In the world's highest mountains...
are roads only the best can survive.
This is the worst stretch.
It's just brutal.
Where the road averages a death
every 4 1/2 minutes.
And three truckers are risking everything.
- The splinters of wood poke you like a pincushion.
In trucks built on wood frames.
- Hopefully it ain't the wooden casket.
After seven weeks with a spotter...
- If he's putting you in danger, just let him go.
Lisa made a change.
- I was thinking what I could do is go on this trip by myself.
Now she's going it alone.
- Hey, get the BLEEP out of my door!
And all three drivers
are facing their biggest challenge yet.
- God, Lisa, you're BLEEP killing me here.
Driving the Rohtang Pass at night.
I just can't see.
Three truckers...
- You think we should just give up and go home?
Yes.
Two months...
I would love to quit.
A race at the top of the world.
Today's toughest drivers take on history's deadliest roads.
- You notice it's starting to rain.
You can't see the top of the mountains.
I was reading the paper.
You know, they were blaming all the bad weather
on something that resembled, like, El Niņo.
The whole road is washed.
This whole hillside's gonna come down.
And I got Lisa behind me.
No Tashi. She's all by herself today.
Holy crap, I'm on my own.
After seven weeks of highs...
Okay.
And lows with her spotter...
- What'd you throw it over the side for?
Lisa made a tough call.
- No, that was right. - I'm talking.
I'm talking. Hey, Tashi, I got an idea.
I'm still giving you the day off.
It's you and me, bud.
You'll be my spotter today, okay, pal?
My new spotter's doing exactly what I was trying to get
the last spotter to do.
Good boy.
It's a big move.
It's a very big move.
She got rid of an extra set of eyes and ears.
Slow, slow.
- I benefit from having Sanjeev here.
This truck is just absolutely nothing but blind spots.
I mean, you just... you can't see anything.
Slow.
You're okay?
Yes.
Okay.
Now that Lisa's by herself,
me and Rick are just gonna have to keep a close eye out
to make sure she's okay.
Do the team thing, I guess you could say.
We're headed down to pick up some cement and some tar.
Yeah, the standard load, I think, is nine ton
and, uh, I know Lisa wants to just take seven tons.
That's all she's comfortable with.
So the last thing she needs is to be overloaded.
Every time we go to pick up, they want to overload us.
It's just not happening anymore.
You know, we gotta gang up on 'em and just say no.
How many barrels?
How many?
- 45 barrels. - No 45.
They're not double stacking 'em. Whatever'll fit.
You know, just one stack.
26 drums.
Then that's all they're gonna put on.
Lisa and Dave are both hauling building materials
to Keylong, a mountain outpost located high in the Himalayas
that's been cut off all winter.
Dave's carrying drums of tar,
and Lisa's carrying cement.
Can I have seven tons?
How about 130?
130.
How much are these apiece?
90?
50? 50 KG each?
Okay.
I am counting each and every bag that goes in here.
Seven tons might pose a challenge up on the road,
especially by myself but I'm gonna handle it
because I'm not being babysat.
I'm on my own.
This is kind of a pivotal moment.
I am so determined to prove that I can do this.
That's it. That's good.
Thank you. Thank you.
All ready to go.
From Manali, Dave and Lisa are headed north
over the 13,000-foot Rohtang Pass
before dropping down the north face and onto Keylong,
a route that's been battered by storms the last two weeks.
The weather's getting ugly
and, Rick is on his way back from Keylong.
He was sick, so he actually got a day behind.
- I've pretty much had enough of India,
and let's just say I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.
For the last week,
Rick's battled sickness and fatigue.
- Finally the body just said, I can't take any more.
I'm going down for a bit.
Now he's racing back to Manali to load his cargo
and catch up with Dave and Lisa.
- Well, the weather has gotten a lot worse than what it was.
It actually kind of looked like it was gonna break,
but now we've got thunder and lightning and rain,
and we got to just go and hope.
Ah, BLEEP.
Straighten.
Straighten it.
Uh, straighten.
No, that's fine.
Fine.
It's on an angle, but it's good enough.
I can see.
Head.
We're empty.
Head back to Manali. We got to reload.
So the quicker I can get back, the better.
There's a storm coming in that's potentially deadly.
With a Himalayan storm on its way,
Rick's trying to run from Keylong
back over the Rohtang Pass before the weather deteriorates.
- It is already blowing pretty good.
