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Good helpful folks in the Northwest, Part II

ECKSJAY

Water is dirty
Location
Covington, WA
Kids, don't go on snow runs by yourself. If you do, make damn sure you're prepared to stay the night or walk a little ways down.

So Matt (IXNAYXJ) comes by my place of employment yesterday and tells me he's heading up to Tinkham Road/Denny Creek area. "Oh, who are you meeting?" Him, 'Nobody, I've done this lots of times...'

He calls me a little while later, seeking aid in recovery tips. After giving a couple of ideas, he keeps me posted on his lack of apparent progress. 4pm comes and he tells me he's getting turned around a little at a time in the snow. Problem with this stuff is that it's very cold and powdery, with a 4" crust underneath and more powder under that. You're not just turning around on the roadway there. By 5:30pm we've determined that he had just better sit his skinny little butt inside the Jeep, crack a window, and keep the heater on. He's got a can of chili that he opened by smashing the top against his rear bumper. Also has a little bit of water.

I called up a couple of friends and we mobilized at about 7pm, me in the XJ and my friends in their well-equipped CJ7. My friends have been doing this sort of thing for a long time and wanted to get out of the house anyway. We're leaving Maple Valley and as we're going from Hwy 18 to I-90, Matt calls to tell me that he's been dinking around with the Jeep and turned it around. A few minutes later he calls back to say he's on pavement and we can meet up for dinner if we want. Being the sadists that we are, we opted for the 'let's play in the snow anyway' option.

After taking that option, I can't blame the little fella for getting stuck. However, we popped the hatch on my Jeep and I fired up my propane grill. We had hot burgers right then and there. Water? No problem, I brought lots of it. Had enough in my Jeep to stay there a week if I had to. We finished up burgers, put the stuff away, and worked on getting our own Jeeps out of this nasty snow. Took a while and mine had found a hole to sink into, so Matt (even as wiped out as he was) ran down the snow-covered roadway about a half-mile or longer to his own Jeep (which he parked...he was riding with me) and drove back carefully so we could utilize his winch. He tugged me straight back and I had used my spare tire in conjunction with the Hi-Lift to raise my sunken side out of the hole. Pulled back, jack fell over, and I used my spare for traction out. Worked like a champ. Since this nasty snow was so bad, we couldn't turn around. We ended up driving backwards through it until we got to a spot where we could turn around. My neck is still sore and I realize I need some back-up lights. :D

I got home about 2am and admit I had a LOT of fun up there. We didn't get far but it was a great time hanging out with the guys and taking our time. Nobody had to be anywhere and at one point we freaked Matt out by telling him we were digging in for the night since nobody had to be anywhere. I think the poor guy was starting to see things. :D:D:D

Moral of the story: Wheel with friends and prepare yourself properly for your environment. Oh, and bring mayo and cheese for the burgers. ;)
 
Classic.

Good Job Guys.
 
Sounds like a night of fun.

I learned never to go by myself a while back. Luckly I was only mile or so from home, but still, it sucks and you look like a jacka$$ to onlookers when your all by yourself until help arrives.
 
That was not fun.

I realize Phil and his merry band of would-be rescuers probably had the time of their lives, but it was a little different story for me. Here's how it happened from my perspective....

After going up Tinkham Rd, and discovering that the snow was waaaay too deep to really get very far, I turned around, and decided to go get a mug of hot-chocolate at the pass. On my way up there, I decided to take the Denny Creek exit, and see how the little road was that lead to the pass was. When I got there, there were a bunch of vehicles parked, their owners apparently exploring on foot. As I found out later, they were on skis and snow-shoes....for good reason.

I decided to drive up the road a little ways to see how things were higher up. At this point the road was maybe a foot or two deep of packed snow, with vehicle tracks making ruts. Things were going great. As I passed a family who were sledding, I heard a boy ask his Dad how I had made it up that far. "Well, you see son, he's got lots of clearence and he's in a Jeep...," the father explained, as his son looked on in amazement. My head swelled, and I decided to press on.

Things were still going well, the weather was beautiful and the Jeep was showing no signs of having any issues. I kept on driving for about a mile this way, and then it stopped. It just sank into the snow. I tried reverse but it didn't even budge. Awwww sh!t! The snow was probably six or seven feet deep on the roadway here. I say this because I was stopped next to a road sign on the side of the road. The top of the sign was even with my door handels. It was deep.

I got out and looked at my tires, all sitting in little holes of their own. Then I looked at the under-carriage. My axles, driveline etc. were completely buried under the snow. Okay. Now what? My Hi-Lift! That didn't work worth a damn. I tried putting rocks under the tires. Nope. Then I tried winching myself forward five of six feet forward and reversing. I just sank in worse than I was before. I tried this for a while, trying to excavate (using a license plate and piece of my roof rack) a place for my axles to clear as I backed up.

