Another exciting non-fiction series, AX MEN, premieres on The History Channel Sunday March 9^th at 10PM ET/PT. If you liked Ice Road Truckers you’ll want to watch this series about real life lumberjacks laboring in the Pacific Northwest. This is a tough industry filled with physical challenges and time pressures as experienced by the members of four small logging companies. Film crews will follow their exploits as they race the clock to harvest a valuable crop of timber deep in remote woods. Snapping cables and free-falling trees on the precipitous slopes of vast forests, bad weather and long hours replace driving hazards and melting ice and bad weather and long hours for these new teams of daring workers. Cameras closely follow the travails of the high tech loggers as they encounter perilous obstacles in their quest to retrieve trees from some of the most difficult spots on earth.

The language is salty and emotions run high as these modern day loggers fight time and the weather to load up the timber. It’s a total glimpse of the workings of lumber companies that combine sophisticated modern hauling machinery and cranes with old fashioned bull labor. Respect grows for the veteran ax men as we learn about the missing limbs, broken body parts, and close calls with disaster that are part of career loggers experience. Some mishaps get picked up during the actual filming. We learn how the men deal with emergencies far from any medical facilities. they are basically in their own for first aid. One man injures his back and is lost to his crew. Eventually he is trucked out to a medical facility. Another worker must assume his duties. Some of the men question why they keep doing this dangerous work. Others admit there is no other job they would ever do.

One broken cable can mean financial disaster or crippling injury. Modern technology meshes with old-fashioned grit as the Ax Men face each new obstacle. A helicopter is even employed in a new and daring fashion to expedite operational problems in stringing a cable line. The men are adept at combining old-time logging skills and new technology to conquer the forests.  Tune in and find out if they run out of trees before the series ends. I doubt it!

by MIKE DANESCO