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We took a group of 12 riders with rappelling equipment and hardware back to the spot. Matt Jensen, who rides with us and is an avid rock climber, rappelled into the hole and attached straps to the spindles and a rope on a pulley from a ratchet line that was stretched across the hole. With some rigging and other pulleys, we extracted the sled from the hole by hand (scroll down to see a video and a photo gallery of the recovery). Matt estimated the sinkhole to be roughly 115 feet deep based on the rope length.
Surprisingly, the damage to the snowmobile was not as bad as we expected, and had we been able to find the tether, we could have probably started it and rode it out. Luckily, Lonnie’s Mountain Dew was still intact in the bag on his tunnel – a bit shaken, but nice and chilled.
After getting the sled out of the hole, we had to maneuver it about 100 yards to get it up the hill. This was done using pulleys and a rope hooked to the back bumper of a snowmobile that drove downhill to pull the disabled snowmobile uphill. The rope and pulley had to be reattached several times until the sled was at the top. From there, it was towed out along the easiest available route. Because we had a lot of snowmelt last week, we had to take a truck with a sled deck up the road to meet them. They had to come out a way we normally do not take this time of year, but it was the only possible route out.
The crazy part of all of this ordeal is that it happened in an area frequented very often by sledders like us, yet it was the first time anyone had seen the sinkhole that was located in an unusual spot on the side of a steep hill. We guessed that maybe during most winters it gets totally drifted and snowed over, which is why it has not been seen before. Had someone been coming uphill, they would have never seen it until it was too late. Looking from below, over the horizon of the hole, it blends perfectly with the other side, making it look like it is just a part of the hill.
Scary, crazy, amazing stuff, but it made for an unbelievable story and a day on the hill that none of us will ever forget.
Story, photos and video content provided by Ryan Thompson, RLT Photos
VIDEO
PHOTO GALLERY