You can actually feel it on the truck a little bit.
I really do not want to get BLEEP blown over
in the Himalayan mountains 'cause you blow way over.
Like, way, way, way over.
Just outside of Manali...
- Hit the road to the Rohtang Pass.
Today I'm gonna try and help Lisa out.
Trying to slow down a little bit and let her catch up.
Didn't realize I sped off on her.
Stuck in traffic, as usual.
Inching along a little at a time here.
Waiting for everybody to stop pointing and staring.
I can't go anywhere when they're standing in front of the truck.
- You think Lisa'll drive okay by herself?
Is she safe?
Yeah, she's real vulnerable when she's stopped.
Got through that one.
All right, I'm moving again.
Okay, there she is.
All right, I see you.
- Sorry, they had to pull in front of me,
oncoming, and stare at me and stop, so...
it definitely makes the driving harder, I'll admit.
- Everybody wants to stop and stare at you.
You know, she's gotta learn to put that truck in gear
and push 'em out of the way if she's got to.
Over 6,000 vertical feet above Dave and Lisa,
and 13,000 feet above sea level...
Going up to the summit here.
Rick's summiting the Rohtang Pass...
Beat the weather.
And heading down the south face toward Manali.
- Put my foot into her and made up some time
coming down the hill here.
It's been a quick trip, anyways.
Despite beating the storm and making good time,
Rick's still looking for ways to catch up.
And we're back.
Another trip over the Rohtang done.
Head.
Now Rick's turning and burning,
picking up a load of water storage tanks
and trying to catch up with Dave and Lisa.
Dssh, dssh, dssh!
There you go.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, what?
I'm sick of language barriers.
It's kind of like a dysfunctional relationship.
I want to kill him, but I need him.
When I'm in a traffic jam,
I know damn well how vital he is.
He's... he's my whole reason of getting through that stuff,
and... and there are some spots up on that pass,
you get a little too zealous
with taking up space on the side,
you're rolling down the mountain.
And he makes sure that I don't get into those spots.
I'm loaded. I'm caught up.
Come on, boyo, let's go.
No.
- Oh, you're not going to Keylong?
I am... no.
After seven weeks on the deadly mountain roads...
Mohammed, Rick.
He will go with you.
Nice to meet you.
What do you think of a nickname?
You want a nickname? I'll call you "boyo".
You're my boyo. - Boyo.
Boyo.
Maverick trucker Rick Yemm's losing his spotter.
- You got a good job in Delhi? - Ah, yes.
- Yeah, well, we only have one more trip to do.
You can't stay? - No.
- Well, it gets frustrating at times,
but I know how valuable you are, and I need you.
Okay.
Well, I know I was a little hard on you up there,
and I gotta say I'm sorry for that too,
but this is pretty stressful for a guy like me coming in to it.
- No more and head and out, like...
Head.
Yeah, I know.
That was a frustrating part.
But we had some good times too.
- Just be careful of green bus driver and mother chode.
Idiot.
- I see a bus driver stopped, I'm gonna punch him.
Punch.
Give me a hug, buddy.
You take care of yourself, eh?
Okay.
- It's a rough life you got over here, man.
Yes.
Good-bye, my friend.
You take care.
Now Rick's taking on the Rohtang Pass alone.
So going solo, that's, uh...
sure, I'd like to say it's great,
and it would be great if I went up there
and had no incidents whatsoever.
But if I was a gambling man,
I'd put my whole life's earnings on the fact
that I won't make it too far up before I'm in an incident.
Further up the mountain...
Dave and Lisa are climbing into a storm.
- I mean, the clouds are moving in on the mountain passes,
if you look up above, and you can't see
the top of the mountains.
So just gonna have to wait and see what holds up.
See what it looks like up ahead.
Oh, BLEEP. There's something going on.
We got something going on up here, Lisa.
Oh, yeah?
To the Rohtang?
Okay.
Come meet me at the sign, Lisa.
- Yeah, we ain't gonna go no farther today.
We're screwed.
The pass is closed.
Well, it looks like Rick finally caught back up with us.
Where you been?
- Oh, falling behind, like usual.
- Everything's closed. They won't let us go...
- Look at it... green, red, red, red, red, red, red, nothing.
So we're screwed again.
You can't never get ahead.
- Well, let's park these things.
- All right. - Let's get going.
- We're back at the BLEEP truck depot.
Well, they're having a freak year for storms,
and from what I hear, they only have about two months
to get in everything they need.
