On March 10th around 10:30 p.m. we got a recovery request from Paige whose truck was stuck on Goat mountain. Alan and myself went and picked her up and then proceeded to go up the trail.
On our way up I had a great opportunity to chat with Paige about how she got stuck and why it happened. It seems that in her desire to go exploring and pushing her limits with her rig she wanted to go up the trail to the tower. She was having a hard time going up the hill due to the conditions so she went into reverse and accidentally backed into the side of the road which had a deeper snow bank and got stuck.
The recovery was simple. A single snatch block to get her out and away from the tree that she was next to was all that was needed so she could reverse under her own power. With a friend, traction boards, or even a winch would have allowed her to get out without needing to call us for help.
The lesson here is that most of us want to push the envelope and see what we can really do with our rigs but we always have to keep in mind how to stay safe and make sure we always give ourselves a way out.
By Henry Wu
