Keep on trucking with the heroes of North America’s busiest highway
Highway Thru Hell features heavy rescue heroes who work for Jamie Davis, as well as several other teams, putting their lives on the line to keep vital highways moving and communities connected in some of the most extreme environments ever seen on TV. The Coquihalla and other highways carved through Canada’s Cascade Mountains are notorious for some of the most punishing weather conditions anywhere. But, when everyone else is turning back, heavy recovery operators, highway crews, and first responders answer the call of duty and charge straight into the storm.
In series 11, unprecedented weather tests roads, communities – and the heavy rescue crews – to their very limits. When mudslides and flooding hit, even threatening Jamie’s home, the highway crews are in an epic race to save vital infrastructure. We witness all the on-the-ground battles of grit, bravery and impossible odds for an experience like nothing ever seen on the show. With exclusive access, we also track the rebuild of the Coquihalla Highway, attend fiery wrecks, witness never-before-seen recovery techniques, and cover an avalanche control story that’s literally explosive.
Season 11
Keep on trucking with the heroes of North America’s busiest highway Highway Thru Hell features heavy rescue heroes who work for Jamie Davis, as well as several other teams, putting their lives on the line to keep vital highways moving and communities connected in some of the most extreme environments ever seen on TV. The Coquihalla and other highways carved through Canada’s Cascade Mountains are notorious for some of the most punishing weather conditions anywhere. But, when everyone else is turning back, heavy recovery operators, highway crews, and first responders answer the call of duty and charge straight into the storm. In series 11, unprecedented weather tests roads, communities – and the heavy rescue crews – to their very limits. When mudslides and flooding hit, even threatening Jamie’s home, the highway crews are in an epic race to save vital infrastructure. We witness all the on-the-ground battles of grit, bravery and impossible odds for an experience like nothing ever seen on the show. With exclusive access, we also track the rebuild of the Coquihalla Highway, attend fiery wrecks, witness never-before-seen recovery techniques, and cover an avalanche control story that’s literally explosive.
Series 10
Keep on trucking with the heroes of North America’s busiest highway The treacherous Coquihalla Highway in British Columbia, Canada, is one of the most economically important, most travelled trucking routes in North America. It’s also one of the most hazardous, as truckers face steep hills, lethal drop-offs, and major rockslides, not to mention winter snowstorms. Thousands of trucks travel this gauntlet of brutal weather every day, and many don’t make it. During the worst days, wrecks close the highway, on average, every 12 hours. This popular, long-running series takes a bumpy ride-along with Jamie Davis’ Heavy Rescue company and its colourful crew members as they salvage wrecked and stranded trucks and do whatever it takes to keep the road open – proving that it’s not always the weather that’s tough. Ride-alongs take in everything from a big truck recovery near a thousand-foot drop-off, known as ‘Dead Man’s Curve’, to fully loaded articulated lorries impaled by trees. This non-stop onslaught of tangled trucks and trailers and blistering weather would push anyone else to breaking point.
Series 9
This latest series begins with Jamie Davis tackling a big truck recovery near a thousand foot drop off, known as ‘Dead Man’s Curve’. So begins another unbelievable ride along with Jamie and his crew of heavy rescuers into the rugged world and wicked weather of North America’s busiest highways.
Series 8
We re-join the heavy recovery teams fighting to keep Canada’s roads open in some of the most dangerous working conditions ever seen on TV. This season witnesses some of the most difficult and fast changing road conditions anywhere. When it’s snowing hard up top on the summit of the Coquihalla, below its pounding rain in The Fraser Valley. When you consider the effect this has on Canada’s busiest trucking route to the West Coast, many view this as the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ of trucking.
Series 7
As they gear up for another winter, this series kicks off with a rare chance for the heavy rescue teams to get together and talk about the highs and lows of one of the world’s toughest jobs. After years of keeping the highways open with some of the most modern heavy wreckers, Jamie Davis is staking his future on ‘old iron’. Under pressure to reduce costs and stay competitive, this winter he and his crew are hoping they can tackle some of the toughest jobs using an ageing, rebuilt fleet. From massive mudslides, to white-out snowstorms, monsoon rains to dangerous rockslides, the heavy rescue teams will be tested by brutal, relentless conditions and by some of the most spectacular wrecks.
