Not your typical road trip: Drivers come across 'huge' crack in Deline ice road

When Danny Gaudet drove his truck out of Deline, N.W.T., he noticed a crack in the ice road.

It was Jan. 26 and the route across Great Bear Lake had just opened. He and some friends were out for their inaugural rip.

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"When I got back to the lake there I realized, 'Wow this looks different than when we left,'" he said. "So I slowed down."

It was around 9:30 p.m. As Gaudet got closer, he realized the terrain could be very dangerous a pressure ridge had formed, leaving standing water and a massive crack longer than the width of the 45-metre road.

He knew what he was looking at because he makes ice roads for a living. Gaudetbelieves he was the first person to find the crack. He advised his friends, who were driving behind him, to follow his lead to the other side.

"I realized I've got to find a way around it," he said. "So I found a way around it and realized well, it's cracked even beyond that."

Gaudet helped his friends across and decided to stay behind to warn other travellers who might be coming down the road. He stood sentry for about 45 minutes, until the ice road's contractor came out to put up barricades.

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It's a two-and-a-half hour drive to the nearest community, Tulita.

According to Greg Hanna, a spokesperson with the Department of Infrastructure, the road reopened to light traffic on Thursday afternoon.

He said the crack was located about 100 metres from shore.

The department closed the road Saturday night to "let the affected area freeze and allow the department to strengthen the surrounding area with additional flooding."

Deline, population 533, is usually the last Sahtu community to be connected by road because contractors have to wait for the ice to thicken along the nine-kilometre Great Bear Lake portion of the crossing. Its 15-year average opening date, according to the Department of Infrastructure, is Jan. 15.

What is a pressure ridge?

Ice tends to form pressure ridges when temperatures fluctuate, causing expansion or contraction. The pressure will cause the ice to crack, and when the two sides crush together a ridge will form.

Leonard Kenny was the first person Gaudet helped navigate around the ridge.

"He called us and gave us a warning that there's a huge crack in the ice," he said.

"There was a lot of water but it was a pressure ridge for sure. And once I crossed I didn't hang around too long."

Kenny said the road was quite busy that night because many people in the Sahtu region were excited to make the trek on the newly opened road.