The Coquihalla is a beast. Anyone who has driven from Hope to Merritt in a mid-winter blizzard knows the feeling of their knuckles turning white as they grip the steering wheel. For a decade, we’ve watched Jamie Davis and his crew tackle that stretch of Canadian pavement, but Highway Thru Hell Season 10 hit the airwaves with a weight that previous years just didn't have. It wasn't just about the wrecks anymore. It was about survival in a changing world.
Ten years is a long time for any show, especially one where the "stars" are basically high-tension cables and 50-ton rotators. By the time the cameras started rolling for the tenth outing, the landscape of heavy recovery in British Columbia had shifted. It wasn’t just Jamie in his signature "Mighty Mo" anymore. We saw a more fragmented, competitive, and technically demanding industry than the one we met back in 2012.
The Coquihalla Highway didn't get any easier
Nature doesn't care about TV anniversaries.
During the filming of Highway Thru Hell Season 10, the weather patterns across the Pacific Northwest were erratic. We're talking about massive washouts and temperature swings that turned solid ice into slush and then back into "black ice" in a matter of minutes. This season really hammered home the reality that the "Coq" is a living thing. One minute it's clear; the next, a jackknifed semi is blocking all three lanes at the Great Bear Snowshed.
The technical complexity of the recoveries in this milestone season stood out. It wasn't just "hook it and pull it." We saw more air-bag recoveries—where the crew has to inflate massive pillows under a tipped trailer to upright it without spilling the cargo. If you’ve ever seen a load of lumber or, worse, hazardous chemicals start to lean, you know why the stress levels were peaking. Jamie Davis, Al Quiring, and the others were dealing with tighter margins and higher stakes from the Ministry of Transportation.
Why Jamie Davis shifted his strategy
Honestly, watching Jamie's evolution over ten years has been a bit of a roller coaster. In the early days, he was the king of the mountain, expanding his fleet with massive investments. By the time Highway Thru Hell Season 10 arrived, things felt more lean. More focused.
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He’s talked openly about the challenges of finding reliable operators. You can have the biggest truck in the world, but if you don't have a driver who knows how to "read" the mountain, that truck is just an expensive paperweight.
In this season, we saw Jamie leaning more on his core team while navigating the business side of towing. It's a grind. People think it’s all glory, but it’s actually a lot of sitting in a cold cab at 3:00 AM waiting for the police to clear a scene so you can finally get to work. The "business of wrecking" became a central theme here, showing that even after a decade, the financial risks are as slippery as the roads.
The Quiring effect and the green machines
You can't talk about this season without mentioning Al Quiring. While Jamie is the face of the show, the Quirings bring a different kind of energy. Their signature green trucks are staples on the mountain. In Highway Thru Hell Season 10, the rivalry—if you want to call it that—felt more like a mutual respect between old-school heavyweights.
Al's approach is methodical. It's almost surgical. Watching him work the "Smasher" or dealing with the sheer volume of traffic on the lower mainland sections of the highway provides a necessary contrast to the high-alpine chaos Jamie often faces.
The technical reality of heavy recovery
Let's get into the weeds for a second. Most people think a tow truck is just a winch.
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In reality, the gear used in Highway Thru Hell Season 10 represents millions of dollars in engineering. The rotators—those massive cranes on wheels—are capable of lifting entire loaded trailers. But the physics are terrifying. If the outriggers aren't set on stable ground, the whole rig can flip. There was a specific moment this season where you could see the ground soft beneath the stabilizers. That’s the kind of stuff that keeps these guys up at night.
- Weight distribution: If a driver loses their load on a 12% grade, the center of gravity shifts. The recovery team has to calculate the "drag" versus the "lift."
- Weather windows: You might only have 20 minutes to clear a lane before the next storm cell hits and makes the recovery impossible.
- Traffic management: This is the most dangerous part. Drivers are often more afraid of being hit by a passing car than they are of the wreck itself.
The human cost of the "Hell" highway
It's easy to forget that these guys have families. After ten years of filming, the toll is visible. You see it in the gray hair and the way they move a little slower when they get out of the cab.
The show has always done a decent job of highlighting the psychological stress, but Season 10 felt particularly heavy. They’ve seen things over a decade that most people shouldn't have to see. Fatalities are a part of the job on the Coquihalla, and while the show focuses on the trucks, the underlying somberness of the "why" behind the wreck is always there. It’s about more than just steel; it’s about the lives disrupted by a single patch of ice.
Navigating the 2021-2022 winter season
The timing of this season coincided with some of the most catastrophic flooding and weather events in British Columbia's history. While the show primarily focuses on the day-to-day wrecks, the backdrop of a province struggling with infrastructure was impossible to ignore. Roads were literally washed away. The "Thru" in "Highway Thru Hell" became a literal question—could people even get through?
This context made the work of Jamie Davis and Al Quiring feel more like a public service than a private business. They weren't just clearing wrecks; they were keeping the supply chain alive. When the roads are closed, the food stops moving. The fuel stops moving. The pressure on the recovery crews to "get it open" was at an all-time high.
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What most viewers get wrong about the show
People often think the drama is scripted. Kinda. I mean, it's TV, so the music is tense and the editing is snappy. But you can't script a 40-ton truck sliding toward a cliff.
The real "fake" part is how fast it looks. In reality, a recovery that takes 10 minutes of screen time usually takes six to eight hours of grueling, freezing work. In Highway Thru Hell Season 10, the producers seemed to let the scenes breathe a bit more, showing the slow, agonizing process of rigging chains in sub-zero temperatures.
There's also this misconception that these guys are making "easy money." The overhead for a heavy recovery business is astronomical. One blown hydraulic hose on a rotator can cost thousands. One mistake that damages a customer's cargo can lead to a lawsuit that ends the company. Season 10 didn't shy away from the fact that these guys are always one bad day away from a total financial wreck.
The legacy of a decade on the Coquihalla
Looking back at the tenth season, it’s clear the show has moved past its "new and shiny" phase. It has become a document of a specific way of life in the Canadian North.
The industry is changing. Autonomous trucks are being tested. GPS is better. But as long as there is snow, gravity, and human error, there will be a need for people like Jamie Davis. Highway Thru Hell Season 10 served as a reminder that technology can only do so much. At the end of the day, you need a person with a steel cable and a lot of guts to go down into a ravine and pull a wreck back to the road.
Actionable insights for fans and travelers
If you're a fan of the show or someone who actually has to drive these routes, here is the "real-world" takeaway from a decade of watching these pros:
- Check the DriveBC webcams: Don't trust your phone's weather app. Look at the actual cameras at the summits (Great Bear, Larson Hill). If you see snow sticking to the road, and you don't have mountain-rated tires, stay in Hope.
- Give the tow trucks space: If you see amber lights, move over. The crews in Season 10 mentioned several times how close "rubberneckers" come to hitting them. It’s the law in BC, and it’s common sense everywhere else.
- Carry a "survival kit": It sounds dramatic, but people get stuck for 12+ hours when the highway shuts down. Extra blankets, water, and a candle can literally save your life if your engine dies in the cold.
- Respect the "Shift into 4x4" signs: If the highway signs tell you to chain up or shift, do it before you hit the grade. Once you lose traction on a 10% incline, you're just a passenger in a multi-ton bobsled.
- Support local heavy recovery: These businesses are the backbone of rural infrastructure. They aren't just "tow trucks"; they are emergency responders who often arrive before the police.