I first hit the trail around 1:00 pm, and now it was about 4:00, and I'd made zero progress. The exertion of the work I 'd been doing, not mention the cold and my lack of food was starting to catch up with me. I'd sliced my hand a couple of times on the winch cable, fallen down more times than I could count was totally soaked through my boots, pants and the sun was starting to go down behind a hill. The second it did, the temp plummted from balmy 25 to something a lot less than that. Keep in mind that I was about 1.75 miles from the Snoqualmie pass summit.

At this point I was starting to get worried. I had a half tank of gas, half a flat of water, a couple cans of chili, and a package of MRE crackers that had been floating (literally!) around in my Jeep for six months. I could spend the night if I had to, but it was NOT something I was looking forward to doing. At Phil's insistence I ate the chile, drank a bunch of water (which I had not been doing) and warmed up for about 20 minutes. After that, I felt human again, and decided to try winching once more.

By this point, I'd been using the winch for a couple hours, and it was showing signs of fatigue just like me. The winch cable was hopelessly kinked and bound up, and I didn't have the energy to deal with it. My next plan was to try and turn myself around, so that the front would be facing down hill at least. I tried that a couple times with no success, and had again worked myself to the point of exaustion anf freezing cold. I called Phil (who I had been in contact with) and told him I was throwing in the towel, and to call the cavalry. "Launch, Launch, Launch." If memory serves, that was at about 5:00 pm.

I got back in the Jeep, took of my boots and socks, and warmed back up to human levels. I'm not really one to sit around, so after about 15 minutes, I decided to try winching myself around again. This time it worked. Wary not to get too excited or too hopeful, I repeated the same maneuver on another tree, further swinging my nose around, and backing around as much as I could. Another half-hour has now passed and I'm running ragged again. I'm not normally such a wuss, but in the cold, at 3500 feet, starving, tired, and trying to climb up and down 6 foot snow emnbankments (and as often as not falling down said embankments) takes it out of you fast!

By 5:45, I was turned the right way around, but still sunk in the hole. I hauled some small logs and branches, stones, rocks and anything else that might give me some traction. I inched my way out, winching and moving a few feet at a time under my own power. Then an amazing thing happened. My front tires bit hard snow, and started to pull me out. Lug by lug, my tires started working (they were all aired waaay down by now) and I stated moving. I WAS FREEE!!! I called Phil, elated at about 6:00 and told him I was out. He sounded kinda let down, actually.

After that the decision was made to take the CJ and Phil's rig back where I had been for a little wheelin'. I said sure, but that I wasn't driving! When they arrived, I aired up my tires, ate two tuna-fish sandwiches, drank some water, and recovered.

Off we went, back where I came from, me riding shotgun with Phil (clutching a bottle of as-then untouched Makers Mark), saying over and over again how grateful I was. As before, things were going well. And then all of a sudden, Phil can't move anymore. Just then we get a call from the CJ..."Ahhhh, were kinda stuck here." It was about 50 yards from where I got stuck.

Phil managed to back down, around the CJ (who was now winching himself forward) and got stuck about 45 yards down the hill. The CJ was there winching for a couple hours. Phil used some pretty clever Hi-Lift techniques, but it was all for naught. I asked Phil, "Uh, are we going to need my Jeep?" Phil calmly replied, "We're not getting out here otherwise." Crap.

I got a light, and took off down the road. I was jogging to stay warm, but it also meant I was falling down every 20-30 feet. Falling down hard. And starting to get REALLY cold again. After about 20 minutes, I finally I reached my Jeep and went back. By the time I got there, Phil had a cook-top out and was cooking burgers. The best burger I have ever tasted...was not that one. But it was damn tasty, and it was warm. Next time we'll have buns and condamints.

By this time, the CJ was un-stuck, and it only took a quick tug from me to get Phil out. Then it was backing down hill for a mile. And then we were free! It was about 1:00 am by the time we were all back on pavement. Lessons were learned, egos were compacted, friendships were forged, and some fun was ultimately had by all. Let's do it again soon!

-----Matt-----
P.S. I've got some pics on my phone that I will hopefull have posted in the next day or so.
 
Ah, the embellishments from the hypothermic come out. :D

I recall a completely different story, one of Matt sniffling and me laughing while joking with him. Haha, sitting there and looking at my other buddies while telling him on the phone (while he's a mile away warming up in his Jeep) that we're digging in for the night...he can go home if he wants. 'WHAAAA???' Hahahahaha...

Anyway, we all had fun...don't let him fool you. :)
 
Matt,

I'll start on a survival kit for you considering you like to go it alone.

Glad to see you made it out, hopefully you learned something. hasta
 
Oh hell if that's where i had known you where goin we could have followed you guys.

Phil i passed you and the CJ in Issaquah in a black Dodge Ram following a friends Suburban. Hell it would have been fun trying to recover 2 fullsize trucks from 7' of snow, not. LOL

Matt glad you made it out okay. Sounds like you where at least half prepared.

