that was fantastic. Like literally one of the better parking lot discussions I have ever participated in, from the engagement of the group to the quality of material by the presenters. Was a real treat to have a few of the guys from the Colorado 4x4 Recovery team there, as they were able to not only bring in some new perspective but also validate a lot of the things we do as standard practice. Our discussion was basically 3 parts; to start we divided into teams and played a little game of "must have vs. nice to have" as we evaluated several piles of equipment and gear spread around. Then we heard a little more about the Colorado 4x4 Rescue & Recovery group, got tons of questions answered, and some really fun dialog. Finally the group took a deeper dive into a few key areas of interest including tires, air pressure, soft shackles vs. rigid bow shackles, hi lifts and vehicle attachment points. This whole thing lasted about 2 hours.
So then most of the group aired down and started driving towards the trail, others left. About 1/2 mile from the parking lot, we ran into a number of oncoming vehicles... I have never seen this stretch of road so snowy as it was today- really only 2 tracks were dug out, and so to go around someone both vehicles needed to put right tires into the untracked stuff. As we were there to learn about snow wheeling and recovery, you couldn't have asked for a better scenario as within a minute of leaving the parking lot we had a vehicle stuck, and a huge traffic jam.
what made this even more special was the people we were trying to get around- a group of high school kids from Arvada West, and they honestly couldn't have been any cooler. Great attitudes, great patience, and they were psyched to learn some stuff also. We used one of their Jeeps to winch the LX470 forward and back on the road, while another 100 series strapped him from behind to make sure the rear end didn't go further downhill.
From there the group eventually made it to the start of the trail, where we did one more driver training on snow/ice climbing, then proceeded one by one to all ascend the first little hill climb to the right, before you hit the main road again. If you know the area, well you know the spot. I didn't get any pics of this but do have some videos, will work on posting them later.
We then debriefed a little bit more in the parking lot up on the main road (York Gulch), and then about half the group headed down and home, the other half headed up to meet up with the other guys who left the parking lot earlier.
Only gripe was we did encounter some impatient SxS drivers, but managed to let them play through as soon as it was possible. Everyone else I ran into was pretty cool though, and I'll tell you I don't know that I've ever seen that area this busy. Thanks again to everyone who came out and participated, I hope this was worth while for you it certainly was for me.
So then most of the group aired down and started driving towards the trail, others left. About 1/2 mile from the parking lot, we ran into a number of oncoming vehicles... I have never seen this stretch of road so snowy as it was today- really only 2 tracks were dug out, and so to go around someone both vehicles needed to put right tires into the untracked stuff. As we were there to learn about snow wheeling and recovery, you couldn't have asked for a better scenario as within a minute of leaving the parking lot we had a vehicle stuck, and a huge traffic jam.
what made this even more special was the people we were trying to get around- a group of high school kids from Arvada West, and they honestly couldn't have been any cooler. Great attitudes, great patience, and they were psyched to learn some stuff also. We used one of their Jeeps to winch the LX470 forward and back on the road, while another 100 series strapped him from behind to make sure the rear end didn't go further downhill.
From there the group eventually made it to the start of the trail, where we did one more driver training on snow/ice climbing, then proceeded one by one to all ascend the first little hill climb to the right, before you hit the main road again. If you know the area, well you know the spot. I didn't get any pics of this but do have some videos, will work on posting them later.
We then debriefed a little bit more in the parking lot up on the main road (York Gulch), and then about half the group headed down and home, the other half headed up to meet up with the other guys who left the parking lot earlier.
Only gripe was we did encounter some impatient SxS drivers, but managed to let them play through as soon as it was possible. Everyone else I ran into was pretty cool though, and I'll tell you I don't know that I've ever seen that area this busy. Thanks again to everyone who came out and participated, I hope this was worth while for you it certainly was for me.
