2022 Snow and Pizza run

[JadeRunner]

Lets post up here. I'll post up tomorrow. It sure was a fun day. Sorry I made it out late and missed most everyone for pizza. We had our hands full getting out of there on the alternate route back around to the middle parking lot. Off camber shelf road winch fest with ATVs in the middle kind of thing. Thanks Matt Farr for hanging out and ordering us that last pizza.

 

[On the RX]

Thanks again Scott! This is always one of my favorite days out with the gang!

 

[subzali]

Thanks Scott for getting us through.

It was good seeing old friends and meeting some new ones today. I had intentions for getting good photos and video, but it didn’t really happen. I’ll try to post up what I have.

It was pretty easy getting up to the quarry. Then a group blew by the playground area and started tackling the remaining trail. I caught up to them by accident so turned around to go back to the playground. Brad helped pull me out of the deep snow turning around. Scott tried hard to get to the playground with no success. Then the big holdup for the rest of the group was we were waiting for @TheHoneyBadger @TacoDane and @arthog to come back down to the playground to try and bust through. The drifts were too big though so everyone sorta dispersed.

Scott, Dan and I found ourselves heading north down a spur road from the quarry down a hill, which we couldn’t get back up. So we worked on taking a shelf road back to the middle parking area. I kept getting stuck, had to winch at least twice, then we came upon some ATV riders who tried to turn around but one of their ATVs wouldn’t run and was stuck in gear.

Once they cleared out we were going ok until we hit an exposed shelf road that had big off camber drifts on it. Lots of winching and probably 2 hours later, we finally got everyone (3 of us) through to the parking lot.

So it was choose your adventure day

 

[PhillyB77]

Just my experience about learning today, and some minor suggestions (as a new guy).

Good initial brief. Tons of relevant info. Straps and vehicle kit and recovery tips...tools. Really good to learn from guys who have done this for far longer than I have. In addition to that now I'm trolling Amazon and similar to pick up some gear that might be good for my rig. Super good group, tons of fun and wow we had a blast. In addition to all the new stuff I need I now want an RC crawler. Overall a very well planned out and great experience led by some seasoned folks, I felt very comfortable knowing if something went wrong folks with lots of institutional knowledge would be there to assist.

When I mention suggestions please take this in the best light possible. Or, shit can it as not necessary.

Initial brief was great. Maybe some suggestions

- Call signs for (minimum) trail leader and rear vehicle. Otherwise, this is Phil in the 4 Runner, I mean in a large group that's tough.
- ID the nearest medical facility, distance and direction or at least a route if a major incident occurs (also contact info via voice, sat, whatever for emergency services)
- I had a trauma kit in my rig (not to be confused with a boo boo first aid kit) but maybe ID who has that. Tourniquets, Quikclot, et al. You can bleed out in minutes, trauma kits are great to have. North American Rescue has good stuff.
- Identify Primary and Alternate comms freq or channel. We ran into some crossover, would have been good to drop to alternate freq which was previously identified. Also see who has Sat devices or Sat phones (I have both) in case we need to reach out to emergency services.
- Some form of accountability. Maybe it's taking a roll call prior to (which I did see folks counting vehicles) but also a text or some other form of comms to check out so everyone is accounted for even if they punch out early. Maybe it's over the top but just to ensure everyone is safe.

Take it or leave it. I'm low man on totem pole and had an EXCELLENT experience, but thought to toss out some ideas.

 

[TheHoneyBadger]

Great day for playing around in the snow.
Thanks for organizing this again, Scott. It was good to see a bunch of the gang again.

I didn’t take but two pictures all day. I was too busy getting stuck and unstuck and helping to unstick Daine and Terry. We almost made it to the top, but a very large deep drift stopped us right at tree line. My locker air system was malfunctioning, so we decided to turn around and head back down. Which was a bummer, because last time I was on the snow and pizza run we were able to make it all the way over to St. Mary’s.
Anyways, I had to bail and take the kiddo home for his birthday party. So for the first time I missed the pizza part of this soirée.
We ended up with very little damage. I smashed my spare fuel tank into a tree and mangled it. Daine backed into my spare tire and broke a tail light. And Terry wound up with a broken strap. But other than that we came out ok.