Like driving everywhere here,
you're on a whim and a BLEEP prayer all the time.
- Hello? - Hi, baby.
What are you doing?
- Getting ready to go to bed. What are you doing?
- Well, we can't go nowhere today.
You know, we've got seven feet of snow on top of that mountain.
Seven feet of snow?
- They got avalanches up there and rockslides,
and it's just not in one place.
It's like the whole mountain.
So we're... - Sounds dangerous.
- Then I guess you could say we were screwed.
In a big way.
- The only thing is, it's such a long drop to the bottom,
I'll be able to make a last phone call before we hit.
So I'll be able to call you and say,
"Well, I don't think I'm gonna be home".
Oh, don't say that.
You know I hate jokes about that stuff.
I know it.
Probably rent a motorcycle today and ride up and check to see
if the roads are still closed and find something to do today.
All right, be careful.
All right, love you.
I love you.
- Bye. - Bye.
- So I'm gonna go up and check on the condition of the pass
and see if the road's still closed.
Road is closed.
Still closed?
All right, okay.
Rockslides and ice slides and...
- Yeah. - Washed out roads.
Okay.
Will they open the passes tomorrow or the next day?
Okay.
They found some bodies up there?
All right, thank you.
Storms are unpredictable and fierce
in the higher elevations, and for millennia,
travelers have misjudged these conditions,
giving the Rohtang Pass its name.
Translated from Tibetan, it means "pile of corpses".
But after another day stuck in Manali,
the three North American truckers are headed up anyway.
Yeah.
- You think today's gonna be bad?
No doubt, huh?
Think we should just give up and go home?
Yes.
Good answer.
Is everyone ready to go?
10-4.
Ready if you're ready.
That's my cue.
As soon as I get a clear path, I'm gonna hit somebody.
Whoa, whoa!
Jeez.
Hey, you know...
We're out of here, finally.
Heading for Keylong,
over the Rohtang Pass.
- When I'm at home, running in the States,
I run totally by myself.
In the situation that we're in now,
I would rather run with the two of them
just so that there's safety in numbers.
You know, this is all about survival out here
and... and we're just gonna have to work together to do it.
No spotters.
You're the man.
- Hey, Dave, look at all the traffic on the switchback.
Oh, BLEEP.
That is nothing but cars, all the way down to us.
- I thought it was on the road because it wasn't moving.
No.
The traffic is so BLEEP up.
You know, I'd really be surprised
if we can make it to that bridge
that's a quarter of a mile away by dark.
Absolutely be surprised.
There's only one road to the pass.
And traffic can back up all the way down
the narrow mountain switchbacks.
- You, too, can experience extreme trucking.
Go out in your driveway, sit in your car for eight hours.
That's us.
But Lisa's got more to worry about than traffic.
Stop staring, lady, please?
I don't appreciate being stared at like a freak show.
Jeez, stop sightseeing
and drive your BLEEP car.
No, thank you.
- One comes, two comes, and pretty soon,
there's 20 people hoarding the truck.
What?
- You know, Tashi was her, for lack of better words,
her bodyguard.
And she don't have him anymore.
Me and Rick gotta kind of get together
and look out for her now.
- I'm on the floor, 'cause I'm tired of people staring at me
through the windshield.
Don't you bang on my door.
- Hey, get the BLEEP out of my door!
Hey!
Hey, these guys are BLEEP with my door!
Get 'em the BLEEP away from my truck!
Hey, get away from the truck!
- He's trying to rip it open while I'm holding it shut.
- You touch that BLEEP door, I'll break your BLEEP hand!
- Get the BLEEP away from the truck!
6,000 miles from home...
Trucker Lisa Kelly is alone in her truck,
stuck in a jam, and surrounded by onlookers.
- Hey, get the BLEEP out of my door!
Hey!
These guys are opening my door!
Get 'em the BLEEP away from my truck!
Hey, get away from the truck!
- He's trying to rip it open while I'm holding it shut.
- You touch that BLEEP door, I'll break your BLEEP hand!
- Get the BLEEP away from the truck!
You don't touch that truck!
- Okay, okay, what's... what's the problem?
- You touch my door, I'm gonna sic the truck drivers on you.
You know why? 'Cause we're a team.
You stay the hell away from me.
Please, wait.
Don't touch this truck.
Nobody's touching the truck.
- No, he tried to open the BLEEP door!
Okay, forget it.
