't stop because there have been some repairs on the road.' You know what I mean?" Sega told CBC News.

"So it's kind of like a hook."

Late last year, producers with the History Channel approached representatives of the mining companies that built the Contwoyto road about filming a second season. But they said they are not interested, claiming the network misrepresented their industry by making it look riskier than it really is.

"It's a TV series built around this romantic notion of people making a dash for money and doing it at a very high risk," said Tom Hoefer, a spokesman with Diavik Diamond Mines Inc.

"It's very far, far from the reality of how we operate the road, and so we just didn't see any value in continuing that message."

Hoefer said having the TV cameras trained on the drivers also presented safety issues. The first season showed the drivers hamming it up for constantly running remote cameras attached to their trucks.

"Quite frankly, we thought that there was a safety risk created by having a number of drivers who were constantly under the scrutiny of a camera — basically on stage all the time — as they were driving, and it sort of diverted their attention from the job at hand."

New rules put in place for this year's ice road prohibit drivers from attaching video cameras inside or outside their trucks.

The History Channel is looking at other options, including shooting on some of the ice roads between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T

CBC

From the New York Post:

The second season of "Ice Road Truckers" is going to get really dangerous.

The crew and drivers behind the hit History Channel documentary show - about a group of truck drivers who haul supplies across frozen lakes, rivers and even the frozen Arctic Sea to the most remote outposts in Canada's west Arctic - have made it to spring time.

In the next month, the temperature will rise from around 40-below zero to a much balmier 30 degrees. It's a frightening time of year if you spend your days cruising on a road made out of solid ice.

"In another few weeks, we're going to be riding through [about six inches] of water across an island of ice," says "Ice Road" legend Hugh Rowland. "A little while after that, the road is just gone."

Rowland, a tattooed barrel of man whose nickname is The Polar Bear, was the unlikely star of cable TV's biggest show last summer.

He has been driving the ice roads of the far north for nearly 30 years.

For the second year in a row, he and returning road vets Alex Debogorski, Rick Yamm and Drew Sherwood allowed camera crews to follow them on their treacherous runs across the ice.

Last year the show was based in Yellowknife, a diamond mine boomtown in Canada's Northwestern Territories.

This year, "Ice Road Truckers" moved 2,400 miles north to Inuvik, a frontier town inside the Arctic Circle and the starting point of an ice road that runs up MacKenzie River through the north's frigid oil fields and across the polar sea to the remote village of Tuktoyaktuk.

It debuts in June.

The show has also added a few new faces and follows the occasionally bitter rivalry between the Yellowknife drivers and those from Inuvik.

The cameras, although mostly ignored, also occasionally attract unwanted attention.

Drivers were overheard last week on a two-way radio channel grumbling about how "Hollywood" had faked footage of a truck falling through the ice by using dynamite.

In truth, the scene is simply part of the opening of the show and was a miniature model filmed inside a studio.

Still, the new season suffered a major casualty when Debogorski was forced to leave the ice roads in early March after developing heart problems.

Yamm appeared in Inuvik this year with his hair dyed blue, convinced of his own TV star status. The locals quickly dubbed him The Parrot. He hates that.

Sherwood - who has somehow managed to anger everyone - also sees himself as a star, but has taken himself off the ice road. Now he limits himself to odd jobs driving around Inuvik and wants to sell "Ice Road Trucker" hats to tourists.

He was overheard by a reporter last week mumbling that "Ice Road" producers are wasting footage filming the "wrong truckers."

Rowland remains unaffected. He has still never watched the show that made him a star in the lower 48, he says. The network gave him DVDs of the series - but he gave them away to family members, he says.

NY Post

From the CBC:

Debogorski is not on the road right now — he was flown by medevac from Inuvik to Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife earlier this week, after he began experiencing shortness of breath.

Debogorski told CBC News that he has a blood clot in his lung, and he is optimistic about his health.

"Well, they don't have to amputate anything and it hasn't affected my good looks," he remarked.

"Probably going to die of old age within the next 50 years; that's my prognosis."

Meanwhile, the affable Debogorski is already thinking about spinoffs, should he get that call from Hollywood.

"They'll have my little action figures right next to the G.I. Joe figures in Wal-Mart," he joked.

CBC

I am really glad that Alex Debogorski is on the mend. I think he was my favorite character of the bunch.

According to the Northwest Territories Department of Transportation, big portions of the winter road are already closed. However, the series is shooting on the road to Inuvik and it is still open.

NWT DOT

If you like shows like Ice Road Truckers, you should check out "Axmen" which is also on the History Channel. It's about a group of logging companies in Oregon and is similar in scope to the Ice Road Truckers show. But, lots of cool Oregon scenery. On Demand HD has the first 4 or 5 episodes if you want to check it out.

I bought the DVD and enjoyed the series. However, as a person that knows a thing or two about harsh weather driving in semis, I have to say the "dangers" were pretty much hyped up.

Heck, they even close the road during storms.

In reality its 99% boredom and 1% danger. You're in radio contact all the time and driving 30 MPH on a road shared only by other truckers. Falling through the ice is only a danger during the road building season.

One could argue its more dangerous to truck up highway 26 with idiot motorists and rookie truckers on the road.

That said, it was fun to watch and -35 is not something to scoff at.

I swear, one of these days every career will have their spotlight.

Milwaukie Mortgage Brokers...probably on public access.

Portland Plaid Pantry Patrons...viewable via a live internet feed from their security cameras.

86'ed! - Asshole bouncers who couldn't pass the psyche test to be a mall cop. Lots of paint ball scenes.

Disneyland Dumpster Divers - HGTV.

Throw Yo' Momma From The Train - Black hobos are followed from state to state as Sudafed restrictions tighten. - Fox.

Toddlers Throwing Tantrums - Nanny-cam footage that show toddlers masterfully manipulating their caregivers to get candy all day. - The eating channel.

Pop Will Pop! - Follow the weight gain among men who get roped into being a parent with a one-night stand. - 700 Club ( Good family values. No abortions ).

Mother may I sleep with danger? The series. - Follow the trials and tribulations of girls who discover Jaeger, lack of health insurance and being a bagger at WinCo - in that order.

The TSA ( Totally Stupid Americans ) - An investigative journalistic approach to cultural lies that we just know don't help us in any way; Cell phones on airplanes won't crash the plane. A sandwich does not violate your " less than 4 oz. " liquid, yet isn't allowed on a flight. Nipple Rings are not a weapon. A pilot feeling inadequite about his dick can discharge a gun in the cockpit though. - The Travel Channel.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Fast food items battle evil to keep Earth safe from criminals of this world and beyond. Cartoon Network.

LOL! Some of them look like something I'd actually watch!

Man, we need the CJ network. Sounds like great TV!

The entertainment factor in watching stupid people do their thing is pretty damn high!