You should of "GONE"

I did brother and DAMN it was a good time. Met some real good people and got to exercise the X. For all those who did go to gone hope we'll see you again soon.

Nice pic by the way, is that the one you showed me at the rest spot on Hells Revenge?

Great picture! I hope you don't mind, I shrunk it and lightened the foreground a bit.

Nice pic.......

You don't need photoshop, though. Just download irfanview for free and do a batch conversion!

Wish I coulda been there.......

Thats an awesome picture...

Sweet looking pic. Can't wait to see more.

I'm jealous.

Sweet pic!! I think I count 10 trucks in that picture...any headcount on Gone this year?? more/less than last?? More/less hardcore off-roaders?? Come on!!! all of us who didnt get to go want to know!!

Yup I was glad I went nice meeting you and everyone else

A couple of small low rez teasers of the CALMINI HB and my PATHY walking the cracking in the pouring rain

Brian

There was about 20 there. One lost in a roll-over. I'll let the one who did post about it.

http://www.pbase.com/sms/gonemoab

Some pictures. Carlton took a ton of them.

D'oh!!! Bound to happen eventually I suppose. An X I assume? Damn...

Just learned who it was. Yup, an X owner. He's OK, X is a loss and isn't coming back home w/ him.

Do tell! Where was it? Heading out there in a couple of weeks and want to know if there is a tricky spot somewhere.

Shit! who rolled? left earlier than I wanted to my buddy that I brought up as "squaken" so I left on wed. I should have stayed the extra day. Im glad to hear they are all right

Sweet pics! I never fail to recognize how pictures don't do justice. Pic DSC00036 has a dude spotting (Ian?) on what looks to be an easy obstacle. Pretty sure not the case.
Good pics guys!

Nice pictures...pic DSC00115 (page 8) is friggin' weird...took me the longest time to figure WTF it was...dunno, maybe it's the wine :p ....

The owner that rolled wants to remain anonymous until he can tell the story himself.

Was that more/less/same as last year?? Just want to get an idea on wether X's are continuing to become more and more popular to off-road in or if they are a dying breed...sniff...sniff....

It is looking down to the Colorado River from the arch on Poison Spider.

Thats how I would want it.

Glad everyone's okay.

So, not that anyone cares, but here's my prediction: no matter what or how it happened on the rollover, they're gonna get buttreamed here by a bunch of armchair 'wheelers. Am I right? :rolleyes:

johnnyx I sure hope that is not the case, from my brief experience with some of the XOC members ( Im refering to the gone trip) there is a bunch of great people here. I hope that characteristicis is not limited to those few.

That's Doug spotting me down the ledge on Steelbender in the rain.
It's not as easy as it looks.

Carlton has a good shot that does it justice. 10 inches of error will lead to a 200 foot roll down a canyon.

I don't disagree with you about the people you met - I mean more the ones hiding behind the computer screens. Not that what I'm referring to is anything new anyway.

Don't mind me though, I'm getting in some good 'rambling' today.

It was simply a bad line and no spotter.

The driver is ok. The truck was upside down for 2 hours and refused to start when righted. I took a small group back up Gold Bar Rim to Golden Spike the next day with my tech from Tynan's Nissan, and he got it running in 2 hours. It was then driven back to town by the owner.

If anyone does any armchair wheeling about the incident, I will ban their account.

Things are going to change drastically for all future events that I host. There were a lot of things I was not happy with this year (and last year and the year before, plus 4 GOX events), and it has to stop.

Someone is eventually going to die at one of my events, and I will not be part of that. I either stop doing them, or the rules change.

johnnyx, a person here may bust my balls for this but I said it once and I will say it again this whole "enviroment" reminds me of the Army. I say this because I feel my "six" is covered. One moment some one is giving you shit, and the next they are buying a beer for you, your rig gets busted on the trail and and a person you may or may not know gives you the part and helps you fix it.

I sound like some emotional person (being politicaly correct) but its true, I look forward to my next adventure with these guys/ladies.

