This past weekend was the annual Shaver Lake Snow Run where the guys from NCLR and SCLR meet up in the mountains northeast of Fresno and attempt to get to the top of Bald Mountain. I say attempt because some years the snow is so deep we cant even actually make it to the trailhead proper. Of the 9 times this event has been run, the group has only made it to the top 3 times. This year wasn't one of those three fwiw
We had a smaller than usual turnout this year, only about 14 trucks. We split into two groups, with the early group leaving camp at 8am and the later group leaving some time after that, around 9 IIRC. The first group consisted of 6 trucks - one LR3, one D2, one P38, two D1's and one RRC. We made good progress, airing down where Rock Creek Road leaves Dinky Creek Road and making it up to the actual trail head drama free. Once we got on the trail proper progress quickly ground to a halt as we came to our first challenge, an area where the road crossed a stream and the stream had eroded the snow underneath leaving a deep, slick, slushy mess of a water crossing. The RRC gave it a go trying the right, more watery side:
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No dice. He ended up high centered on the far side and needed to winch himself out. After that everyone else tried the line to the left with better results, but no one making it through in one shot, needing to either winch or get a tug with a kinetic rope from the vehicle in front. As we were getting the last couple of trucks through the second group caught up with us. We got our last couple through and proceeded onward, again making good progress until about the halfway point where again we were stymied by snow undercut from the stream running below. The RRC lead the way again, trying to stay high with everything locked (front, rear, center) and got himself wedged into the far end of the hole pretty good:
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Because of the angle that he was wedged in we had to rig a snatch block and do an angled pull to get him back down onto all four before re-rigging and winching him backwards out of the hole. We cut the high bank of sierra cement down about 3 feet and made a shelf for the inner wheel to ride on and keep the truck more level. After doing that he made it through and hit the second undercut about 100 feet further. Again we cut the snow banks back to try and give the truck a better line to straddle the hole with mixed results. He made it pretty far but still got stuck and had to winch himself forward. After clearing his truck we proceeded to get the two D1's and the Grey Whale (LR3) through both of the undercuts using winches and kinetic ropes.
Hole 1
Hole 2
After spending 3 hours getting the 4 trucks through the undercuts and nearing our predetermined turn around time we decided to send the RRC and the D1 behind him to go scope out the trail conditions further down to see if it was worth getting the remaining two trucks through the holes. Over the hill and about 100 yards down the trail the RRC came upon another section of snow undercut by the creek and proceeded to get two wheels in the air again, sliding down the snow and towards a sizable tree.
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At this point we decided it would be best to get him back on all four wheels and to head to a spot to turn around. Winch and manpower were used on this one. I scouted ahead and found a good enough turn around spot about 200 yards down the trail. After a 20 point turn with 33's in the snow we got him heading back the other direction where we tried to tiptoe around the spot where he had just gotten un stuck from. Ended up having to cut the snow bank back to give him room to make it around the undercut and using maxtrax and some judicious use of skinny pedal we were able to get him past the hole with no damage. While we were getting the RRC turned around the rest of the group got the other three trucks turned around through the two holes we had just spent hours getting through. With all four of the trucks through and two trucks from group 2 who had caught up with us we headed back down the trail the way we came. Only problem was that the snow had softened considerably and everyone kept getting bogged down needing a tug here, a winch there or sometimes a little use of both and traction aids to get out of a frame deep hole one had carved themselves when they strayed out of the tracks going up a hill.
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This maxtrax was like the sword in the stone. Everyone looked and said "cant be that hard" and tried to pull it out where everyone before them had failed. After 7 failed attempts we broke out the shovel and dug the remaining 3 feet of maxtrax which had been pushed straight into the snow out..
P38 sideways after he hit a soft spot.
Sunset with rising moon at the end of a long day on the trail.
We finally cleared the trail and got back to the main road around 18:00 where everyone aired up and proceeded to head down to Shaver Lake Pizza in town for the traditional post run pizza. Made it back to camp around 20:00 and proceeded to catch up with the rest of the people from group 2 to hear their tales of the trail for the day. Their group wasn't drama free as it turned out. A bent track rod on another RRC which also had one of it's front ARB bumper recovery points ripped through by a soft shackle, and another RRC which slid down an off camber bit into a tree next to the trail creasing his passenger side fender. All in all, a great trip. Cant wait to do it again next year.
