Scary moment on I 70 West, Wednesday

[Roo]

So I am headed to Breck for a day of boarding with my friend Nick on Wednesday morning. We went through the Eisenhower tunnel and as usual a few flurries once we get through. I go ahead and lock it into 4H just to be prepared. Roads have a little snow on them but are at least 98% clear in the lanes. I am not speeding and I pass a car right as we go across the bridge over the Blue River and after I get around it I start to go back into the right lane and my rear tires lose traction. We start sliding a little sideways and I get it corrected only to fishtail the opposite way next. (keep in mind each time we are heading straight towards the guardrails) Get it corrected again only to fishtail again the other way. I am expecting the whole time to feel an impact from behind from other cars but it never happens. We fishtail back and forth for what seems like 20 times but we both agree it was probably 6. On the last time we are finally over the bridge and headed towards a much welcomed snow covered median. We dodge a pole by about 6 inches and finally come to a rest in the middle of the median. CRAZY! We both look at each other in total shock at what just happened and much to my surprise my heart isn't even pounding through my chest. The FJ was unscathed and I swear as soon as we stop we look over and there is a wrecker there, we tell him we think we can make it out so he says he will come back and check on us shortly. I locked into 4L and try to go forward and make it a little ways but can't get enough traction to make it back up to the road. I lock the rear diff and that doesn't help either. I put on a-trac and that doesn't do much either. So I decide to back up on the same tracks I made coming into the median and that works. We make it almost back to interstate and then I put in drive and hammer down and make it back up onto the interstate.

It was crazy ride and I believe there was definitley a higher power looking out for us! Very scary and definitely opened my eyes to realize that road conditions aren't always as safe as they look. That bridge must have been covered in ice because like I said before there was very little if any snow on the roads. Be careful out there everyone!

[RockyMtnHigh]

See you should have just gone fishing with me! :lmao:

Seriously, I have been there and they had to use a winch to get the seat out my ass I puckered so hard, except I did hit the guard rail 3 times.

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj234/RockyMtnHigh_2008/Tacoma/IMG_0384.jpg

[Brody]

Glad that you are all alright!

Last time that happened to me, also on I70, I was laughing like crazy (I used to zing cars and trucks around like that just for fun) .... My passenger thought I had completely flipped out. We had just gotten done with climbing about 1,000 feet of very hard frozen waterfalls which was actually exciting, so this was a bit anti climatic....We were driving a Jeep Cherokee with a minor lift and doing about 55. Did the ass swapping routine, then a 360 or two, ended up on the side of the road and I just kept driving out of it...God knows what the folks behind us thought as we really didn't stop moving, just all of the acrobatics, the finale with the 360s, then back on the road again...Cheap entertainment...

I probably wouldn't climb rock or ice if I wasn't just a bit off, so keep that in mind....:D

[Smash]

Yarks!!! Dem bridges can be really slick! I try to avoid changing lanes over them, this reminds me to stay vigilant.

Hey Pete, did you do this after you got back on the road? ROFLMAO

http://cache1.asset-cache.net/xc/80440728.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF8789215ABF3343C02EA5488EB09F453334FB81 5A59FE06256D990D9B39C94790CF73B2E30A760B0D811297

[Brody]

No, actually started laughing when the ass end went whippy....I was still laughing when I punched it back onto the freeway...probably accounting the look of mild consternation on my buddy's face...

[Brad]

I usually laugh as well. Don't know if it is nervous laughter (probably) or just no care for the outcome. I have had a few pucker moments on the race track and on public highways. Most of the public highways are not caused by my out of control driving but someone around me being stupid and almost hitting my vehicle. Now that I have to rover I almost relish someone hitting me, with Pete's badass slider work I doubt I would even notice. :D

Glad your ok Roo! :thumb:

[Mporter]

Happened to me 2 years ago on I-70 just getting on from Colfax (might remember my thread, Cruiser took a Nosedive) and fishtailed towards the left ditch and didn't wanna end up there, so i ended up over corrected and it the guardrail at like 15 bending the right wing (stock bumper) in and cracking the signal light.


But then i got a new one, and it's awesome.....thanks Pete/Sean.

[CR]

Glad you're OK Roo!
We need to hit the slopes soon together.

[Roo]

Thanks everyone! CR, let me know when you can go! Btw, CR do you guys use any liquid mag chloride? I need a little(like less than a cup) for an experiment.

[CR]

Thanks CR! Let me know when you can go! Btw, CR do you guys use any liquid mag chloride? I need a little(like less than a cup) for an experiment.
We sure do! let me know when your coming by next and I'll set you up.
I think march is gonna be the best bet for me for boarding. We're finally moving home next weekend.
Sorry Hijak off.

[Madman#1]

So I am headed to Breck for a day of boarding with my friend Nick on Wednesday morning.
I'm Nick...I was in the car with him. I felt like such a jerk. All I could do while I was puckering my butt checks and bracing for impact was say "Relax, relax, calm down, relax...". I was so scared s***less I probably sounded like the the micromachines man from the 90's!! Amen, Reeese!!! My little bro must have been in the back seat looking out for us because I have NOOOOO idea how we didn't wreck. I had a brief second of solitude when we were barelling towards the median sideways into the snow, but if I wasn't so tense I would have lost bladder and bowel funciton and thrown up when I saw that marker post coming right for me. I thought for sure I was going to get impaled to passenger seat, leaving you with one big Nick-kaabob, but you pulled it off!!! I will have to swallow my pride from my last "near-death" vehicle experience and give you the NASCAR catastropic avoidance award for that driving, even though I was driving and going 120mph in a Nissan Spec V and walked away just having having to replace front/rear bumpers and tires!!!......I still can't believe how calm you stayed...even after!!! The fact that the first thing out your mouth was "I couldn't help wondering if I'd still want to go snowboarding if we wrecked!" hahaha!! I'm just glad we're safe and sound, your wife is okay with things, and that wasn't "it" for anyone!! Good driving, cuz!!!! If I get a good job when I get out the Navy, I know who I'll paying to go to any super driving course with me will be!!! You'll probably be able to show 'em a thing or two about putting an SUV into a perfect horizontal slide at 50+mph WITHOUT throwing it into a death roll!!