- I don't even want to roll the window down.
They're all staring at me.
I don't mean to be the chicken that's hiding in here,
but I know I'm no match for these guys.
- The problem was, that motherBLEEP
tried to open her door.
You do that, and I'll bust your BLEEP head, period.
Mind my BLEEP language when you guys try and get
BLEEP pushy with her 'cause she's a girl?
- You... you are standing here, blocking the road.
- Slightly back, slightly back. - Have a nice trip.
Everybody clear off this road. Everybody clear off this road.
Dave...
We're making a break for it.
Get out of my way.
I can't believe we're even gonna get across this bridge.
It's unbelievable.
BLEEP damn bunch of...
look, if they're gonna get pushy with BLEEP Lisa,
and she's got no one with her...
Oh, man.
I'm gonna end up in Indian prison by the end of this.
Well, we're about 500 yards from the bridge.
It's just so congested and backed up.
So many people come up here that it just...
one little thing can cause this to happen.
There's no room on these roads at all for two lanes of traffic,
so you literally have inches on either side.
We'll get moving now.
He's on the job.
- Sanjeev's breaking the way through here
and getting everybody moved over and stuff.
At least we have one spotter left.
- When you're riding on this, it's just sheer edges.
Really, really unnerving.
And I'm pretty BLEEP close right now.
I can feel it.
Oh, jeez, that's so close.
- I can feel the tire literally going over the edge,
'cause it pulls on my hand.
I know I'm literally riding that lip now.
Weeks of storms have loosened the mountain,
and the dead weight of a loaded truck
stopped on the edge can lead to disaster.
- Oh, I hate it when he tells me to go left.
Left means fall off the cliff.
I trust Sanjeev.
He's gonna be tired by tonight, but he's doing a good job.
Come on, BLEEP.
Literally on the cliff.
Whoa.
Did your ass clench the BLEEP seat, buddy?
BLEEP damn.
My ass bit the seat.
Oh, gosh.
Oh, easy there, Lisa.
It's Dave that's actually running as a spotter
'cause, if he can fit through, we can fit through,
'cause I don't want to end up off the cliff.
Wow.
It's exhilarating, isn't it?
- I don't want to fall off the cliff today.
Maybe tomorrow, but not today.
Me and you, we're gonna stay together.
You're earning your money today, buddy.
- The money? - Yeah, you're earning it.
Good job.
- This is just a little more extreme than most.
After eight hours on the mountain,
the North American convoy hasn't even reached the Rohtang Pass,
and they're running out of daylight.
- We've got about an hour's worth of daylight left.
Fog is moving in.
Road is washed out.
You know, potholes the size of houses.
We're gonna be doing every bit of it in the dark.
- These trucks have terrible lights on 'em,
so it's gonna be one of those things, right?
If we're going, it's gonna be a little, like,
quite a bit more risky, and I got no spotter.
- I've been in more bad situations here
than I've ever been at home.
- I don't know if we should turn around and go back
or kind of just poke along and keep moving forward.
I mean, we just don't know,
you know, what's beyond the pass.
In the heart of the Himalayas,
three North American truckers are stopped at 1,300 feet,
just below the deadly Rohtang Pass.
- What the BLEEP are we gonna do?
It's pretty much been
a BLEEP 10 1/2 hour trucking day
and we've gotten nowhere, so...
- And we've still got six hours left, minimum.
Yeah, minimum.
- The thing is, it's gonna be dark,
and we know what happens when it gets dark.
- We'll see what young little Lisa wants to do there and...
- We want to know what you want to do... go back or go forward?
What I want to do?
I think it's way better on that side
than it is on this side for traffic.
We've already fought our way through it once.
Why don't we finish, now that it's finally dead?
It's gonna be a super late night.
But I'm a total follower, so...
You need to learn not to be.
- Well, I don't really want to go completely on my own.
- So we should stick together, if anything, right?
- Well, then I guess we'll go over.
Let's go over.
- Gonna die slow, cold, and alone.
We're going on.
Everybody ready?
Yeah, it's a big 10-4 here.
Yes.
Whoa.
Just about backed into me, Lisa.
Sorry.
Glad that we decided to stick together.
- All right, let's everybody just keep it tight,
and no hurry.
I don't know if I can do that.
- The decision to push on is a risky one.
I mean, it's gonna be, you know, nasty and muddy and slippery,
but we'll be all right if we stick together.
