July 9, 2017 | Categories: Mission Reports

Mission Reports: July 2017

We at CO4x4RnR had a very busy week. We started out the weekend at Set Them Free. This is a worthy cause for your attention and donation. We were impressed with every bit of the efforts and people who put on the event. Many of our members, BOD and volunteers and dispatchers were on runs offering a good back-up for recovery skills if any were needed. We also helped out in a minor way with comms and plan to take a much bigger role in both next year.

The week ahead and after were filled with action. The week before STF we had a rare three recovery day, all overlapping. All the recoveries went flawlessly with our volunteers and organized and watched over by our amazing team of dispatchers.

The week after also had are very rare double recovery by a single team in one night!

There were themes we noticed in many of our recoveries. Poor tire choice is a common theme in our recoveries. Either highway or all season tires are common on the vehicles we recover. That means the situation is preventable.

Another common theme was knowing when to not go on. Two of our recoveries had ample opportunity to turn around not long before they were clearly exceeding their abilities and those of the vehicles. Planning ahead, be it tires or turning around when it is clearly getting very tough, is a skill you must develop to be in the back country.

The last day of this week also witnessed two very lucky people. They rolled on North Swan but landed on their wheels. They were able to drive home but if not for a single earth rim, they might have been a statistic. They had a good rig, were experienced and had thought it through, things just went wrong. One of our BOD members happened upon them and assisted in them exiting the back country. They got lucky.

Depend on planning, not just luck. Even good planning and the right rig can still land you in a bad spot. Plan ahead, learn skills and own and operate equipment to help yourself. Or call us. We train and learn all the time to be better at what we do. Better yet, join us and learn more skills and what equipment you can buy to help yourself and others and become a Recovery Volunteer.

Colorado 4×4 Rescue and Recovery
“We Recover the Rockies”