Mission Reports: Gold Hill and Steven’s Gulch

Couple of snow recoveries ran simultaneously yesterday!

A jeep Cherokee got hung up in the snow outside of Gold Hill. This was a quick kinetic rope recovery from behind and we were able to drive through a campsite just to the left of the picture to bypass this larger drift. But on the way out, the heaviest vehicle of the team punched right through the ice crusted snow. Conditions in the mountains are extremely deceiving with the warm daytime temps, and the hard freezes at night. A quick winch to a nearby tree pulled the truck right through, but we’re seeing this a lot lately. Vehicles are sinking through and “framing out” and when this happens, not even tire chains will help you. The ice will have too large of a grasp on the bottom of the vehicle.

The second was a Traverse that slid off Steven’s Gulch road. Another situation where the snow really isn’t that deep on the hard pack, but once you get into the soft shoulders the bottom of the vehicle gets hung up and the tires can’t pull itself back onto the road.

Make sure to have an emergency kit with you for an extended stay in the vehicle! One hiked out, the other stayed with the vehicle overnight! Day time temps at the Gold Hill operation were -4 on scene!

Colorado 4×4 Rescue and Recovery

We Recover the Rockies!