The snow was deep enough that we were pushing it with our bumpers! Photo: Dean Reed

Doesn't look like much, but the snow was hiding a 6 foot drop to the left. Photo: Dean Reed

I just spent the morning unpacking the Jeep and repairing what I could from yesterday's run. There was at least 2 feet of fresh snow on the Rubicon, and it kept snowing all day. There were just two of us, but we were well set up. Dean's Jeep is a stretched CJ5 with 39.5x15" TSLs - he built it from the frame up (including the frame). Dean's wider tires proved to be a blessing - he ended up cutting trail for a lot of stuff because the tires floated so well. I could break trail on everything but uphill granite - there I just dug down to the icy rock.

We went in through Loon. The road is blocked by snow at the warming hut on the south side, so we locked the hubs and climbed up it. Dean rolled 50 yards in to the trail when he slid down a drift - he couldn't see the ridge in the deep snow. We righted him and kept going. Any semblance of a trail from the previous week was gone. It took us almost an hour to drive the snow-covered road to the spillway, and another 45 minutes to get up on top of the granite slab at the entrance of the trail. We decided to see how far we could get, and made great time through the beginning section on the way to the granite bowl.

Last week we elected not to drop into the bowl because the way out is north facing and covered in snow. This time the whole place was buried. So we went down. At the bottom, we turned right and took a slightly flatter route than usual to the top of the other side - there was no way we were going to attempt the stair steps. We made it to the top and had a bit of food. It was about 2:30 (made it on the trail at noon). We decided to keep going and see what happens.

We made it to the back side of the bowl, down the big step into the trees and about another 100 feet before the first major water pit. There was a 4 foot drop in, and a 5 foot climb out. On Dean's first attempt, it became obvious that last week it was a nightmare too - the tire pits were huge. Dean was able to make it with a bit of grunt and a couple tries. My 38" SXs were just a tad too small to clear the top, and by the third attempt at bumping it had managed to dig a good hole on the top side. That didn't stop me from trying though, and a few attempts later I went up, almost made it, caught the side of the top hole and spun the rear sideways hard enough to break my right rear fender flare. I guess they're brittle when cold. I set my self to winching out.

Dean, meanwhile, was about 20 feet up the trail using his shovel to fill in the low side of a drift. When dry, this area is off camber - one side of the mud path is about 18" higher than the other and the trees are real close. Interesting snow depth gauge - the marks from trucks rubbing their roofs on trees were only about 2 feet out of the snow as we passed through. We went a little further into the big clearing on the back side of Loon, started into the next woods/water section and decided to turn around.

Dean asked me if we should play on the snow there. I said we should probably get closer to the trailhead before stopping to screw around. This turned out to be a good call.

The same water pit that stopped us on the way in was more trouble on the way out - even though the exit bank was smaller. On the way down into it, Deans driver front tire caught the side and pitched him sideways. He ended up crawling out and dragging his winch cable through the water to a tree and wincing out. I dropped in just fine, but something happened on the way out and I got sideways. I tried to get out in as many ways as possible, but only succeeded in burying the rear of the Jeep in the water. I decided to winch. Didn't work. So I pulled the cable as far out as I could for more power and was able to drag the Jeep out of the hole.

It turns out I had ripped the rear driver tire off the rim (both beads) and it was twisted up in the wheel. And buried. I don't know when it came off (funny thing about snow is that you can't hear the rim hit the ground), but it wasn't going back on. I was able to take the cable to a farther tree, and move myself about 10 feet further. Then, a couple of jacks, shovels and an impact wrench later I had my spare on. Got moving again and headed to the granite bowl in good time. It was about 5:00.

I should mention that I didn't bring things like ski pants and my Jeans were getting soaked. I was a bit worried about time, and the possibility of having to spend the night on trail. I had a sleeping bag, but no tent. I did have plenty of tarps, my Jeep and the know-how (and materials) to build a snow cave. But... Dean was only prepped for a day trip. Also - his Jeep has no top, doors or windshield. He was dressed right, but that's it. I knew that one way or another we were going to get off trail.

We dropped into the bowl and decided to not climb out the normal way. There's a path that goes out the bottom of the bowl and drops in near the little pump house at the spillway. So off we went.

One week earlier it was a beautiful day in the Granite Bowl. Photo: Paul Nasvik	This week, it was a winter wonderland. Photo: Dean Reed

I was having a hell of a time, and my winch got a major workout. It took us an hour to get close to the spillway. I must have winched six or seven times in that space and I was starting to get very frustrated. I had a bit of inspiration at one point towards the end of that section and let a bunch of air out of the tire that used to be my spare. Much better. There's a big difference between 10 and 4 psi, even on only one tire.

In this section, Dean also ripped the inner bead of his beadlocked TSLs. They're new, and a couple still leak air. He forgot to add more to this one and pfffft. Once again, a hilift wasn't going to cut it (long travel suspension can be a pain), so I hooked my winch to his roll bar (second time that day) and pulled the other side in the air. My York on-board air got the bead back on.

He took off, turned a corner and started swearing. Two reasons - he lost the power steering belt and... there were big rocks blocking the exit to the trail. We didn't know this, but apparently this was one of the routes the Forest Service asked the Pirates to block. We wouldn't have taken it if we knew it wasn't a real route, but this surprise sucked.

It was 6:30.

He raced to get a steering belt on, and I turned around and started back down the path. At one point I slid sideways down an embankment and put a branch through my upper soft door window. But we just kept going. A few short winch pulls later and we were back in the granite bowl.

Driving up wasn't going to work - we tried. We hooked a strap around a big rock and Dean winched to it. He had my winch cable attached to his rear bumper and it free-spooled out. When he got to the rock, I winched to him. We did this about five times to get to the top of the bowl. It was dark, but we were through the worst of it.

The rest of the way out was fun, but we were in a hurry. Made it back to the pavement around 8:30 and set about getting ready for the drive out. Ice House Rd was under about 5 inches of snow and it was still coming down. Hwy 50 was under chain controls and there were near white-out conditions. Got home around 1:00 am.

So this morning, I emptied the water out of the tire I pulled off and popped the beads back on. There's a huge gash in the tire too - I'm sure from something on my rig. Still good though. I taped the window, and I emptied the Jeep. Even covered in a tarp, both parts/tools boxes were full of water. The winch cable looks bad. I'll re-spool it, but I think it needs to be replaced. Further inspection revealed a broken U-joint and lots of loose suspension parts. Everything was very clean from the snow, though.

If anyone wants to run it this time of year, make sure to take all precautions for winter survival. It wouldn't take much to have to spend the night out there. In spite of the headaches, it was a great trip. I'm glad we made it, as it's a side to the Rubicon you don't get a chance at very often.