Snow run with the Trailblazers.

[Desert Dog]

I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend a snow run hosted by the Bakersfield Trailblazers. What a great time; good company, perfect weather, awesome scenery, epic snow-ball fights, and deep deep snow. In spite of 2 popped beads and a bad coil wire, everyone got home. Lots of winch activity, both on vehicles and on foliage. In some spots, the snow was up to the top of the USFS 5' snow markers.

Thanks for the invitation, we had a great time. A short video of the trip;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn_W1KZvG2I

[Desert Dog]

A few pics;

[attachment=0]Video 44 0 00 00-01.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=1]Video 26 0 00 04-06.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=2]Video 33 0 00 06-30.jpg[/attachment]

[TheBigDogg]

looks like you had fun up there

[Goatman]

Yeah, we had a great time. 13 vehicles, plenty of deep snow, gorgeous weather (it was warmer there than at home in the valley). We had to work at it to keep moving up the mountain. While we were working on moving the 3rd tree out of the way, some of the rigs just couldn't make it any further up the road, and Chris was getting a little low on gas, so we turned around. We were pretty close to the top at that point, and a few of us could have kept going to the top, but the going was tough and we'd already had a great time. A couple rigs popped tires off the bead while getting turned around, and the winches were used plenty of times. We still made it back to the highway with plenty of daylight left.

Here's Chris with his 40's buried in the snow. We still made it quite a ways past this point.

[img]http://www.fototime.com/2A151567CFCFD42/standard.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.fototime.com/3EA1FEE0D01B12A/standard.jpg[/img]



[img]http://www.fototime.com/E0D1795DE458F45/standard.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.fototime.com/7C70EC77E6E07F6/standard.jpg[/img]

[Goatman]

More pics. The snow as deep, and it was great that we were the first ones through on the new snow. Part of the fun of snow wheeling is the challenge of being the first ones there.

[img]http://www.fototime.com/5D5B259CCB2B3F5/standard.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.fototime.com/2CC11D0CA576EF6/standard.jpg[/img]


BTW, Chris is standing up here.

[img]http://www.fototime.com/3422BDC074AB699/standard.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.fototime.com/D11C49ABFFF8DC4/standard.jpg[/img]


Getting turned around.......which wasn't easy.

[img]http://www.fototime.com/0C2CE231A3E2CA7/standard.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.fototime.com/B0C5058F54E0DC9/standard.jpg[/img]

[t_long927]

Looks like great fun... Hey Richard, Looks like you had a chance to sell some bead locks ... lol

[munepit]

Looked liked a great time! Wish I could have gone, I would have cleared a path for all of you guys!
Chris, was that the deepest show you have been on, looked pretty deep!

[t_long927]

Great video Chris... Btw 40's never looked so small before...

[Desert Dog]

[quote="munepit"]Looked liked a great time! Wish I could have gone, I would have cleared a path for all of you guys!
Chris, was that the deepest show you have been on, looked pretty deep![/quote]

No way, I ran on snow in Mammoth that was 22 feet deep. But its not really the depth of the snow, its the type of snow, how its packed and whether or not traffic has been on it. Any snow is easy to drive on once other people have driven on it, but virgin snow can be tough. Soft fresh powder snow is usually pretty easy to barrel through as long as you keep the momentum going. The heavier snow that we normally get around these parts can be very challenging if it is deep, especially if it has settled. For snow under 1.5 feet deep (or 3 ft if you have 40+" tires), just keep on the gas, dig through it to solid surface, and go. For deeper stuff, you have to go easy and try not to dig, stop, back-up, then try again sometimes only going 5 feet at a time. The lead rig has to exorcise some discipline by keeping his tracks straight and taking good lines because all the rigs behind the leader will be stuck in his tracks. Usually big tires are better, but bald tires go nowhere in snow no matter how big they are, and can be flat-out dangerous because they offer no lateral stability.

Sometimes, there is a layer of thick ice under the snow (usually shallow snow), and this can be impassable at times even though the snow is only 6" deep. This is where you start seeing people slide off the trail.