Mission Reports: Red Elephant and Yankee Hill Mud Pit

Couple recoveries to report on in the last week.

1st up is a Tacoma that slid off the narrow shelf on Red Elephant Hill. This was a pretty complex recovery that ended up spanning two days to safely recover. Lots of rigging, traction board use to stabilize the road for driving on the rutted out edge. But after returning fresh and in the daylight, the team was able to safely get this vehicle down the mountain.

2nd operation to report on is a JLUR that got hung up in a very deep mud hole on yankee hill. The spring melt appears to have a spring running softening the trail to the point it can swallow your vehicle. Staying the trail was the right thing to do (DO NOT GO AROUND – TURN AROUND) but alas it was just too much.

Like the Red Elephant recovery, this one too required some creative rigging as there were minimal anchor points around to share that winch load with. Once that suction hold was broken on the Jeep, it came right out of the hole. (Remember that ram 2500 that sunk in larimer county last spring?? kinda like that).

As always, be prepared in the backcountry for anything! Don’t wheel alone, have an emergency kit with spare food, water, clothing (it can be cold and miserable any time of year at elevation), and we’d highly recommend some kind of alternate communcations like 2 way radio, satellite messenger, PLBs etc. 911 usually works, but it’s never guaranteed.

Colorado 4×4 Rescue and Recovery
We Recover the Rockies!