❄️ Chaos on the Ice: Season 12 of Ice Road Truckers Opens with Disaster, Danger, and Shocking First Runs 😱🚚

As the 2025 edition of the long‑running reality series returned, the familiar roar of diesel engines and the biting cold of Arctic roads greeted the cast and crew on the premiere day—October 1 at the remote outpost of Muskie Creek in northern Canada.

But instead of a smooth re‑entry, Season 12 opened amid chaos and mechanical failures, and the trucks that once commanded ice highways were suddenly at the mercy of frozen terrain, collapsing ice bridges and unexpected calamities.

Veteran driver Lisa Kelly, who returned for the revival of the show, was one of the first to feel the sting of disaster.

In Episode 1, entitled “The Northern Frontier”, Lisa’s rig ground to a halt as the engine compromised during a tight turn on a thin sheet of ice—her load teetering and a sense of dread settling over the convoy.

One stunned on‑scene voice crackled over the radio: “Lisa, you alright? The load’s sliding—they’ve lost the rear chain!” Panic rippled as teammate Scott “Scooter” Yuill raced to coordinate a rescue operation to stabilize the truck and prevent a full trailer rollover.

Elsewhere, former log‑truck driver turned heavy‑haul expert Todd Dewey faced his own reckoning in Episode 3 “Ice and Fire”, when he returned to the dreaded Asheweig Road—the very stretch that had wrecked his truck in an earlier season.

Climbing “Crybaby Hill” in sub‑zero conditions, his steering froze, the trailer fishtailed and a half‑ton generator let out a tortured screech.

“Not again,” Todd muttered through clenched teeth, “this road doesn’t forget.

” He managed to limp through, but the damage to reputation and rig was real.

Between these headline moments, newcomer driver Shaun Harris and his sons Zach and Riley found themselves thrust into the spotlight.

Aiming to rebuild after a brutal off‑season business loss, Shaun accepted a high‑stakes job: hauling uranium‑exploration core samples across a snow‑packed route to Uranium City.

In Episode 2 “The Bet”, Shaun arrived to a deserted site blanketed in nearly four feet of snow and no site manager in sight.

After hours of digging trucks out and loading alone, he radioed Todd: “Never thought I’d be fighting snow this deep for rocks we’ll never touch.

” Though they made the run, it cost them time, money—and faith.

The real tipping point came in Episode 6 “Recovery Mission”, when the convoy of six trucks hit disaster.

An ice bridge beneath Lisa’s truck collapsed near Muskie Creek, sending the trailer bed plunging into icy water.

The crew scrambled—Scooter hooked a winch line, Todd powered his rig in reverse while chains screeched and metal bent under pressure.

“I was hanging on for my life as the ice cracked beneath us,” Lisa later recounted.

The recovery took hours; the load was salvaged but the damage was done.

That single event forced production supervisors and the crew to pull back and assess risk like never before.

Behind all this turmoil lay a larger narrative: a show returning after an eight‑year hiatus, with its cast older, the climate more volatile, and the roads far less predictable.

One producer admitted off‑camera: “We kept telling them: these roads don’t care you’re back on TV—they’ll kill you just the same.

” Despite the drill, the first runs of 2025 made it clear the warnings were all too real.

Yet there were moments of camaraderie, too.

After the ice‑bridge collapse, Lisa, Todd and Scooter sat beside a wind‑blown campfire, boots frozen, truck engines silent, sharing tales of past seasons.

Lisa grinned at Scooter’s new catch‑phrase—“Guys, I’m stuck”—and Todd toasted to his late father: “I’m gonna dedicate this rig to you, old man.

” In that fragile light, drivers weren’t reality‑TV stars—they were humans on the edge.

As the premiere episodes unfolded, viewers watched the convoy navigate one disaster after another—frozen crossings, engine failures, detours through uncharted ice roads to remote outposts near Hudson Bay.

Yet despite setbacks, the show’s headline remained bold: first runs filled with first disasters.

By the end of episode 6, the scoring board was grim: two trucks damaged, one driver’s load lost, several emergency rescues, and a production team scrambling for contingency plans.

Bill Danh, the operations manager of Muskie Creek Ltd., later said: “We knew the season would test us—but not like this.”

For longtime fans of Ice Road Truckers, the nostalgia of the icy roads and roaring rigs returned—but wrapped in a new layer of realism: age, climate change, thinning ice and fractured supply chains made every delivery riskier than ever.

The first runs weren’t just a warm‑up—they were a reminder that these roads don’t give second chances.

As the season continues, one question looms: can the convoy recover, or will the disasters mount until the game changes? For now, first runs have become first disasters, and the ice is turning against even the toughest truckers.