Christmas Tree Cutting Patrol Day 4, Sunday, December 8 th

[LCPilot]

Meet at the Divide Philips 66 at 7:45 am. Leave at 8:15 and go to the Rule Ridge parking lot at 8:30. That is where we air down and get a briefing on the latest conditions, areas to patrol, maps etc.

Remember to bring a GMRS radio (we use channel 5-0), recovery gear, winter clothes, tire chains, coffee and lunch.

We do a debrief at 3:00 pm back at Rule Ridge, air up and go home.

Please reply to this thread if you plan on going on this day.

Here is the link for Tree permits. https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/psicc/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD1215755
Attached is a PDF of the Tree cutting area and the FS roads that we patrol.

 

[LCPilot]

I will patrol on Sunday

 

[Goslow]

I plan to be there.

 

[LCPilot]

The day started out a little windy but warm for the season. Lots of sun but then clouded over and ended with all of the puddles starting to freeze. After the Forest Ranger briefing we hung around the parking lot and waited for the owner of the stuck pickup that we found the day before and the members of the Colorado 4 wheel drive Search and Rescue vehicle recovery team. When everyone was there we headed down FR357B and they started looking at the truck and came up with a game plan. Chip away the ice and free the truck. Winch it to dry ground. Remove the remaining ice. See if the truck will be able to drive out. Goslow and I watched from a safe distance as they were chipping the ice. W got a call to pull out a stuck truck on FR357F. We left the recovery effort and headed down F. We came to a Forest Ranger truck that was stuck. I hooked up a kinetic rope and pulled the truck back far enough to turn around. He started on the way back and got 10 feet and then dug in. Goslow used a kinetic rope to get the FR truck back to the main road. As we were getting ready to eat lunch a couple of guys in a FJ Cruiser roll up and asked us to help get out a Jeep Gladiator. Game on. We loaded up their stuff and found the Jeep alongside FR357B. It had been sitting there since Saturday. After a quick assessment of the Jeep we realized that they were running 32 PSI in their tires which didn't grip the icy road. Since it was warmer that late Saturday when they were trying to leave, the snow was softer. We dropped their tire pressure to 20 PSI and we had Goslow in front and I brought up the rear with the Jeep in the middle. With minimal tire slip he made it up to the main road with no trouble. They thanked us for our time and gave us a donation for the club. He had bought brand new tire chains and didn't need to use them. We made a last sweep of the day on the lower end and headed out the North end to ensure that no one would have to spend the night stuck on a Sunday night.

 

[Goslow]

Here are a few pics. The front diff and all tires were frozen into the ice. There was lots of poking, chopping, and blunt force trauma applied to the ice to get the truck free enough to finally be winched out. We missed the winching part because we had been called by the Ranger to rescue his truck.

 

[Goslow]

And here are a few images of our Ranger truck rescue. The snow is very deep on 357F.

 

[Goslow]

COLORADO 4x4 Rescue & Recovery came with five well prepared rigs. We were glad they were there to retrieve the Dodge Cummins truck because it would have been too big of a job for LCpilot and me to get this one out. Copies attached of their business card. It’s an interesting group and they do recoveries all over this part of the state.

 

[COS80]

They rescued my boss' son at the big rock on Longwater a couple months back. They do it for donations (no fee).