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Stuck for days

2K views 23 replies 13 participants last post by  AstroWill 
#1 ·
It was a cold Colorado night, about 11pm. I was driving through the White River National Forest, looking for a place to park for the night. My terrier pup and I have been vanlife'n it for about a month. I found a winding, forest access road. It had huge mounts of packed ice with tire tracks in light snow. It had street signs, but I later learned that it is a summer road only. So I pondered for a minute and decided to drive down it. I bottomed out on one of the mounds and proceeded to drive down a semi steep grade. Still fine, the oversized wranglers were rolling nicely on the icy, snowy road Then it started getting a little deeper, and once, I ran off the packed ice into some powder causing me to swerve left to keep it on the road. After a 1/4 mile, I finally arrived at the trailhead turnaround. I stopped and got out of the van. What did I see? Three humongous holes dug down about two feet of snow from prople who had gotten stuck at the turnaround. I thought to myself, I'm going to have to do this very carefully. I started a y turn then I got my front right tire stuck right off the bat. I had an axe and started shoveling out my van. I dug for days trying to get free. I'd make a little progress and get stuck again.
Mind you, there is no cell service here, I'm stuck in the snow with no way to turn around, and reversing up this grade is going to be challenging with a weighted down astro.
The AWD made this feat even more difficult. One wheel would lose traction and spin it's little heart away while the others did nothing. Which would bottom out the van and I'd dig it out some more. The temperature had risen and the road was undrivable. A snowshoer found me and gave me a ride to get a winch, shovel, kitty litter and chains from walmart. That winch was a pos and did nothing and two of the chains broke. Saturday we got the tow truck wrecker stuck, and spent all afternoon digging him out. Now Tuesday, I finally found a guy with a snowcat to pull me out. The cost for him to trailer it there a pull me out...$1500. That was astronomical to me, but after shoveling snow til 5am on multiple days and nights, my body was done, I was about to lose my job, and I just wanted her back on the pavement.



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#2 ·
Wow. Just wow. That is seriously freaking stuck... Look how articulated you are in those pics! How the heck did you find a snow cat? Sorry to hear the Astro did not pull through and get you to safety but we are glad your it of there!
 
#5 ·
sorry to hear you went though such an ordeal, If this ever happens again a few points to ponder. Any time your vehicle is stuck in any material going backwards in your already made tracks is always easier then going forward weighted down or not. when you go forward you are creating more slippery areas as well as pushing the snow into a piles in front of you creating more resistance. Also when you try to turn you are making the rear tires so they can't stay in the tracks of the fronts again creating more resistance. Then of course the fronts are pulling while trying to turn and the backs are pushing against the fronts in a different set of tracks. Many years of living in Maine, many years of offroading and of course US Army recovery school taught me a lot.
 
#7 ·
That'sounds a good point, but when trying to reverse upill, I was getting no tork. A few times I'd be laying on the gas, chains on the wheels, no spinning and not moving. Drastic incline in reverse was not my friend.
I found a snowcat by calling every tow company in the area. One guy had a friend of a friend. They knew I was desperate
 
#10 ·
JonnyDelux said:
It was a cold Colorado night, about 11pm. I was driving through the White River National Forest, looking for a place to park for the night. My terrier pup and I have been vanlife'n it for about a month. I found a winding, forest access road. It had huge mounts of packed ice with tire tracks in light snow. It had street signs, but I later learned that it is a summer road only. So I pondered for a minute and decided to drive down it. I bottomed out on one of the mounds and proceeded to drive down a semi steep grade. Still fine, the oversized wranglers were rolling nicely on the icy, snowy road Then it started getting a little deeper, and once, I ran off the packed ice into some powder causing me to swerve left to keep it on the road. After a 1/4 mile, I finally arrived at the trailhead turnaround. I stopped and got out of the van. What did I see? Three humongous holes dug down about two feet of snow from prople who had gotten stuck at the turnaround. I thought to myself, I'm going to have to do this very carefully. I started a y turn then I got my front right tire stuck right off the bat. I had an axe and started shoveling out my van. I dug for days trying to get free. I'd make a little progress and get stuck again.
Mind you, there is no cell service here, I'm stuck in the snow with no way to turn around, and reversing up this grade is going to be challenging with a weighted down astro.
The AWD made this feat even more difficult. One wheel would lose traction and spin it's little heart away while the others did nothing. Which would bottom out the van and I'd dig it out some more. The temperature had risen and the road was undrivable. A snowshoer found me and gave me a ride to get a winch, shovel, kitty litter and chains from walmart. That winch was a pos and did nothing and two of the chains broke. Saturday we got the tow truck wrecker stuck, and spent all afternoon digging him out. Now Tuesday, I finally found a guy with a snowcat to pull me out. The cost for him to trailer it there a pull me out...$1500. That was astronomical to me, but after shoveling snow til 5am on multiple days and nights, my body was done, I was about to lose my job, and I just wanted her back on the pavement.
Thanks for posting this, it's nice to hear stories like this that ended well, even if expensively. Helps keep things in perspective.
What size chains did you buy?

JonnyDelux said:
A few times I'd be laying on the gas, chains on the wheels, no spinning and not moving. Drastic incline in reverse was not my friend.
So the engine was just bogging down, not driving the wheels at all? I wonder what caused that.
 
#16 ·
Wimpazz said:
Soooooo..... would rock salt help?
Depends on how cold it is, if it's below 15F it's not going to work. Also, the colder it is, the slower it works.
 
#24 ·
Any professionals out there have the best advice for this situation? With a trip to walmart I probably would have focused on a slightly different supply list.

My list of shopping goodies probably would have been:
  • Proper shovel
    some kind of traction aid like sand.
    I would have still grabbed the come-along, but I would have grabbed tow straps instead of chains.

My list would have been totally different if I had a place where I could get some Amazon next day delivery.

I wonder if you could have gotten turned around and started if momentum would have been enough to get you to follow the tracks you made coming down. Of course we will never know, but it's a fun exercise to think of different ways of doing it.

Paying someone to plow the road might have been cheaper ;)

What happened to your drivers side fender?
 
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