Had to save the chickens.
Get any snow?
- Thread starter Mauser
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
It was kind of deep.
Snow? You mean, that whie stuff?
I thought that was frosting...
I thought that was frosting...
Early Thursday Morning foothills... There was much rejoicing
So, I found a family of three stuck in a Civic on the crest overnight. They got stuck sometime last night, and they weren't able to idle their engine for heat. The battery died as well, but I don't really know the full details, nor did I care. They were in good spirits all things considered.
Priority was to give them my snack bars and get them out. The kid needed to go to school and the parents needed to get to work. The extraction was quite easy, but I wanted to bring to everyone's awareness a tiny detail of extracting a modern unibody car/SUV/etc. As you know, our vehicles come with "factory transport" tie downs that are used to move the new vehicles from the factory to the dealership on a transport truck. They're typically located on the front and on the rear of most cars. They prevent the vehicles from bouncing up/down while being moved on these transport trailers to their destinations.
These tie downs work great for easy extraction, say on a snowy bank/icy patch/etc. If you really pull on them hard, they're rip away from the underside of the unibody, and you end up with a gaping hole. So, pls be mindful of this when you're helping out a stranded motorist by using these tie down points.
Here's something that you'll run into, and that is how the heck do you get the head of a hard or a soft shackle through this tiny hole for extraction! For this reason, I carry XS, S, Med and Large shackles.
I know you're thinking "oh yea, my soft shackle head can easily fit through that tiny hole". Ahhh, but did you try doing this on a 20ish degree cold windy winter day while laying on your side with no gloves on trying like HELL to squeeze that MOFO frozen ass nylon soft shackle?
Yeah, neither did I nor was I even going to attempt it. I don't really know how nylon material flexes when it's sub-freezing temp, or would you end up breaking the strands. So, save yourself the headache and purchase the shackles
See the pic of what I'm talking about.
Priority was to give them my snack bars and get them out. The kid needed to go to school and the parents needed to get to work. The extraction was quite easy, but I wanted to bring to everyone's awareness a tiny detail of extracting a modern unibody car/SUV/etc. As you know, our vehicles come with "factory transport" tie downs that are used to move the new vehicles from the factory to the dealership on a transport truck. They're typically located on the front and on the rear of most cars. They prevent the vehicles from bouncing up/down while being moved on these transport trailers to their destinations.
These tie downs work great for easy extraction, say on a snowy bank/icy patch/etc. If you really pull on them hard, they're rip away from the underside of the unibody, and you end up with a gaping hole. So, pls be mindful of this when you're helping out a stranded motorist by using these tie down points.
Here's something that you'll run into, and that is how the heck do you get the head of a hard or a soft shackle through this tiny hole for extraction! For this reason, I carry XS, S, Med and Large shackles.
I know you're thinking "oh yea, my soft shackle head can easily fit through that tiny hole". Ahhh, but did you try doing this on a 20ish degree cold windy winter day while laying on your side with no gloves on trying like HELL to squeeze that MOFO frozen ass nylon soft shackle?
Yeah, neither did I nor was I even going to attempt it. I don't really know how nylon material flexes when it's sub-freezing temp, or would you end up breaking the strands. So, save yourself the headache and purchase the shackles
Good on you for helping them out. The winch does come in handy from time to time
That sunrise pic is epic!So, I found a family of three stuck in a Civic on the crest overnight. They got stuck sometime last night, and they weren't able to idle their engine for heat. The battery died as well, but I don't really know the full details, nor did I care. They were in good spirits all things considered.
Priority was to give them my snack bars and get them out. The kid needed to go to school and the parents needed to get to work. The extraction was quite easy, but I wanted to bring to everyone's awareness a tiny detail of extracting a modern unibody car/SUV/etc. As you know, our vehicles come with "factory transport" tie downs that are used to move the new vehicles from the factory to the dealership on a transport truck. They're typically located on the front and on the rear of most cars. They prevent the vehicles from bouncing up/down while being moved on these transport trailers to their destinations.
These tie downs work great for easy extraction, say on a snowy bank/icy patch/etc. If you really pull on them hard, they're rip away from the underside of the unibody, and you end up with a gaping hole. So, pls be mindful of this when you're helping out a stranded motorist by using these tie down points.
Here's something that you'll run into, and that is how the heck do you get the head of a hard or a soft shackle through this tiny hole for extraction! For this reason, I carry XS, S, Med and Large shackles.
I know you're thinking "oh yea, my soft shackle head can easily fit through that tiny hole". Ahhh, but did you try doing this on a 20ish degree cold windy winter day while laying on your side with no gloves on trying like HELL to squeeze that MOFO frozen ass nylon soft shackle?
Yeah, neither did I nor was I even going to attempt it. I don't really know how nylon material flexes when it's sub-freezing temp, or would you end up breaking the strands. So, save yourself the headache and purchase the shacklesSee the pic of what I'm talking about.
View attachment 4045291
View attachment 4045292
View attachment 4045293
View attachment 4045294
View attachment 4045295
Your spotter looks like he’s sending blue heeler ESP “LINE IN!” 
He's the safety boss.That sunrise pic is epic!
You’re a good man, I’m sure those people were super appreciative.So, I found a family of three stuck in a Civic on the crest overnight. They got stuck sometime last night, and they weren't able to idle their engine for heat. The battery died as well, but I don't really know the full details, nor did I care. They were in good spirits all things considered.