Series 6
In this new series epic, relentless storms and bitter temperatures test Jamie Davis’ crew like never before. But winter’s bite isn’t the only challenge facing Jamie this season. Hard times forced him to close his operation in Alberta last year. Now Jamie is fighting to preserve his operation in British Columbia where it all began with Colin McLean making a surprise return to the company. Before long, Colin and the rest of Jamie Davis Heavy Rescue face epic wrecks. From tractor-trailers smashed into canyon walls to fully loaded articulated lorries impaled by trees, each recovery job delivers its own set of challenges.
Series 5
Join the team once more as they fight to keep some of the most economically important, travelled, and inhospitable trucking routes in North America open during Season 5 of Highway Thru Hell. After expanding his tow business into Alberta’s frozen north two seasons ago, a new reality has set in. Heavy Rescue owner Jamie Davis has been forced to simplify his operation and shift his attention back to his mountain base – where it all began. He’s laying off staff and selling off machines. But this season he’s got a secret weapon. As ‘the boss’ focuses on rebuilding a leaner heavy rescue business, driver Colin McLean continues to anchor the team in Northern Alberta. But this winter Colin will be pushed to his breaking point.
Series 4
Highway Thru Hell is about man versus Mother Nature and the toughest men in the towing business being pushed to their limits. Jamie Davis is tackling new highways and facing bigger wrecks than ever before. Last series he took the risky gamble to expand his Heavy Recovery operation from the British Colombia mountains into the frozen Alberta north. But the strain of building a new team, while taking on the most challenging recoveries in Heavy Rescue’s history, pushes Jamie to his breaking point. Will he keep expanding his fleet or will he abandon the roads of Alberta and head back home? As his crew fights to keep the traffic moving on six different highways, Jamie has to decide how much fight he has left.
Series 3
Jamie Davis Heavy Rescue has patrolled the steep mountain passes of British Columbia’s Coquihalla for the past decade – one of the most treacherous major highways in the world. Thousands of trucks travel this gauntlet of brutal weather every day, and many don’t make it. It is up to Heavy Rescue to clear the wrecks and reopen the road fast. Now Jamie is taking on the only road that could be even worse – northern Alberta’s 881. Massive industrial loads head up this narrow stretch of icy highway to the booming oil patch. With minus-forty temperatures and Arctic winds, Jamie’s colourful crews battle the non-stop onslaught of tangled trucks and trailers and blistering weather that would push anyone to breaking point.
Series 2
The Coquihalla is one of the most treacherous highways in the world. Rising through the steep mountain passes in British Columbia, it is a gauntlet of brutal weather and white-knuckle driving. The “Coq” is also the main artery between east and west, with thousands of semi-trailer trucks crossing every day. Many don’t make it. During the winter storms major wrecks close the highway, on average, every twelve hours. Jamie Davis Heavy Rescue has the daunting job of clearing these major wrecks to keep the highway open; closure is not an option. For Jamie and his colourful crew, winter is a non-stop onslaught of tangled semis, blistering weather and stressful conditions that would push any man to the breaking point.
Series 1
In the rugged mountains of British Columbia in Canada, there’s a highway like no other. An unforgiving, white-knuckle ride that thousands of truckers must run every day. Keeping the Coquihalla Highway open takes an army of men and machines and the last line of defense is the fleet of Jamie Davis Heavy Rescue. Jamie’s team is willing to tackle any disaster the mountain throws at them. They have been entrusted to keep some of the most economically important and inhospitable roads in Canada open and safe during the winter season. The stakes are high – lives, the economy and thousands of jobs depend on the highways staying clear, but the extreme mountain roads are fraught with steep, icy terrain where Mother Nature reigns supreme. During winter storms truckers crash and close the road every twelve hours on average and when they do, the call goes out to the team of heavy rescue tow truck drivers who are on call 24/7. Even the toughest men in the towing business are pushed to breaking point; they have witnessed some horrific scenes. The drivers must brave the extreme temperatures and seemingly impossible conditions to remove often dangerous cargo, clean up the carnage and get the truck traffic rolling again. Fast.
Series 11: 18 x 60’
Series 10-9: 36 x 60’
Series 8-7: 34 x 60’
Series 6-5: 28 x 60’
Series 4-2: 39 x 60’ (13 eps each) plus 8 reloads
Series 1: 10 x 60’
Nominated (2017): Best Writing in a Factual Program or Series, Canadian Screen Awards
Nominated (2015): Overall Sound, Documentary Program or Series, Leo Award
Nominated (2015): Sound Editing, Documentary Program or Series, Leo Award