The last time i got the HELP! call a friend had buried his nissan in 4' of snow and had to walk about 3 miles out to get to a phone, by the time we got there it had been snowing even more, But we attempted to make it anyway because his girlfriend and his best friend where still in the truck, (later they ended up together? how does that happen) with no water or food, and not even a blanket Anyway after about an hour and getting no further than maybe a quarter mile we gave up and called search and rescue. Snowmobilers got the other 2 and left the truck. by the time we managed to get to the truck, about 3 months later, it was stripped and burned. Oh yeah and riddled with bullet holes from the boxes of under the seat. Apparently the heat set them off. I think we still have pictures of the thing after the wrecker towed it back into town.

Dingo
 
Many of us have similar stories.

The important thing for us to learn from this is to BE PREPARED.

It is OK (definetly not prefered, because it is VERY dangerouse) but you should most definetly be prepared to spend the night with food, water and warm cloths.

SNOW is DEADLY!!!! You have to treat it with respect.

If you call Search and Rescue during the winter the one of the first questions they will ask is if you (or the person you are calling about being missing) is prepared to spend the night and has the skills and equipment to do so.

Another thought. It is always a good idea to let someone know where you are going, who is going with you, and when you expect to be home.

When I leave for going 4wheeling my wife always knows where I am going and has a list of people with trucks that are not on the trip that she can call to come rescue me. You can not usually rely on a cell phone or CB.

Michael
 
ECKSJAY said:
Ah, the embellishments from the hypothermic come out. :D
You might be pretty close to the truth there. I was getting pretty loopy at some points. For instance, I can't rememeber if I ACTUALLY saw a giant bottle of Mirror Pond walking hand in hand with Genghis Kahn, or if that was just my imagination.
ECKSJAY said:
I recall a completely different story, one of Matt sniffling and me laughing while joking with him. Haha, sitting there and looking at my other buddies while telling him on the phone (while he's a mile away warming up in his Jeep) that we're digging in for the night...he can go home if he wants. 'WHAAAA???' Hahahahaha...
I wasn't "sniffling," I was wimpering like a little girl through chattering teeth! Big difference!

In all seriousness, I am extremely grateful to our Chapter President & Co. for coming to save my ass. I sincerely thought I was in trouble a couple of times. Whatever the outcome was, it sure was nice to know that help was en route. Hopefully we can all learn (or at least reinforce) a thing or two from my ordeal. There, I said it. :)

-----Matt-----
 
IXNAYXJ said:
You might be pretty close to the truth there. I was getting pretty loopy at some points. For instance, I can't rememeber if I ACTUALLY saw a giant bottle of Mirror Pond walking hand in hand with Genghis Kahn, or if that was just my imagination.

I saw it too, so you weren't alone.

Remember, 'JEEPS RLUE'.

:D
 
ECKSJAY said:
Remember, 'JEEPS RLUE'.

:D
Just to clarify for everyone who wasn't there.... At this point in the night, the CJ was unstuck, and we were working on extracting Phil's XJ. One of the other guys found a can of spray paint in the CJ and decided to "customize" a snow bank a little ways from us.

He came over to us with a very proud look on his face and motioned to the snow. Phil and I squinted and tried to make out the writing.

"Jeeps...Blue?" Phil wondered aloud. The hillside read 'JEEPS RLUE.'

"Or maybe, since we're stuck that should be "Jeeps B-L-E-W." Hahahaha

"Ah, crap," the author said. "That was supposed to be R-U-L-E, not R-L-U-E!"

I was reminded of the Homer Simpson quote: "I am so smart; S-M-R-T!"

-----Matt-----
 
A good interesting story. Luckily everything ended up okay.

Well all live here in the Northwest, and we tend to get a little too careless in our winter travels. But really, anytime one heads out on the highway or anywhere in the winter, extra food, a blanket or two, etc., should be carried along. My son was heading back to B-ham via Snoqual... a couple weekends ago, and ended up spending the night stopped in his XJ due to another rock slide. One just never knows about these things. And did the kid have food? Nope. Did he have an extra blanket? Nope. Did he even keep his gas tank above half? Nope. He ended up sitting in another vehicle with some kind soul that took pity on him..........
 
Great story!
All we need is a FEW pics!
Your descriptions are vivid enough though for us to use our imaginations. Thanks for sharing!

Another reason why I don't go wheeling alone. NO MATTER what the weather or conditions!

Lucky for you your cell phone worked....
 
Richdaman said:
Great story!
All we need is a FEW pics!
Your descriptions are vivid enough though for us to use our imaginations. Thanks for sharing!

Another reason why I don't go wheeling alone. NO MATTER what the weather or conditions!

Lucky for you your cell phone worked....
That really was the saving grace of the whole thing. I've got a half-dozen pics on my phone...I just need Phil to load them up!

-----Matt-----
 
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