I stopped in Grand Junction and took a picture of the "chop top Xterra" most likely the last time any of us will see this guy. Not going to post this photo. I will send it to the owner in time.

Nice job taking an Xterra on Potato Hill, anyone care to guess who accomplished this feat....

I had a good time this year. Lots to wheeling.

Big Hair Todd

Great week. My wife and I had a great time in Moab.

Met some new people and squashed some old beefs with a fellow XOCer who I'm proud to now call a friend. All is well.

Our prayers go out to the rollover owner and a big to da man that got up Potato Salad Hill.

See ya guys next year.

Hey, Just rolled up in PHX. Wanted to say thanks to anyone who watched my dog, spotted me, or made breakfast... Ya'll know who you are This was a great trip and the wheelin' was as good as it gets! Except for possibly that damned Lions Back

PS- ALL HAIL HUSTLER!
NISSAN. CLIMB.

Is it still the worst $10 you ever spent?

10 bucks on lion back is only worth it if you go up alone the mind trip turning around is worth it. Ian is it still snowing in Denver? Airborne its the same pic I showed you on hells revenge.
Alone on lions back
Going back down

The snow has been on and off. We left Moab at noon, and in Grand Junction a sign said "Chains required for single drive axle vehicles 155 miles ahead". We had a bit of rain and light snow, but nothing was sticking all the way home. Eric called and said he was in a blizzard at Vail Pass about 8PM, and Vince got snow near Georgetown.

Bravo, Your trip up Lion's Back was very ballsy for someone that hadn't been there before.

Nice Signature.

Part of this is to Ian and the rest to the peanut gallery.

I agree with the bad line, but totally disagree with the spotter comment. Any driver out there should recognize his limitations and ASK for a spotter if he thinks he needs it. Having a spotter on an obstacle for EVERY driver is a waste of time and not necessary for a good number of drivers.

Ian, you take too much responsibility for yourself. The ultimate responsiblity rests with the driver of the truck. Anyone should feel they are able to ask for a spot if they think they need it. Two of us had already gone up which should have established A line that worked. The driver can still do what HE wants. I do and will continue to ask for spots if I think I need it. You shouldn't be holding their hands every time the trail gets tough. Last year you hammered on about everyone needing to be able to spot themselves over stuff.

The driver must recognize their ability and they have to take in account the terrain thet are in. That's a tough one. The driver has to be honest with himself about his abilities. I've seen too many people that think all problems can be solved with a little more skinny pedal. Moab and this obstacle in particular is something some drivers may have no experience on and they should ask themselves if they are capable of doing it.

I did appreciate the spotting on some of the downhill ledges, but there were a couple of times where I didn't think I needed a spot, but you were there anyway. I was real interested in trying the left line down the big drop on Steelbender, but didn't to avoid holding up the line. I only did the gulley because there was time to fuck around, otherwise I would have been right up the hill behind you.

Lastly rollovers happen. I've seen it from being stupid, badlines and bad luck. My club has the "wall of shame" of all the hoods of trucks that rolled with their driver's name, location and date. Everyone has to prepared to deal with it. What do you do if there are trapped casualties? I don't know dick about treating the trauma that could result, but one simple thing I do is pay for a cell phone that gets very wide coverage for calling for a medevac. No digital only single band crap for me.

Shit that sucks about his X,but I'm glad he's ok..

Ian;
Don't get discouraged by the rollover. Sometimes shit happens. The driving knowledge you taught me at GONEMoab turned obstacles that I saw as road blocks into passable roads. I would have never dropped off that 2.5 ft step on Steelbender.

Thank You!!

Eric

Now for some RMXC trips.

The pic's I took of the week are coming up at There still rough but resized. I should have all of them up in a hour or so and they are filed by the run they were taken on.

Moab pictures

I have video of the rollover online, but after reading this, I'll wait for his ok before posting it. I had a great time this week - thanks Ian for all the help you gave everyone over the week.

-Tim

Grand Forks, you need to compress those images. 250k for a 640x480 shot is about 10 times the filesize it could be. Good stuff though, keep them coming.

