WEEK DAY WARRIORS - Snow Bashing Trail Days

This turned into a bunch of trail maintenance.

Taylor Pass
We made just past where Erik A finished off his motor mount last year. From the trees on it was drifted deep and we went ahead and cleared a big tree to make it easier for the next group to clear.

Italian Creek
We made it just past the old town site and was just starting up the valley when we came up to a HUGE SNOW FIELD. So we had to see who could make it the furthest into the drifts. Troy won by 2 feet. Of course he was high centered by that point.

Side trails off the road to Gunnison
These trail had not even been ridden this year. There were so many downed trees on the trail but we had a good time. One ended up being a dead end next to the river, the other we got with in 50 feet of getting back on the road but the last 20 ft of trail had washed out to only a single track. So back through PIN STRIPE CENTRAL.

Tin Cup Pass
This was alot of fun we were very determined by Late Thursday that we were going to make it up to the top of some pass. Just Past mirror lake we started to hit snow drifts these were easy enough. As we got within sight of the top we made a pact to do everything we could to get up there.

The first set of drifts I could bust but not as well as Troy could. He has the 10.5 mud terrains with gnarly lugs the just dug to no end. And since I had the winch we decided to keep me in the rear to extract. Also after a few pulls I just left the recovery strap attached.

The first major drift was about 50 feet and we made it through after about 15 min.

The next drift was a bit harder. It was not as long but almost 4 feet deep on the up hill side & the road curved a bit. There was alot of bashing pulling and digging on this one.

The next drift was another 50 footer and Troy was giving it hell and started to back out when the snow made it slick enough he slid down a little bit. So I tried to strap him and that did not work he slid down a little more. We then pulled out the winch and used the snatch block to pull him up hill using a boulder (we were above tree line). Unfortunately the boulder started to move. So we looked around in front of him. Found 2 boulders we could use to get me through and then get up hill to pull Troy out. So I looked at Garrett and said "I am going to drive us up into the drift and get stuck too." Garretts jaw hit the floor. I went up and rammed it hard and was within range of to use the winch. We spent the next hour digging, winching, digging. Made it through and got into position to winch Troy up.

Turn back NO WAY. Troy went ahead while I gathered up the recovery equipment. By the time I was packed up and rolling was buried so I pulled him back out and he busted through after about 4-5 tries. The top was less than a half mile at this point.

We proceeded up the trail to the final stretch. This is where our spirits sank. The drifts did not look any worse but after walking em and checking the area out we relized these drifts had a thin layer of snow and then solid ice underneath. We were so close and yet so far. The risk was to great to slide down hill at this point so we turned around and headed home via the pavement route. All and all we still had a great time, we used every recovery technique and tool we had and got some ideas for other situations.

I will post the few pics we took tonight.

Taylor Pass

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Italian Creek just past the old townsite, this is where Troy stomped me.

Awesome pics man, still by far one of my favorite trucks on this site!

How do you get to do this sort of thing? Its not really an issue for me anymore seeing that Im back in Texas, but there was always one trail in New Mexico that lead to an amazing hotspring that was closed (even when it was extremely passable for somebody with tires and 4X4). At times, friends and I would go out to hike the trail (maybe 7-10 miles) for the soak and there would be nearly no snow the entire way. It was a Forest Service trail that they closed for something like November through May.