The Rockies are a force you don't mess with. I've heard that so many times. But I'm a risk taker. I always take risks I can get out of alive, but I can't live my life wrapped in bubbles. I messed up before, fingertips fall here, concussions there: most of my life I spent working hard, playing hard. Who cares.
Today we are driving up to the Cheam and Lady Peak mountains. To get to a parking that will put us very close to a snowy summit, we need to go up a road, so we can put our snowshoes on and go up, and down, in a little less than 6 hours. Starting that mountain from the bottom in snowshoes would be long and hard but since the option of a parking is there, why not.
The first thing we see at the first fork is the name of the two roads. Take a right. Second fork, Take another right. But there's a sign. "Deactivated Road".
Deactivated road? Sure, hell, why not. A thing to note is that a "deactivated road" there meant a snake-like road along a mountain that has the mountain on one side and the cliff on the other, and all of that with an inclination of 35-40 degrees up.
Driving a pretty big SUV, we headed up the road in dry or muddy patches with confidence; good tires, good driver, good attitude. The whole time we have to slow down at those trenches that were dug to let the water flow out of the inside of the road to the cliff on the other side. The thing I didn't understand is where they dug the trenches in the road, there was a bump right before it as if the earth they removed from that hole had to create some kind of a one and a half feet high speed bump, followed by a one feet and a half deep hole. After climbing a few meters in altitude, the road started to be covered in snow. One inch, two inches, six inches, a feet.... No big deal, we still have good tires, and a good driver.
The road looks like this from the side: ====/\__r=======
We got to as far and as high as we could, the road became so steep, so snowed in and so slippery that we had to ditch the truck and put the snowshoes on to get to that parking.
After our uneventful snowshoe trip, for which we spent more time hiking up to the parking than on the mountain itself, filled with beautiful trees and shy foggy mountain views, we came down the mountain and met with some quad bikes. They were spinning and grinding through the mountain, at times almost unable to budge. Not long after we passed them going up, they were going down.
When we finally got to the truck, looking down at the road was an obvious awe and woe. The problem was obvious after we met with 4 more quards and other bikes going up: Those bikes, spinning up their whole way, were compressing the snow into a nice.... mess. While the driver was talking to us about how great the weight of the car is good for going up but a real danger going down, we all felt the truck starting to slide down.
It didn't take 3 seconds we were going at around 30km and hour, on a steep logging, deactivated road, in a 2100kg (4700lbs) vehicle, with the driver trying to compress, break, release, break, release. All those things you do on a flat road ain't working here.
While the front passenger started to hold onto the ceiling handle on top of the door, I was trying to get a hand on my camera: A youtube video in HD of my death, sounds like a good monetized video to me. Scrambling in my pocket, keeping an eye and a half on the road and what was probably happening, the driver said: "Hang on". That coming trench was probably the biggest one we had encounter on the way up, but on the way down in a truck that was going where it may, it was a different story. Holding my breath for a moment, then two, I held the driver seat with my left hand and tried, without success, to take out my camera with my right hand. It's at that moment that the SUV hit the hole and then hit the bump right after it. My body went from sitting position to flying position. We were airborne. Thousands of pounds of metal, airborn in a narrow, winding road with a mountain on one side and a cliff, trees and death on the other. Sitting in the back seat made it look like time, space continuum and gravity stopped working for a second, but even before I could realize how high my ass flew off that seat, the next thing on my mind was that next tight right turn, waiting, just a few feet from where we landed, and that cliff following it, that god damn cliff.
The cliff consist of a close to 75 degrees drop, populated by medium sized trees. The SUV would break those trees like twigs and we'd be a pile of mess at the bottom, something like 300 meters below.
As we landed, the back of the SUV sprung back in the air for a second and the driver did the exact manoeuver that needed to be done so right after the landing, we would be skidding in the curve, just like in a video game, but in real life. With the breaks full on, we were drifting with our left side towards the cliff, and I was sitting right there, at the right place to be the first one to encounter those trees, and that drop. At the last moment, while the breaks were locked, 20 feet from that cliff, drifting on our left side, the driver presses the gas, gotta love locked differentials, and great driving skills. The left rear tire drifted less than a feet along the cliff and with the over compensation to the left right after the curve, we started drifting on the right and came to a stop, facing the oblivion of the cliff, diagonally, stopped. I took a deep breath, exhaled deeply and said the only thing I had in mind. "Holy shit!".
I can't wait to see where we're going next weekend.
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