Bronco lost traction on the snow

Thursday, January 23rd, 2025, at 2:52 a.m. (MT), we received a request for help with an offroad recovery in Montana. The requester, Jeff Slininger, submitted the following information: “Ford Bronco, lost traction on the snow. I am stranded roughly 20 miles southeast of Glendive, MT off of CR114. It is a remote area. Best directions to me are to come in from Glendive. Go south towards Colgate, and about a mile before CR 114 will be a left turn. CC 114 is not marked until after you enter the road. My tracks are probably the most recent, but it has snowed/drifted since I entered last night. / I’m with the vehicle”

Our administrator, Al Fontan, contacted the requester and verified the contact information provided, GPS location, and current situation before sending the request to local volunteers. In this particular recovery, we contacted volunteers within a 190-mile radius.

In this particular area, we had few volunteers, and even though most folks were hours away, we had an amazing network of volunteers looking for ways to help.

We first suggested Jeff try and deflate the tires to regain traction. When that failed, we had Zachary Caron willing to help, even though he was 3 hours away.

But before tapping into the last resource of having volunteers drive for hours, we started looking for local help in a town nearby. We found one towing company that offered offroad recoveries. We shared the contact information with Jeff and immediately he called. They network him with a local who was able to help.

So not all recoveries are performed by our volunteers, when it makes sense, we try network with local services. This was one of those times.

We still want to thank all those volunteers who help us look for help nearby and followed the progress all the way to the end. Thanks guys.

If you live in Montana and want to join our volunteers to receive a text message when we get a request near you, create your account here: offroadportal.org/signup