This show, like "Ax Men", is also in danger of dying from the loss of realism and authenticity brought by it's gradual transformation into "reality" TV. As with Ax Men, the best seasons of this show were the earliest, which had a primarily documentary style...just put cameras and sound on the professionals, and let them show us their world and walk us through how they do their work. The contrived "king of the ice road" competition was always there, but like with earlier "Deadliest Catch" seasons, played a minor role in the early seasons. With the recent seasons, this feature has grown in prominence and importance, threatening to turn the show away from real documentary about a unique and important line of work, into a contrived sort of game show. Sad. But I still watch as it's the _only_ show with a window into this kind of work in mass market TV at the moment.