Scotford
Active VIP Member
First off I do not know if this is a smart idea to post this because of the backlash and the negativity that I will probably get back on here but after this past weekends incident in Boulder with the two young guys missing and reading all the posts on facebook and S&M about it a lot of peeps are asking for the whole story so other peeps can learn from it. So maybe if I start this thread some peeps would be willing to share they mishaps so others can learn from it...
Here is one of mine :
This recent Christmas spent it with my sister and brother in law in Revy at Full Speed Rentals cabins, from Dec 21 too 27th. me and the brother in law sledded pretty much everyday day up in boulder riding up right from the cabins. Dec 24th ride we headed up for another days ride, stopped at the cabin and came with the plan, another cold day,but clear blue skies so we wanted to take shaddy lane so we could make another track on our GPS to tie into the lake. Made our way around and got into superbowl, climbed up and the clouds were rolling is we figured we would back track and play in the trees. found our way back to where we came out at and started back tracking towards the cabin playing as we went.
before i go any further me and the brother in law are both experienced riders, i ride a turboed axys and he rides a turboed bike, both with training, both with inreach and a sat phone, both pack enough to spend the night, but i have not riden in boulder since 2010 so things change.
as i was following the trailback i took a right instead of staying left and all of a sudden we were at the radio towers, no big deal we just have to work our way back NW, followed this set of tracks which i assumed were going the right way but when we dropped down the first 50' drop i knew i made a mistake. soon as we dropped down my memory from riding back in 2010 from a good bud who told me that you do not drop down behind the towers unless you know how to get back out kicked in, **** i said to my brother in law i made a mistake and this was at 2:30 in the afternoon, so we followed these tracks for a bit but they just kept dropping and not headed back up towards shaddy lane, we stopped assessed the situation and figured in stead of following these tracks and dropping down more we should turn around and head back to where we dropped in and try climb back upto the towers, second mistake we made, it was a bitch just climbing back to that point, conditions down there were untouched tit deep powder with tight trees and crazy terrain, we got back to where we dropped in and now its dark, thankfully we both pack our helmet lights with us cause they sure came in handy, we search and found line we figure my turbo would climb up, nope no base and tit deep we tried and it was just to steep. so we sent messages down to the girls that we will be late and to follow are tracks we are in a bind. looked at our fuel and both said either we get ready to spend the night or we go back and follow these tracks down cause hopefully they lead out cause there is no way these guys came back up, we both agreed and i told my brother in law that this is far out of my comfort zone and way past my riding talent to get through this **** down here, so we agreed to take our time. got back to where we first turned around and found their tracks, that's when the fun started as the next drop was down this crazy steep creek and at the bottom you could see with our lights they had too make some crazy turns down there, before we dropped we texted the girls our plan an told them to track our progress, then i also remembered that my sled had the gps mapping so i turned my screen to that and said here goes nothing.. after dropping you could feel we were starting to climb back up slowly through some very tough terrain to get through at night not being able too see, we finally got to a point we needed to stop and rest .... looked at my gps track and seen we were headed in the right direction, we battled on and finally came to an opening where we knew where we were, we both had huge smiles on our faces and headed for the cabin to warm up and thaw out our helmets for the ride down and let the girls know we were okay. we got to the cabin at 8:30pm.... took us 6 hrs to get out of that situation.
Things we learnt :
1- thank fully we always pack everything we need
2 - NEVER go some where you are unsure of even if you see tracks and lots of tempting fresh
3 - have communications always
4 - have the balls enough to admit to your riding buddies you fawked up and this is way past your riding ability
5 - remember to use all your tools in your toolbox
6 - **** HAPPENS -- stay calm and think through it
7 - thankful we both had turboed equipment or we would have had no choice but to call for help
sorry this was long winded, but maybe there is a couple things someone else can learn from this !!!
Here is one of mine :
This recent Christmas spent it with my sister and brother in law in Revy at Full Speed Rentals cabins, from Dec 21 too 27th. me and the brother in law sledded pretty much everyday day up in boulder riding up right from the cabins. Dec 24th ride we headed up for another days ride, stopped at the cabin and came with the plan, another cold day,but clear blue skies so we wanted to take shaddy lane so we could make another track on our GPS to tie into the lake. Made our way around and got into superbowl, climbed up and the clouds were rolling is we figured we would back track and play in the trees. found our way back to where we came out at and started back tracking towards the cabin playing as we went.
before i go any further me and the brother in law are both experienced riders, i ride a turboed axys and he rides a turboed bike, both with training, both with inreach and a sat phone, both pack enough to spend the night, but i have not riden in boulder since 2010 so things change.
as i was following the trailback i took a right instead of staying left and all of a sudden we were at the radio towers, no big deal we just have to work our way back NW, followed this set of tracks which i assumed were going the right way but when we dropped down the first 50' drop i knew i made a mistake. soon as we dropped down my memory from riding back in 2010 from a good bud who told me that you do not drop down behind the towers unless you know how to get back out kicked in, **** i said to my brother in law i made a mistake and this was at 2:30 in the afternoon, so we followed these tracks for a bit but they just kept dropping and not headed back up towards shaddy lane, we stopped assessed the situation and figured in stead of following these tracks and dropping down more we should turn around and head back to where we dropped in and try climb back upto the towers, second mistake we made, it was a bitch just climbing back to that point, conditions down there were untouched tit deep powder with tight trees and crazy terrain, we got back to where we dropped in and now its dark, thankfully we both pack our helmet lights with us cause they sure came in handy, we search and found line we figure my turbo would climb up, nope no base and tit deep we tried and it was just to steep. so we sent messages down to the girls that we will be late and to follow are tracks we are in a bind. looked at our fuel and both said either we get ready to spend the night or we go back and follow these tracks down cause hopefully they lead out cause there is no way these guys came back up, we both agreed and i told my brother in law that this is far out of my comfort zone and way past my riding talent to get through this **** down here, so we agreed to take our time. got back to where we first turned around and found their tracks, that's when the fun started as the next drop was down this crazy steep creek and at the bottom you could see with our lights they had too make some crazy turns down there, before we dropped we texted the girls our plan an told them to track our progress, then i also remembered that my sled had the gps mapping so i turned my screen to that and said here goes nothing.. after dropping you could feel we were starting to climb back up slowly through some very tough terrain to get through at night not being able too see, we finally got to a point we needed to stop and rest .... looked at my gps track and seen we were headed in the right direction, we battled on and finally came to an opening where we knew where we were, we both had huge smiles on our faces and headed for the cabin to warm up and thaw out our helmets for the ride down and let the girls know we were okay. we got to the cabin at 8:30pm.... took us 6 hrs to get out of that situation.
Things we learnt :
1- thank fully we always pack everything we need
2 - NEVER go some where you are unsure of even if you see tracks and lots of tempting fresh
3 - have communications always
4 - have the balls enough to admit to your riding buddies you fawked up and this is way past your riding ability
5 - remember to use all your tools in your toolbox
6 - **** HAPPENS -- stay calm and think through it
7 - thankful we both had turboed equipment or we would have had no choice but to call for help
sorry this was long winded, but maybe there is a couple things someone else can learn from this !!!
