Offroad recovery near Little Kachess Lake

On Thursday, January 9th, 2025, at 2:32 p.m. (PT), we received a request for help with an offroad recovery near Little Kachess Lake in Washington. The requester, Tristan Maxwell, submitted the following information: “EAST KACHESS ROAD 4818. It’s approximately 3 or 4 Miles in. 47.28427, -121.19668 slid on the snow, about 2 to 2.5 feet in some places, into a ditch. Buddy tried to pull me out, but he slipped into the same ditch. Currently stuck and need help! Two 3rd gen Toyota 4Runners. One on 33s and one on 30s. If we can get out, we may be able to continue down the road till we can turn around. / 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 40-mile radius.

Later we learned, they were actually 11 miles north of the location they shared. From the group of contacted volunteers, we had Jeff Zika taking over the request. We also had Benjamin from Worn offering assistance and keeping tabs with us and the volunteer in case we needed extra help or support.

A few days later, we received a note from Jeff about this recovery.

From Jeff

Offroad recovery near Little Kachess Lake: DO NOT snow wheel without a winch and proper recovery gear. These three people were stuck seven miles up a closed, snow-packed road with four feet of snow on the edges. We had to execute nine winch pulls, blew a tire, broke a winch, and even got stuck ourselves—requiring three self-recoveries. Both 4Runners were off the road in the ditch, fortunately on the upslope side.

Getting them out and back into the ruts was one challenge, but since there was no safe turnaround, we had to winch-turn them. We even had to winch-turn ourselves, which led to the blown tire. The snow was wet and slushy on the way in, causing us to get stuck three times, but thankfully, it hardened up after dark.

IMPORTANT: Please double-check your coordinates! The provided location was three miles off. Had we known their actual position, we would have taken a different vehicle and trailered a rock crawler to Easton.

I had my dashcam recording the whole trip—I’ll download, edit, and post the footage tomorrow. I believe the owner took some pictures, and I’ll send those to you.

These three were lucky to have cell service. There was no way they could have self-recovered, and walking out would have meant 8+ miles in deep snow—a potentially very dangerous situation.

We want to thank all members who responded to this call, and especially Jeff, who took the time to get this done. Good job! (offroad recovery near Little Kachess Lake)

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