A late spring storm a few days before the Gettin Off Club snow run ensured we would have an abundance of snow. We had a group of 6 rigs meet in Angels Camp around 9:30 AM. Unfortunately, one additional rig was about 15 minutes late in arriving, so we didn't hook up with him. The main group consisted of 3 Toyota pickups, a 4Runner, a full sized Blazer and a Jeep. We headed east on Hwy. 4, gassed up in Arnold and encountered traces of snow just east of there. There was a decent covering of snow at 5000' at the turnoff to Boards Crossing Road, but we continued up to the Spicer Road SnoPark. Just past the parking lot, the road to Spicer Reservoir was untracked, about 2 feet of fresh dry powder covered the old packed snow on top of the pavement and so we aired down and gave it a shot.
A few trucks were getting hung up getting over the small berm but I I dropped my 33x10.50 BFG/ATs to 10psi and plowed through with some effort. I found that running about 72:1 gear ratio at about 3-4000 RPM was the best gear for the day. It was low enough to get going in the deep stuff but allowed me to maintain wheel speed and carry a bit of momentum to bash through the snow that would ultimately pile up in front of the truck.
Once I rounded the shady turn and got into a sunny, more exposed area, the snow firmed up a bit. You can see in the picture below, I was plowing through snow well over the top of my bumper. If you look closely in front of my truck, you'll see a faint "bow wave" of snow, while driving through the deeper sections, it looked just like a boat in the water, snow billowing up over the hood and past the doors on each side. In fact in one spot, I could barely open the driver's side door, due to the snow packing around it.
Here, the snow was only half-way up my 33" tires. The axle was leaving a perfect impression as it was dragged over the fresh snow.
Here, Leonel is catching up to me, following my tracks.
After breaking trail for about 2-1/2 miles down Spicer Road, we got to a steeper section with some off-camber turns.
For some reason, as we descended, the snow was getting deeper. Got to one spot and I eneded up buried to the tail lights in deep snow. I had to dig out the driver's side door to get out! It was easily over my 33" tires and in spots probably 4-5 feet deep. I was trying to find a flat, wide spot to turn around in, but got stuck a few hundred feet short of one. So, I used my winch to get turned around by winching forward (and the slope) to one tree, backing down hill while turning and then winching up to another tree. Took 3-4 pulls to get turned around.
I pulled off to the side and let Leonel pass and try to turn around. While maneuvering to turn around, his starter began to act up. We finally diagnosed the problem and found a short test jumper worked to get power to the solenoid to get the engine started. While the starting problems were getting fixed, I aired my tires down to about 7 psi and threw on a set of Z-cable chains on the back wheels.
BTW: This was the first time using these chains and I am impressed. The Z-design eliminates the gaps in coverage that you get with a standard chain, and the two inside and one outside clips makes them easy to install. I was buried to the hubs in snow and was able to install the chains without moving the vehicle. I just shoveled out around the tires, slipped the chains over, hooked up the clips and the outer tensioners and was ready to roll.
With this setup, I was able to climb the hill and turn around with ease. I had to do both a few times to try and pull the two other trucks up the hill and finally wound up winching them up. I would pull off the tracks to the high side, burying my truck in the soft snow to the side and then use that as an anchor to hold myself still. The remainder of the group was a few hundred yards up the trail and had managed to get turned around themselves. One rig lost a bead on his 16.5" wheels while being pulled sideways to get turned. Once everyone was up the steep section, it was about a 20 minute drive back up our tracks to the pavement. It took us about 4 hours to get down the road, 4 hours to turn around in contrast.
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