I want to give a big shout out to David, Jake, Drew, Brad, Wyatt, Heath, Tony, Dave, Dustin and whoever else I missed that came to help get us out.
It start as an easy spring ride. The fresh snow was very spotty. In some place there was over a foot, other places just a couple inches. We were riding up above Training Camp and were headed to the trees above Griffin. It was slightly foggy and I was following the youngest worn out brother. Billy the Kid. We got to the drift on the ridge which seemed rather large. So I decided to drop into the drainage. I started down the hill and thought to myself I don’t remember this being so chute like in the past. I got to the first waterfall and stopped at the bottom of it to radio Billy the Kid.
“There is a road at the bottom right?” “Yep” was bills reply. “ Oh I hit a tree about 200 feet down and it is going to be awhile until I am out.”
So I headed down the drainage over what must have been 5 more waterfalls radioing back multiple times to get confirmation I was on the right track. I have only been riding here for 20 years, Billy grew up in these mountains. Until I finally got to a box canyon with open water in the creek. At this elevation the snow was icy mashed potatoes with 4 inches of fluff on top to make a magic carpet for the alpha to slide on.
I again radioed Bill and Jacob at the top of the hill. ‘’Billy there is not a road down here”.
Bill “Rob you just have to go west”
Rob “That doesn’t look very promising.”
I tried to go back up the drainage which was much steeper then I remembered. At the first waterfall I performed my first bowtie and it didn’t turn out well. That was the first time I tried to kill myself.
I went back to the bottom and tried my first attempt at going east. I got about 500 feet up the ridge and ran into a bunch of trees that were not easily maneuvered in these conditions. Billy once again reminded me I was going the worng way. So I headed back to the bottom. I was sliding out of control and ended up putting the sled on its side. When I got it stopped it was nose up the hill and I was underneath the sled.
I scouted the path to the west and made an attempt which ended poorly too. Densely treed, I had to manhandle my sled around to get it headed back towards the bottom.
I was ready to give up.
It was at this time I got the amazing call from Billy. He had got his sled out and looked down the drainage, that was when he realized we were in a bad situation. We were in the wrong canyon and we needed to call for help.
I think my was response was “no ****”.
He had cell reception and I didn’t. So he was making the calls. Including the call to my wife.
At this point I was preparing to stay on the mountain. I had enough left in me for one more attempt at the east ridge. I took a different route this time. I made it past my first attempt taking a tree to the eyes with out my goggles on missing the eyeball by a quarter inch. I then hit a soft spot an wheelied the sled over on top of myself. I got everything righted again with blood running down my face. I once again headed up the ridge where I ran into a wall of trees. When I tried to stop I ended sliding backwards under the snowmobile throttle pinned wide open.
I was done. It was about 2:30 to 3pm. To my surprise I now had cell reception. I called Jacob and told him that I was building a fire because I was preparing to stay the night. I then called my wife who was headed to the mountain. She was frantic and pissed. Then I made a call to Jake. He later told me he knew it was bad. He had never heard that tone of voice from me before.
By about 4pm I heard the roar of the amazing snowbikes and then Brads voice on the radio. They found Jacob and Bill right away. They made the call to find me first since my location was unknown. About 20 minutes later they found me. We planned to walk my sled across a clear cut that was steep and slippery to the next drainage where they knew I could get out. The alpha fought us every step of the way. It was not alpha conditions down low. Brad pulled a ski and Heath and Wyatt kept the back of the sled from sliding into trees below.
Once we go to the drainage I was again beat. I made my first attempt which ended with arm pump that pinned the throttle to the bar, I hit a drift and then a buried stick which instantly threw me over the handlebars. Heath helped me get righted. It was then I crested the ridge into the drainage I was supposed to be in the entire time. The sun was shining the trees were covered in snow. It was magical. I called my wife to let her know.
It was then time to go back to where it all started to get Jacob and Billy the kid. They had cut a road out with shovels. They were getting ready to make there first attempt. Jacob made it the corner where he got stuck. A team of men proceeded to pull him to the top. I was feeling better so I went down and rode Billy’s sled out for him on the highway they had created.
We took 10 minutes to catch our breath, reflect on what just had happened and took in the sunset.
Morale of the story is that snowbikes are awesome. (Still probably not going to buy one)
The people that came to help us are true friends and great people!
My best guess was that i was 1800 vertical feet under Billy and Jacob when I could go no further.
The yellow line was my initial line down.
The red line was my second attempt at the east ridge.
The blue line is route that we took out.