Playing with a program to compress the images right now. Thanks for letting me stay at your place fri night and for the help on the trails. By the way the parrot was still friendly and actually climbed onto my hand and I still have all my fingers and no blood was shed.

Awesome pics man...I saved many of them...

Ok all pics are up and sorted
Fins and Things
Steel Bender
Hells Revenge
Poison Spyder Mesa
7 mile
Lions Back

If anyone wants a full size version just shout.

I thought no one was supposed to post pics of the rollover until the owner could tell the story?

I haven't posted the video to any boards - I just have it digitized. It was on my website last night, but I deleted it this morning. I have it ready to upload again, but am waiting for Jorge to give the ok before I post the link to it here.

Is that maroon truck a Titan? Or did someone get an 05 Frontier?

It's a Titan. The only 05 Frontier we saw was a mock up made of fiberglass without a drivetrain.

How did the Titan do? Just fine I assume?

In stock form it was a little long and low. The breakover angle sucked big time. This was a crew cab version and I suggested they try a king cab or standard cab next year. A little lift would have been a big help also. The biggest problem it had was getting high centered.

I want to say Thank you to everyone for allowing me and my lowly Lemondrop (Toyota) to follow you guys along on the trail.

You guys were great, as usual, again this year. Welcoming myself and my father like family was awesome. This was his first time rock crawling/four wheeling, and he said he'd never met a nicer group of guys.

Who else would spend that much time out of their fun trip to go back and 'Get one of their own'? Not many Jeepers that I've met, that's for sure.

Looking forwards to next year already. Definately the whole week. That is, if you don't mind the Lemondrop following along (perhaps at a distance? )...

Allen

Allen, thank you again to you, your Dad and LemonDrop for heading back up to get Jorge's Xterra running.

That's two years in a row you've helped fix vehicles on Golden Spike, next year I'll make sure Nissan, or Tynan's is paying you to be there helping us out.

Allen,

Great seeing you again. You're one hell of a guy to help os out like you do.

Now that you're back I'll be seeing you at Tynan's for all of my Xterra service.

Take care.

Vince

All I can say is....been there, done that, and saw the unexpected....so let's just put the incedents aside and move on to the next trail down the road.....it could have been me in there too.

I had a good time wheelin for the first time in Moab and I wheeled with some people I trusted and followed their judgment when it came to being spotted or not....Thanks Ian for taking the time to do so whether it be frustrating or not, it was still worth it. I have to also just thank those just watching on and helping out a buddy in need.

Allen....you rock....by the way I do have a problem with my X.

-RJ

You have a pm there RJ.

I'm there for the 'X Guys' anytime. I'm always down for some 4xFun!

RJ

I take it that noise wasn't a exhaust hanger?

I am still not sure what the noise was. I know I was feeling it under the passenger floor board also.
It goes in for service next week just before I hit the 60K mark so I will throw what I can to the techs.

-RJ

It's not about the pay, actually, getting paid for doing that wouldn't be right, you know? Just helping out is what I like to do. But if Nissan wanted to get me a warmer sleeping bag for next year, I'd be up for that.

I just like hanging with you guys. I've wheeled with a lot of different people, and you guys are cool. I'd rather wheel with you guys than anyone else. That, and Ian has some damn sexy legs!

So it was Nissan themselves that brought it there? Interesting.

Was there any damage done to it?

The Titan was brought out be Nissan marketing. Several employees with no offroad experience thrashed it for a day. It suffered cosmetic damage for the most part, dents and scratches. It has towed a 05 Frontier mockup to and from the event.

Was it a pre-production vehicle? If anyone knows the details of the interior of a Titan and checked it out was it identical? I know the pre-production X that was sent all over the place to get reviews had a fee differences with various knobs and dials and other little things that were different that one wouldn't notice unless they owned one. It got beat up and it just met its fate in the crusher in the end.

I was shocking to me when I realized that an automaker will send a vehicle out, let it get abused and then just destroy it since it has served its marketing and publicity purpose.