Bashing Through The Snow!

[Firehawk068]

Since I'm pretty much snowbound, and can't ride the FJ, I did the next best thing.....................................Took the XJ to the mountains....

Saturday morning I joined up with a couple other members from CherokeeForum.com, and we planned on heading up to a network of trails around Yankee Hill, between Central City and the little town of Alice..............

The 3 of us met at 8am at the "Wooly Mammoth" park-n-ride lot next to I-70 near Morrison, and planned our route.......................Not knowing what the trails would look like after the recent snow storms we had got, we decided to try heading up the trails from Alice.....

We hopped on I-70, and headed west................We quickly joined the crowds of people heading up for a weekend of skiing.......





After some traffic backups around Idaho Springs, we turned off the exit for Alice, and turned onto Fall River Road..........



The road winds its way through the canyon about 5 or 6 miles to the little town of Alice...........
Just before you get into town, you make a right turn up this trail (that is simply called "Jeep Road")



I attempted to go first.................................and didn't make it very far.....................None of us did!
The snow was deep, and was composed of about 4 different layers of snow-hardpack-snow-hardpack, with ice underneath......
We took turns making runs at it..............Gun-it and plow in a few feet. Back up and make another run at it.............. .
We eventually made it our goal to make it past the first telephone pole.



















One of the guys had a pair of tire chains, and decided to try and chain up the back tires..........................................Didn't help much!







After several fun-filled hours of trudging through deep snow, testing our winches, and just Hooning it up the trail with the skinny pedal, this is as far as we made it before calling it quits........
The second telephone pole in from the main road...................About a quarter mile!  





We turned the Jeeps around, and headed back down the wagon tracks we had made in the snow.................







It was a beautiful day to be out, even though it was quite cold and windy up there............The scenery, and the crisp mountain air were worth it!
We took one last group photo before heading back down the mountain towards Denver.......

[ZOA NOM]

Wow, nice try! Worst day four-wheelin beats the best day workin every time.  Looked like the tire pressures were pretty high, anybody try letting some air out for traction?

[Sabre093]

Looks like fun!!!!

[Bminder]

BeaUUUtiful!
I miss bombing around the mountains here in Wyoming in my old Rodeo.  Sold it and got a Dodge Ram crew cab... can't quite get around as good as that old Isuzu!

[Firehawk068]

  Looked like the tire pressures were pretty high, anybody try letting some air out for traction?

We all contemplated it, but we figured pizza-cutters would be better than doughnuts.........................And none of us wanted to stand out there in the cold wind airing back up before we hit the highway............
As deep and hard-packed as the snow was, I doubt it would have made any difference............................We all had fun anyway.

[CatTomb]

Beautiful Pics. Boys and their toys. Life is good.

Yeah, I don't think less tire pressure would have helped with that much snow. My experience is that it isn't traction I am lacking, it is ground clearance. The snow gets pushed and packed in front of the vehicle and begins to lever the wheels off the ground. The layers of snow, ice and crust provide a better lever to lift.

Looks like fun. I usually go out alone in my Vehicross and end up doing way too much shoveling.

I've learned my lesson, when I'm solo it is more fun to park and snowshoe.

We got a few inches of fresh last night and it is still coming down. Might head up the mountain this afternoon ... with the snowshoes. 

[ZOA NOM]

Good point, the clearance is certainly the limiting factor, especially with the soft snow. Flatter tires could help get the car up on top of it if it was packed, but it would have to be pretty dense. It sure is beautiful country. Glad you made it back out.

[Mark Olson]

Sounds like you had a lot of fun ,,,, Awesome.