 

[Romer]

looks like some good shots for next years calendar

 

[krispykritter]

@JadeRunner I was the one talking to you off and on all day. I have a GMRS unit that apparently has alot more range than most of the handhelds. I didn't realize you guys were still behind us somewhere once we finally made it back down the hill with the last of the newbie group. There was a ton of cross talk on the channels! Sorry if I confused you at any point.

I posted these in the original thread but it doesn't hurt to throw them up here as well:

 

[Hulk]

It was a beautiful day. I rode along with @arthog in his 55. Deep snow this year!

 

[bh4rnnr]

Had a blast, as always.

Scott, thanks for leading this run every year. How many years now have we been going up there? Glad you guys finally got off the trail and thanks for getting the Pizza.

Lots of pics to go through, but a teaser for now.

 

[AimCOTaco]

Nice trail conditions and weather up there yesterday. Big thanks to Scott for leading and organizing the day and to Tim for holding the intro session and helping to split the group into 2 "packs". Glad to hear everyone had a good time, sorry I had to bail pre-pizza!
Here's a couple "proof of attendance pics", thanks to those above offering photographs :

 

[TheHoneyBadger]

It was a beautiful day. I rode along with @arthog in his 55. Deep snow this year!

Great pictures, Matt!
-----
Perry, I can't wait to see what photographic magic you pulled off.

Lots of pics to go through, but a teaser for now.

 

[TacoDane]

Thanks for leading again Scott. Good times as always. Great turnout and loved the lack of ice this year. Only disappointment was not getting as far as usual.
I didn't even get to pulling out the camera but heres a couple pics i got on my cell phone.
Great shots you got Matt.
Can't wait to see what you got Perry.

 

[60ranchero]

Attached are my pics from the trip. The old Tundra did better than I thought it would! Next time I will push it it little harder...

 

[Danger Noodle]

Wish I could have made this one. I don't see any 40s

 

[subzali]

Trying this video thing...

 

[JadeRunner]

Looks like we had about 25-30 rigs. That was lots of fun. Hope everyone had a chance to play in the snow. Since we basically started to turn the group around about 1pm. That's when Subzali, FJDan and I decided to take that spur road and then got out at 5pm. But, radios comms were good. My new little cheap FRS radio worked surprisingly well inside the cab. I will have to work on getting a real setup and antenna installed. I should have announced a backup FRS channel. But, we worked thru it. And it sounds like the 146460 is back to being a good freq. without the space station interference.

We had a good turn out for pizza since we ended early. I was late but Matt Farr helped manage it. Prices did go up some. For transparency. My original order of pizzas (300.00) were consumed and we had to order more. So the pizza bill was higher than normal and over budget at 466.62

 

[krispykritter]

We had a good turn out for pizza since we ended early. I was late but Matt Farr helped manage it. Prices did go up some. For transparency. My original order of pizzas (300.00) were consumed and we had to order more. So the pizza bill was higher than normal and over budget at 466.62

While we all appreciated the club picking up the tab, I'm just as sure the majority of us would've been perfectly happy to throw in some cash to help offset the cost! We already got a free guided tour and some of us got a free Life Pro Tips: Snow Wheeling Edition. Next time around, set a cash bucket in the middle of the table and I'd bet all us freeloaders will fill it up for yall!

 

[FJCDan]

Great snow run again this year Scott . We sure did get into some rough snow conditions on that Spur trail. Not a long trail, but 4 hours to do it and 2 hours alone on that last section. Good thing we didn't have more trucks, we could have been there well after dark. Now for the pictures.

 

[subzali]

Thanks for the pictures Dan-of course they never do justice to how steep that side hill was!

If you have any more would love to get them from you. Sorry I took zip for pictures.

 

[vabluefish]

A few pics I snapped: