Show us your TITS (Tundras in the Snow)!

Great looking truck.

 

Yay, it's April.
@5500'

 

Remember that nice weather last week? April fools! (yes, yesterday)

 

This was on 4/20/2023 in Remer MN. What a day!

 

Drove out to the eastern side of Lake Pend Oreille in North Idaho and hit a snow drift 200ft from the top of the trail. Hard to tell but my rear end almost slid off down 40ft. Used all of my recovery gear, ended up doing 2 pulleys connected to 2 tow straps back to the slider so I could winch the rear back onto the road and not die.

Camera never does justice to the slopes and angles, this was very off camber and you can kinda see if you adjust for the trees in the background. The left side of the road drops down 40 ft but with tall trees there it’s difficult to determine it in the photo. Would have absolutely rolled the truck numerous times if it slid off. The last photo kinda shows how steep, I was basically sliding on my butt to get around to the far side

 

It's amazing how close we are to the 'edge' (speaking more about life in general than the literal edge)...

Glad you're okay!!!


I tried to figure out how to type the following without it sounding liie I'm poking, cuz I'm not. You're waaaay more experienced and skillful in these situations than I am, but I like to learn when and where I can...

Seems like you are usually pretty surefooted and conscientious of conditions... What happened during this drive that you got in those circumstances, or was it simply the rear end slid out from you unexpectedly and is what it is??

 

Great question! I do have a lot of experience, but so far from doing everything right. So I took a different route back out of the forest as the way in was pretty easy. What I didn’t check was the elevation of the route and once I got on the trail I was getting pinstripes so I couldn’t really turn around. I got through 2 previous snow drifts pretty easily but what happened here was twofold. First the snow drift created an off camber situation that I should have factored more. Second was a SXS had cut a narrow rut through the drift and had chewed through to the dirt on the low side of the road. That dirt was softer than I anticipated. So when I hit the snow drift the driver’s side wheels slowed down in the snow and the passenger side wheels dug into the chewed up dirt spinning me left. So within a second I was pointing 45° into the snow drifting with my right rear almost off the soft shoulder of the road. Once stopped, I got out, assessed and tried to ease the throttle out and the truck’s rear slipped further right, or downhill. The stump in the last photo is about 4’ off the shoulder and down the hill and my tire was almost hitting it.

The snow drift was iced so I could walk across most of it then suddenly I would sink in to my knee, so it was much deeper than I gave it credit for. Definitely a humbling learning experience!

A couple came down the trail on a small SXS and helped me dig and position straps, I ended up helping them get past the spot once I was free and clear. I can’t post video on this forum but this screen shot shows the lean better. We had to hold the rear end to keep it mostly on the road.


Left side of the photo you can just make out the stump and my tire tread marks. The SXS left tire is already off the shoulder a little.

 

Thank you for the detailed response!!

I'm heading to bed right now, but I'll shoot you a PM w/my response later this evening or tomorrow some time. I don't want to clutter up this thread w/language and articulation, so a private message is probably more appropriate anyhow. Have a good day and again, I'm glad everything worked for you...