Next Adventure in Mind

Just a little harder that Mallory caves! A little ice climbing cant hurt that bad right? I mean it is just frozen water.

~Shaun

Mallory Caves

Last Sunday Zach and I decided to take a hike with Buck up the Mesa Trail to Mallory Caves. We had a great time and Buck had a chance to get some exercise. Along the trail we kept hearing reports of the top being icy, but paid no attention. When we arrived there were already two ladies trying to climb up with a rope left behind. After chatting with them for awhile we convinced them that they could make it up and we all climbed up. At the top, we checked out the view and the cave! Then we all climbed back down together and hiked home. It was a bast!

Left Hand Canyon Rescue #2

This past weekend Greg and I again ventured out into Left Hand Canyon! This time we met up with two others. The most memorable was a veteran offroader name Averett. First we did the 276 bypass which was a blast, and we had no trouble navigating. Then, as we continued on to another trail, it became pretty icy again on the backside of the mountain. Averett only having 31′s was having some trouble making it up the trail. However, he balls to wall hit the slopes going as fast as he could and made it up everyone. He even made it past one area where I had to winch! I was very impressed. After a few hours of wheeling, it was time to head back. Greg and I left Averett with his buddy at the camp fire and headed down the mountain. About 3 quarters of the way to the bottom we ran into the ranger, who had stopped traffic on the one lane trail. As we walking down to investigate, we found an SUV that had manged to flip itself on one of the switchbacks. It was holding up traffic going both ways and we were asked to help flip it back over. Greg came up with a good plan to use the winch block on a tree directly behind the SUV. Tethered to my jeep Greg, winched the SUV back 20 feet before he hooked to the frame of the SUV and flipped it back upright. The rangers thanked us and we continued on down the mountain! It was another perfect rescue! Check out the trip and video below.

Flipped SUV

~Shaun

Jeep Expedition and Rescue

As some of you know I arrived in Boulder on Friday the 22nd. Upon getting settled in, I was talked into taking the jeep on it’s first excursion to Left Hand Canyon! Now, when preparing for the trip I made sure to take along my tool box and recovery equipment, even though I did not intend to use them. My plan was to take Zach and Mindy on a nice and low key offroading trip for the day! Well when we arrived there we ran into another Rubicon and began riding together as he knew the course much better than I.

It was going pretty well until we hit the backside of the mountain and ran into a huge amount of ice which was a brand new experience for my jeep and I. We made it down the first few slopes avoiding the ravine below, until we came to a long slide and Greg (leading us) almost slid into a stopped jeep on the track. Turns out some local CU students got themselves in over their head while offroading the day before.

We decided the best way out was to back track the way we came up the mountain and down the other side. To begin with we had to winch our own jeeps back up the icy slope and then we responsibly winched up the third jeep! This winching line, composed of one jeep tethered to a tree, the second tethered to the first and the third being winched up, continued for 50 or so feet until we could all turn around safely.

We then continued up the road until we approached the long slick. I decided to air on the safe side and winched up it. However Greg decided to go for it and came screaming up the slope at 40 mph. He made it his first try and we were all in disbelief. Upon making it back to the trail head, we celebrated by showing the newbies jeep stacking, and left everyone with a memorable experience!

~Shaun