Capitalizing on the success of the reality TV breakout hit and adrenalin rush, “Ice Road Truckers,” History now debuts another blue-collar, man-versus-nature series, “Ax Men” on Sunday, March 9 at 10:00 PM.
Logging is a thankless, tough job, and splinters are the least of your worries as History producers proclaim it to be North America's “most dangerous job.”
"Ax Men" follows four logging companies at different sites in Oregon as they bring down huge trees in less than optimal conditions. Like their “Ice Road Trucker” brethren, they have a strict time gun to their heads to pull out as many truckloads of trees a day to earn the cash.
Their work is extremely dangerous because of the time squeeze and the geographical logistics as the loggers work in tandem to secure, corral and transport the giant felled trees to take to the mill.
It sounds straight forward, but when you are dealing with the mercurial weather patterns of the Pacific Northwest and frequent bouts of bad luck, the day’s work is grim. Your fate may be a hurtling log screaming back at you like an out-of-control toboggan – or a tether line snapping and severing one of your favorite body parts.
The lumber industry in the U.S. today has migrated west as the harvesting of the renewable resource is the everyday bread and butter for many men in the area.
History producers found four teams of logging camps located in the remote, isolated forests of northwest Oregon. Before your mind wanders to the happy-go-lucky singing Lumberjacks of Monty Python fame, these rough and raw guys will douse that image with a salty side of profanity quickly.
Like crabbers and deep-sea fisherman, this profession has many who are “born” (cursed?) into the fold, like the featured group of "Ax Men" who had many familial ties with each other.
I cannot predict if this effort will grab viewers the way the “Ice Road Truckers” did. In fact, the overall tone of the series for me was bleak. I felt bad for the younger guys who didn’t explore their other vocational options.
Don’t get me wrong; I have enormous respect people who get up and do dangerous and difficult things to earn a living. These men work hard; they risk everything; it is not my wish to castigate them in any way. But the excitement "hook" factor necessary for good reality television seems to be less in this series than the other similar efforts like “Ice Road Truckers” and “Deadliest Catch.” It feels more like a daily drudgery with a whiff of bitterness for some of the players interviewed.
“Ax Men" is a spotlight on four teams of loggers. We meet Darrell Holthusen of Astoria, Oregon. He is obsessed with safety; rightly so. His outfit of Gustafson Logging has greenhorn crew chief Robby Motsinger proving himself worthy to his seasoned peers.
In between team segments, the loggers talk to the camera about how dangerous their work is, and that they are constantly worried they will die getting to work (trucks loaded with lumber on narrow mountain roads), at work (a million ways to go there) or coming home from work (drunken truck drivers with heavy lumber loads).
The series introduces us to their behemoth machines - the Yoder and the Yarder - one a giant mechanical grabber arm, the other a ramrod pole that tethers and secures fallen trees for the harvest.
The Yarder is a scary tool, because these men rarely work on level surfaces. They are usually working on mountainsides that have this huge top-heavy machine just hanging on, and a snapped rigging cable from the Yarder can slice a man in half or take a limb (one crew chief, Jay Browning shows us his missing left hand).
In fact, all of the filmed sites are seemingly at the precipice of a mountain, or so remote and difficult to access you are amazed they get anything out of the harvest sites.
The Stump Branch crew is headed by Melvin Lardy who sweats the daily take and worries on camera that they will never be ahead of the curve, and you believe him. His crew works hard but the equipment is failing and the schedule and the terrain are unforgiving.
There is the Pihl Logging crew of Vernonia, a small Oregon town that is dependent on company owner Mike Pihl to keep their families fed and employed. Pihl Logging has a real character in the mix: Dwayne Dethlefs, the comic relief of “Ax Men.”
The Jay Browning crew segment featured the most interesting snapshots of what a workday was like, and presented unique answers to a particular rigging challenge. Browning seems like a decent man; he was nonchalant about his missing hand and other horrible physical injuries he had suffered. All in a day’s work.
The nastiest moment came with Jay’s son Jesse Browning, the heir to his logging company. Jesse bristles on camera at any inference of nepotism, free rides, or being given anything on a “silver f**king platter,” and in the most scathing commentary he rails against east coast people who label him a "lumberjack" and warns his kids they’ll be “working their f**king as*es off too, and more unprintable awful things that would make me run away from home if this guy were my dad.
History reports on their website that OSHA (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health), reported 91 worker deaths in the American logging industry in 2005, which had 106,000 employees.
This profession has always seen hard times. Back in the day, the 19th century and early decades of the 20th century, the loggers lived in remote camps near their worksites without their families and were often infested with lice, ticks and unpleasant diseases; it wasn't uncommon for loggers to wear the same clothes for months on end.
Unions have improved the overall lot for the modern logger, but after watching one episode of the “Ax Men,” I can’t imagine it will inspire kids to rush their guidance counselors asking about logging as a career path.
**The review episode was loaded with bad language, the air version most likely will be “bleeped” and edited for family viewing.
Grade: C+ (based on one episode submitted for review)
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