jhackathorne
Well-Known Member
No damage to me or a Jeep, but we ran into a similar situation on Mt. Princeton outside Buena Vista, CO. It really is not a difficult trail at all. We had a Chevy Suburban coming at us so we pulled over to let him by and he went towards the edge for some reason despite having about 4 ft. between us and the side of the mountain. Front passenger tire went right into a 2'+ deep hole. I am convinced if I had not stopped him, he would have rolled 100's of feet down the side of that mountain trying to get himself unstuck. I held onto his bumper while he got out. The wife was too freaked out to let me try and help recover him. He waited 3 hours for a truck to show up and help him out.A buddy flipped his 2015 Rubicon the first day he took it off-road; one week after taking delivery of it.
He owned a Subaru WRX before. This is his first time off-roading. We are on Cleghorn mountain; his two kids, 7 and 5, are in the back seat. As we are airing down at the trailhead, I tell him to refrain from backing up on the trail.
We go on the trail; he follows behind. About an hour into it we come across a side-by-side going the other way. I pull over to the right as close as I can to the edge to let them pass. I am looking at the couple inside the side-by-side; they are staring in the direction of my buddy’s Jeep when I see their eyes pop out of their sockets! I check my rearview and don’t see my buddy’s Jeep any more. I think “Oh f*ck. They rolled down the side of the mountain!”
I jump out and find his Jeep flipped sideways, resting on the driver’s side.
Instead of pulling to the right, he though “it would be nice” to give them more room and back up. He forgot that we had just cleared a 3-ft deep trench and backed right into it!
The kids are screaming at the top of their lungs. He removes the Freedom panels and hands me the two kids. He then crawls out.
The Jeep is wedged in, with the rear axle against one edge of the trench and the driver door against the other. We try to figure out what to do. “Can you pull me out?” he asks. “No. It is going to have to come out under his own power.” I reply. He looks skeptical. He says “Okay, you drive it” I decline but propose to stabilize the Jeep by pulling on the passenger-side front tow hook with my winch so that he can climb back inside.
Once back inside, I tell him to engage the front and rear lockers, to turn the wheels all the way to the driver side and give it a go. The Jeep climbs out of the hole on the first try!
He stops the Jeep and gets out to assess the damage. The driver side mirror is broken and the door is slightly dented. That’s it.
After several minutes everyone climbs back in and we continue on to the other end of the trail. We air up and go home.
On Monday we tell the story at the office. Well, maybe I tell the story at the office.... Either way, he gets teased to no end. But he is mighty impressed that he could drive home with only a broken mirror after flipping the Jeep on its side.
I got him one of those “If you can read this, flip me over” stickers.
It took the kids a couple of years to go off-roading with their dad again. He still owns that Jeep, and the sticker is still on it.
Sponsored