Priority was to give them my snack bars and get them out. The kid needed to go to school and the parents needed to get to work. The extraction was quite easy, but I wanted to bring to everyone's awareness a tiny detail of extracting a modern unibody car/SUV/etc. As you know, our vehicles come with "factory transport" tie downs that are used to move the new vehicles from the factory to the dealership on a transport truck. They're typically located on the front and on the rear of most cars. They prevent the vehicles from bouncing up/down while being moved on these transport trailers to their destinations.
These tie downs work great for easy extraction, say on a snowy bank/icy patch/etc. If you really pull on them hard, they're rip away from the underside of the unibody, and you end up with a gaping hole. So, pls be mindful of this when you're helping out a stranded motorist by using these tie down points.
Here's something that you'll run into, and that is how the heck do you get the head of a hard or a soft shackle through this tiny hole for extraction! For this reason, I carry XS, S, Med and Large shackles.
I know you're thinking "oh yea, my soft shackle head can easily fit through that tiny hole". Ahhh, but did you try doing this on a 20ish degree cold windy winter day while laying on your side with no gloves on trying like HELL to squeeze that MOFO frozen ass nylon soft shackle?
Yeah, neither did I nor was I even going to attempt it. I don't really know how nylon material flexes when it's sub-freezing temp, or would you end up breaking the strands. So, save yourself the headache and purchase the shacklesSee the pic of what I'm talking about.
View attachment 4045291
View attachment 4045292
View attachment 4045293
View attachment 4045294
View attachment 4045295
thanks for that! I go up there multiple times a week during the winter so this is a common occurrence for me. I just wanted to make folks aware of a potential recovery issue with certain vehicles. It really doesn't matter how much ability you have to pull someone out if you can't hook up to their vehicle w/o damaging it. It's a very frustrating experience to say the least. I've had to walk away from two recoveries in the 30 years because there was just no way to help them.
I once dragged a BMW X5 across asphalt to get it out of a parking space that was blocking another car in. The owner of the X5 was not around and the keys were nowhere to be found anywhere in the apartment. The X5 had nothing obvious to hook to so I ran my tow strap through the spokes of the rear wheels and tried my best to pull straight (as opposed to an extreme angle) and slow so I didn't destroy any spindles, control arms, etc.
Last edited:
Oh hell yea baby, we GOT SNOW! The Crest hwy was deliciously treacherous this morning. The only time I get to drift Beastie is on icy switchbacks 
NMDOT installed a gate right on the Crest hwy directly across from the ski resort and the Sheriff dept closed it BEFORE i got there at 6:30am today. Next time I'm gonna have to get up there even earlier, then happily get locked on the other side of the gate. I can always leave by going through the back way through Placitas, or make coffee in the parking lot.
Incidentally, there was one set of tracks from a vehicle that did the trip up to the Crest from Placitas only to find the gate closed. I bet they were PISSED! The DOT pickup truck was on my side of the gates with his lights on waiting on his DOT snow plow crews to come up. I passed them on my way up.
They'll open the Crest hwy tomorrow PM sometimes from what the DOT guy told me this am.
Everyone has access to the ski resort so if you wanna go play, head on up there. Unfortunately, the Capulin snow play area is on the other side of the gate so you'll need to wait until they open the gates. I'll head on up there tomorrow and all this weekend.
NMDOT installed a gate right on the Crest hwy directly across from the ski resort and the Sheriff dept closed it BEFORE i got there at 6:30am today. Next time I'm gonna have to get up there even earlier, then happily get locked on the other side of the gate. I can always leave by going through the back way through Placitas, or make coffee in the parking lot.
Incidentally, there was one set of tracks from a vehicle that did the trip up to the Crest from Placitas only to find the gate closed. I bet they were PISSED! The DOT pickup truck was on my side of the gates with his lights on waiting on his DOT snow plow crews to come up. I passed them on my way up.
They'll open the Crest hwy tomorrow PM sometimes from what the DOT guy told me this am.
Everyone has access to the ski resort so if you wanna go play, head on up there. Unfortunately, the Capulin snow play area is on the other side of the gate so you'll need to wait until they open the gates. I'll head on up there tomorrow and all this weekend.
Nothing to write home about down here in Doso, but we did get a bit up on the mountain. Started snowing again about 20 minutes ago too. Supposedly we will get 1-3” overnight. We’ll have to wait and see.
Snow!
Looks like I got about 5 in of snow at the house, and around 12 in at Sandia Peak ski resort. They're going to open up the ski resort tomorrow so there was a lot of activity happening today. Since the highway is closed still just passed the resort, we snowshoeed at the resort, and that was pretty fun actually. I've never messed around those slopes but it was a blast. Luka made a friend with another dog belonging to one of the employees.
The DOT plow trucks love me and my landcruiser. At least that's what I'd like to think when I rolled up to my favorite trailhead parking lot to see they didn't plow it clean, like they did clean the lot across the street. They did leave a giant berm on the entrance and exit of the parking lot so that I can have some fun. Looks like there was 10-12" of fresh powder on the ground. My guess is that they have no place to pile up the snow so they just leave that lot alone.
I came back to the 80 and saw that I was the only one still parked there, and a 3rd gen 4runner was thinking about entering it but changed their mind! They pulled into the lot across the street with the other folks. This is at the 10k south parking lot off of the Crest hwy.
I came back to the 80 and saw that I was the only one still parked there, and a 3rd gen 4runner was thinking about entering it but changed their mind! They pulled into the lot across the street with the other folks. This is at the 10k south parking lot off of the Crest hwy.
Last edited: