Some years ago, the History Network created a strange new hit series. It began as “Ice Road Truckers,” monitoring the dangerous winter haulage north of Yellowknife on the frozen Canadian tundra. Then, after several seasons of gaining familiarity with the top tonnage truckers, the network displaced them to northern Alaska and introduced new challenges and new road masters. Finally, in a thrilling new twist, three of these rig lords and ladies were transported to the Himalayan heights of upper India. There the cameras panned, with toe-tingling shock and awe, the dizzying cliffs and switchbacks that painted tiny trails against massive mountains. One wanted to look up at splendor but became entranced by plummeting rocks and trucks bouncing toward seeming certain annihilation.

Yet if a trucker o…