Christmas Tree Cutting Patrol Day 7, Saturday, December 21 st

[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

 

[Goslow]

I’ll be there.

 

[Maldavid]

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

I’ll be there.
Malcolm

 

[LCPilot]

I'll be there.

 

[COS80]

I'm probably done for the season.

 

[LCPilot]

My neighbor Malick will be there with his stock 4Runner with new tires.

 

[Goslow]

Four of us were there and we divided into two groups with the primary goal of taking down the forest service Christmas tree cutting related signage on all the roads except the main ones.
Malcolm and I arrived at the Phantom Creek icy crossing in time to see a guy on a quad ATV dive in from the other side. He struggled for a while and somehow backed up and climbed the ice ledge to free himself. I showed them where the bypass is and the guy on the 4WD ATV made it across. The guy on the 2WD ATV made it partway across. They hooked up a motorcycle ratchet strap and almost got the guy out, but the strap slipped off. I hooked up the strap to the ATVs and the second guy was pulled free. We decided to count this as an assist rather than a full on rescue.
Our other guys showed up about the time someone on a razor, made the attempt across the pond from the other side. He thrashed around for a bit and gave up, with his tires almost underwater. That morning at the staging area, we were saying that it’s Malcolm‘s turn to win someone out and the opportunity presented itself. I pulled the winch cable out and gave the razor driver a soft shackle and a shackle and he climbed back from the bank onto an ice floe and onto his front tire and made the hook up. Malcolm started winching him, and almost got him out, but the razor driver had to start his engine and give it some power to climb the ice ledge. David took a video which might be posted, but here is an image of the guy sitting on the ice ledge after he was pulled free.
We saw only about three trees being carried out on cars, which tells you how slow a tree cutting day it was. It was very relaxed, the weather was good, and it was a perfect day.

 

[Goslow]

The Razr driver‘s name is Tom and he hung out with us for a while and had coffee and cookies. We discussed radios and tire pressures and had a great time.

 

[COS80]

I was thinking about this... I wonder if a hammer or pick-axe to bust up the ice ledge would make these extractions easier. It seems, like in my case, if the ice had been removed, I might even have been able to drive out.