Denison's Ice Road

by Edith Iglauer

In savage blizzards, blinding whiteouts and 60-below-zero temperatures, steel axles snap like twigs; brakes and steering wheels seize up; bare hands freeze when they touch metal. The lake ice cracks and sometimes gives way, so the roadbuilders drive with one hand on the door, ready to jump. John Denison and his crew waited for the coldest, darkest days of winter every year to set out to build a 520-kilometre road made of ice and snow, from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories to a silver mine on Great Bear Lake, above the Arctic Circle - this is their story. Edith Iglauer was the first outsider ever to accompany them as they worked. This book, her chronicle of a gruelling, fascinating journey through Canada's north, has sold over 20,000 copies since its first publication in 1974.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Canada

238 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Edith Iglauer attended Wellesley College and the School of Journalism at Columbia University. She covered WWII as a correspondent and later became a staff writer for the New Yorker, where she mostly wrote about Canada. Her experiences led her to write several nonfiction books, including a memoir about her marriage to a salmon fisherman, which was turned into a TV movie.

Reviews

[Kam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of the ice road construction crew, headed by John Denison, who built the annual 325-mile winter road over a series of frozen lakes from Yellowknife, NWT to a silver mine at Great Bear Lake. New Yorker Magazine reporter Edith Iglauer traveled with them for a season as they built the road in temperatures of up to sixty below zero on mostly dark days in the middle of winter, facing constant mechanical breakdowns, bad weather, unpredictable ice that trucks and machinery could (and did) fall through, and yet managing to forge the road that would bring convoys of freight trucks with supplies for the remote mines and communities that depended upon them. These folks were hardworking badasses, and it's all the more impressive for the fact that this story takes place in the 1970s, there are no cell phones, GPS or other modern gizmos such as the ground-penetrating radar that is used to monitor the thickness of ice roads today. John Denison comes across as a forceful personality who drives his workers relentlessly but also earns their utmost respect. Edith Iglauer is the first outsider and the first woman to accompany them, and while she often mentions how she feels dumb and/or in the way, she also earns the friendship and respect of Denison and the crew, and comes to love the beautiful, cold and dangerous world they work in every day. I've heard that this book was the inspiration for the TV show "Ice Road Truckers", and if you like that, chances are you'll dig this too.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

My goodness- this book is so compelling! Man against nature and racing the clock. I thought this book provided an excellent window into a past world I didn't even know existed.

[Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

These guys are insane.

John Denison explains that they often drive around in negative 60 degree temperates with their driver's side door open, just in case the ice breaks and they have to bail in a split-second. Denison is a fascinating character. He's slowly dying from what is probably a stomach ulcer, but he won't stop constructing the ice road. He rarely eats. The drivers rarely sleep more than 2 hours at a time. But Denison can motivate the men who work for him to do impossible things.

Jimmy Magrum works with Dension. He tells the story of getting stranded with his buddy out on a lake in wind-chilled negative 120 degree weather. After a few days in their broken vehicle without heat, waiting for help to arrive, they decided to move their sleeping bags outside "to break the monotony." But they never slept, because they know that metabolism slows during sleep, so "you can freeze really easily." They spent most of their time writing wills, in case only one of them made it out. Eventually a plane picked them up.

On a separate occasion, Jimmy Magrum's father Jim was out in the Barrens staking claims with some of his family. His young son apparently had appendicitis, and their two way radio wouldn't work. Jim walked for 42 hours straight to Tundra Mine to call for help. A plane came and everyone ended up okay. They measured the distance that Jim walked: 120 miles.

The vehicles they use often fall through the ice. They use winch cables to pull them up, but sometimes they're literally encased in blocks of ice and need to be thawed. They regularly have to light small fires to heat up radiators so that the radiators can start. Then they use the radiator to heat up vehicle engines so those can start. The only difference between the Canadian Arctic and the Moon is you can't breathe on the Moon.

Edith Iglauer tagged along for the entire journey, from Yellowknife to Port Radium on Great Bear Lake. This was in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Denison lived to be 84. Iglauer lived to be 101 (she married her fourth husband at age 88.

Something about the Arctic attracts unbelievable people.

[Dinah Might · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of neat and mildly interesting. Relates to my work, hence reading it.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite liked this book... my uncle drove on the ice roads at one time and was caught in a blizzard. Aparently there is an edition with a picture of him or his truck or something like that, I would like to own that one!

[Jane Silcott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved almost as much as Fishing With John.