[Rob]

I still can't believe how calm you stayed...even after!!!

Must be a Southern thing. ;)

Sounds like nice reactive driving, Reese. :thumb:

[Mporter]

Sounds like a winning rally team right there....excellent driver with a scared sh*tless navigator. Just kidding haha.

[Cr33p3r]

Roo, glad all ended ok for you guys.

[Hypoid]

I'm glad you guys are OK!

I am not speeding and I pass a car right as we go across the bridge over the Blue River and after I get around it I start to go back into the right lane and my rear tires lose traction.Any roadway surface that has air under it, will freeze first. If there is moisture present, it will freeze to that surface as well.

I remember hearing that in Driver's Ed. That lesson was brought back to me a few years later, when I slid off the highway and down an embankment. I haven't forgot it since.

[Brody]

A number of years ago, some buddies of mine and I decided we would do a new climb in the Black Canyon, an area reknown for having some rather serious routes. We got there no problem and headed down the notorious SOB gully to get to the bottom of the climb, fixing a 'junk' rope on one of the rappels needed to get down the gully. We started up the climb, only to get nailed by a nasty snow storm when we were about 800' up the route we were doing. We ended up on this one ledge where we had installed a one bolt anchor to back up some rather sketchy removable protection and were clipped off, about 400' up the route. The 'ledge' we were all standing on, about a foot wide and 3-4 feet long, decided to remove itself from the main cliff face, leaving us all hanging from the one bolt and shitty pro, looking at the gully floor 400' below our dangling feet. This was 3 people, plus two haul bags as we were planning on doing a multi day climb. Needless to say, this got our full attention and we very quickly got out the bolt kit and slammed in another bolt. After we managed to get safely back down on the valley floor, avoiding becoming statistics once again, we located a dry cave under some boulders and spent the night there.

In the morning we packed our huge mess of gear up and started the thrash back up SOB gully, a nasty piece of business even when dry, but made crappier by the snow. We finally get to where we fixed our rope, got the ascenders out and, one at a time started up the fixed rope. The first guy up was Gregg, and Brian and I were hanging around the base of the short cliff the rope was fixed on, about 100' high. As Gregg was ascending the rope, we kept hearing this weird squeaking sound, which we thought was some sort of strange animal disturbed by the humans. All of a sudden Gregg drops about 6' and shouts. We look up, and here is this 400 pound boulder heading down towards where we were standing on the ground! Gregg tucks himself as close as he can into the cliff face and Brian and I jump towards the base of the cliff, covering our heads...like that would have done anything. The rock misses Gregg by about 18", barely misses me and Brian, crunches a camera and a coiled rope we had on the ground about 4' away, bounces over our haul bags, and rockets downhill.

What had happened was the rope had blown around this boulder at the top of the cliff and Gregg's weight, coupled with his movements ascending the rope, had become dislodged, all of which we couldn't see from our position at the bottom of the cliff. Well, after this little moment of additional drama, we got our **** together once again, Gregg finishes ascending the rope and Brian and I quickly follow. We then loaded all of our gear back onto our backs and dragged our weary asses all the way back up to the rim of the canyon.

After a trudge back to the car, now carrying gear that had gained a mess of weight from being soaked (I didn't mention the fact that it was still snowing, did I?), we finally made it back to the car, Gregg's hot little 280Z, granted not the ideal car for 3 climbers and 200++ pounds of gear, but what we had running at the time. We brewed some coffee for the drive, changed into some slightly drier clothes, loaded the car back up and started the drive back home on really icy and snow packed roads. Gregg, who was rather fond of driving fast, was, well....driving fast... too fast for the conditions, but we were all used to his driving and didn't pay too much attention to it. He passes a semi and as soon as we were just past the front end of the semi, loses control of the Z. The ass end goes one way, then the other, then back, then back again, finally throwing us into a couple of 360s. We had the back end off the road three different times and finally came to rest on the shoulder of the road with the front of the car up in the air and the ass end down into a ditch. The semi driver blew by us , angrily honking his horn. I am sure he was thinking "Stupid assholes....they get what they deserve...".

Anyway, there we all were, right in the middle of what amounted to a ground blizzard, looking at nothing but the hood of the car and the sky, coffee everywhere, slightly stunned, especially after the drama of the last 24 hours and seeing the front end of the semi up close and personal as we were doing our car acrobatics....At this point, I said to Gregg very calmly in the dead quiet, "Hey Gregg, don't you think that we have had enough adventure in the last day or so? You really didn't have to do that last bit of driving just to amuse me and Brian..." We all start laughing like fools, twist up another one, and spend about 3 hours freezing out butts off getting the car back on the road, finally arriving back in Denver town safe and sound...

Just another climbing adventure....Icy roads suck...

[Funrover]

Glad nothing worse happened.