I mean, it's always safety in numbers.
- The second would be just poor visibility.
I mean, we're lucky we've been on this road before,
but it could've changed so much since the snowfall.
- Well, it looks like an avalanche, for sure,
'cause the snow bank's about as tall as my truck.
That's 20 feet of snow.
If those supposed deaths were in that avalanche,
I wouldn't be surprised.
- Yeah, I think this is the one that shut the pass down.
- That is some serious snow, buddy.
Hole!
We got a hole in the middle of the road.
- What's in the middle of the road?
- A hole, right inside this snow bank.
We're gonna try and straddle it.
Holy BLEEP!
When a driver gets tired,
he starts making stupider mistakes
'cause his reaction time is slower
and he's not quite thinking right.
There's not any room for mistakes at all here,
so one mistake might be your last.
Rick, Dave, and Lisa have made it over the pass.
Now they're descending the crumbling north face
in the dark.
Holy BLEEP.
Slow, slow, slow.
I can't see.
I need my flashlight.
- Yeah, light? - My flashlight.
This is just the most dangerous time you can drive it.
I mean, you've really got to pay attention.
I think I always work better under pressure anyways.
- Only way you can see the damn curves.
Come on, Lisa, go.
BLEEP!
She's driving whatever she's comfortable with,
but the longer I'm on the road, the more tired I get,
which means the more dangerous I am.
- Oh, I'm not worried about quicker at all.
I'm worried about being so tired.
I would love to quit.
- I'm gonna rear-end her if she BLEEP slams on the brakes
on every corner.
God, Lisa, you're BLEEP killing me here.
What the BLEEP are you doing,
hitting the brakes for a stupid puddle, you...
In the pitch-black Himalayan night,
Dave, Lisa, and Rick are struggling down
the north face of the Rohtang Pass.
- What the BLEEP are you doing,
hitting the brakes for a stupid puddle, you...
Come on, Lisa.
- Where you seen me hit my brakes,
there's two big boulders laying on both sides of the road.
You have to kind of dodge through them like...
- I haven't seen you hit your brakes.
I don't even know where you're at.
BLEEP!
David.
Yeah.
I'm back, and I'm on your...
- Oh, okay. Where's Lisa?
Oh, I passed her.
- I would have thought Rick would have tried to stay close
to Lisa rather than let her run by herself.
So am I.
I noticed you're getting a little hesitant.
- Oh, yeah, I'm trying to be careful 'cause I'm not really...
you know, I'm tired.
I can't give up if you guys aren't.
- Don't drive if you're getting tired, Lisa.
I'll send Sanjeev over there to drive.
I know you will.
- You'll be running off the damn cliff.
You know, she's just into this proving something thing.
Sometimes that proving BLEEP gets you in trouble.
I just can't see.
Lisa.
What?
You all right?
I can't not, though.
I want to not, but I can't not.
I can't not accomplish my one chance at this.
You guys make it?
Yeah, I did.
I heard from Rick.
We've got no sign of Lisa, so who knows?
What a miserable BLEEP night.
- Guess that wasn't the smartest decision to drop the spotter.
- It's been one of the most vulnerable and dangerous drives
I think I've ever done in my life, you know?
But me and Sanjeev, you know,
we navigated our way here safely.
I'm proud of myself, 'cause I accomplished something
very few people have ever done...
you know, drive a truck over the Rohtang Pass in the dark.
- You've got to be a bit of a BLEEP behind the wheel.
You've got to act like you can run the road,
adapt to new situations real quick,
or else they'll take advantage of you and you're in a wreck.
Here we are.
- You know, we got to find out where the hell Lisa's at.
I hope she's okay.
- My first experience without a spotter.
It was hard work and frustrating,
so it was a long day.
Ah, you made it.
Holy crap.
- It was a pain in the ass day, man.
It's been a long day.
Yeah.
Ah, I need sleep now.
- Let's go to bed. - All right.
And we'll just unload these tomorrow.
After seven weeks in the Himalayas,
Dave, Rick, and Lisa will haul their most dangerous load yet.
I didn't come to India to die.
- What good is the fuel if it's off the side of a cliff?
- No matter where we are, if this thing blows up,
we're blowing up 1,000 people with us.
Three truckers...
- That's a bad accident right there.
There's a bad wreck up here.
The driver's pinned in.
Two more days in the Himalayas.
- It's kind of a fitting way to end this, right?
Only one will finish the last run.