Showing posts with label Jones Pass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jones Pass. Show all posts

Monday, August 12, 2013

Snow busting in August... Jones Pass 8/10/13

So the word of the week was that Jones Pass still had a snow drift at the top, preventing people from making it over. I couldn't get any recent intel as to how big the drift still was, but I also know that not many modified rigs go up Jones Pass because it is an easy dirt road all the way over. So Ryan, Paul, and Dave Gray from Patrol 6 decided to spend our August Saturday snow busting! Chad and Gary met up with us a few hours after our departure.

Like I mentioned, the road is super easy all the way up. When we reached the drift, it was 30 yards from the summit. It was 8'-12' high and crossed the trail at an angle. The lowest part of the trail was right up against the cliff edge. We dug a trench on the right side, checked the approach angle, and then dug in the pull-pal on the opposite end of the drift. Ryan was first up. We attached Dave's winch to his rear to help keep it from sliding out as Ryan crest the hump.




 


 
Relying heavily on the winch, Ryan crest with no problems. After making it over half way, we unhooked the winch, however that turned out to be a little premature. Ryan started to drive and the whole Jeep slid sideways towards the cliff edge. Luckily the jeep stopped and we hustled to hook the winch back up to the pull pall again.
 
Once safely over and on dirt, Dave came across and then Paul followed.
 




 
 
We did some more digging in anticipation of Gary and Chad, and also for the trip back out over this same drift. Because gravity would be working with us, we dug at the 8' foot wall helping move the cleared line farther away from the cliff edge so that we didn't have to some off the snow and make a hard left turn to stay on the mountain. Once you broke the ice layer, the snow started melting away like butter. After an hour or 2 Chad and Gary arrived and we winched them over with no issues also.
 

 
A little more digging, and it was time for Paul and Dave to head out. Paul came first and made it look easy.
 

 
Dave decided he would put on his lucky combat helmet for safety and good luck.
 
 
Dave made it just fine and the 2 of them headed back home. Ryan, Gary and Chad stuck around for a night of camping and snagged some great sunset pics.
 




 
By the next day, the snow had melted even more, and the decent off the drift was pretty level. All of us came off with no problems and our weekend adventure was now complete.
 


 
 
 
Until next time my friends....
 


Monday, April 29, 2013

Strawberry Road and Jones Pass

Spending the weekend in Winter Park, the Boudreau family from Patrol 14 decided to get out on whatever trails they could find. Unfortunately, most of the trails in the area have seasonal gates that do not open till June 15th. We did find one road outside of Tabernash called Strawberry Road that had a few miles of untouched snow before reaching the June 1st seasonal gate on this one. Sorry for the crappy pics as they were just taken with our cell phones on this day.


Gary using his winch for the very first time!



Ryan playing anchor.




Like I mentioned, it was only a few miles before we reached a closed gate, so we were forced to turn around.






On the way home on Sunday, we wanted to check out Jones Pass even though we knew there would be tons of snow. We approached the parking area just off the main road where there were a handful of snowmobile trailers. The snow started right at that parking lot. We both aired down and started what we first thought would only be a 100 yard drive.


The snow was deep, but it was extremely snow packed from the snowmobiles in the area.

 
 
We were extremely surprised to find out that the snow wasn't slowing us down... Not one bit! We kept on trekking down the trail as snowmobiles were coming down giving us the strangest looks. After a mile, we made it to the valley clearing where Gary stopped for just a second too long and came up 20 yards short of the top.
 


 

Ryan helped winch his dad up the last 20 yards for some picture opportunities.






The Boudreau crew!




This is a rock that is usually a good flexing rock. For some perspective on how deep the snow is, here is a pic of the exact same spot in the summer