Polar Mesa "Recovery" of Some Gladiators

They didn't need rescuing, but they were lost and low and low on confidence and in the dark, so they did the right thing.

... And a Rubicon Alumiknuckle repiar.

Man! Rory's skills are enviable.

I had to go watch on YouTube because for some reason the Forum is awful glitchy. Is anyone else having a problem with the forum since the Tacoma video ads showed up?

Summitsearcher said:

I had to go watch on YouTube because for some reason the Forum is awful glitchy. Is anyone else having a problem with the forum since the Tacoma video ads showed up?

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Tacomas break everything

Lunentucker said:

Tacomas break everything

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James H said:

Man! Rory's skills are enviable.

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He can do more in the wilderness than many can do in a full garage.
He has no idea.
They could build 2 rigs a year and make $100k extra, and still do the rest.
Hell, I'd pay him $300 just to let me ride along on one outing.

Lunentucker said:

They didn't need rescuing, but they were lost and low and low on confidence and in the dark, so they did the right thing.

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That area can get crazy snow. Last year I had to turn around trying to get from Grand Junction to Moab through the LaSal’s. It can go from 2’ to 10’ in 10 yards. But, they weren’t stuck, and just needed an expensive Uber driver

Solar Sparky said:

That area can get crazy snow. Last year I had to turn around trying to get from Grand Junction to Moab through the LaSal’s. It can go from 2’ to 10’ in 10 yards. But, they weren’t stuck, and just needed an expensive Uber driver

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I went that way last year. Saw one truck the whole way. Was an awesome drive. I was heading the opposite direction from Moab. I had to stop on the decent to put it in 4lo to keep from cooking brakes. We went a little south and ended on 141. There's some remote country there and I wouldn't want to travel alone that way in a winter storm for sure.

I've been up in the La Sal's after Easter and it's STILL jammed with snow and pretty deep.... Glad they got out (fairly) unscathed.

Do not attempt the route these people took (Thompson Canyon/Polar Mesa) for at least several weeks. The snowpack in the LaSals is currently at about 300% of average with more on the way. As Rory said in the video, the group did not want to turn around because they thought they could not get back up a muddy hill they came down on the way in. The route forward was absolutely impassable...yet they continued. They had been winching the lead vehicle forward through the snow with multiple resets, with the other 2 vehicles following in its tracks.

They were still 6 miles from the plowed Castleton-Gateway road with 6-foot deep snow covering miles of the road ahead and much deeper drifts. If they were not hopelessly stuck yet, they soon would have been. It took Search and Rescue about 8 hours to get them out...in a blinding snowstorm.

The takeaway: Don't go down something you cannot get back up if it is the only way out. And check road conditions locally. In my opinion, Wells erred in changing the description of this trail in the most recent edition of his Moab trail guide. The second edition said "The road is sometimes impassable." The third edition states: "Lingering snow in the spring and wet conditions can increase difficulty."