Photos: EWA New Years Run at Ahtanum State Forest

2010 New Years Run at Ahtanum State Forest
Hosted by Eastern Washington Adventures
Report by Clay Graham. Photos by Clay Graham / Eastern Washington Adventures

On Friday January 1st, 2010 we met up at the Cowiche Mill Ahtanum State Forest entrance for our annual New Years Run.

Airing down.

We headed up Cowiche Mill Road and turned up C1300.

Turning onto C1304 Nevada had to stop to adjust his carb.

Rollerbear high on gas fumes from Nevada’s rig. LOL

I should of had a V8! Nevada does.

We moved on up onto Hatton Rd to regroup.
Some were having traction problems on the C1300 climbing since they had to stop on a hill climb.

Once everyone was up on Hatton Rd we headed on.

Up the road the snow did not pack as well and the powder was challenging to break trail through.
Here I am stuck and waiting for a tall tire Toyota to pull me out.

You can see how soft the snow was by watching Nevada’s tires.

After I got pulled out Collin took the lead breaking trail.

At this point Collin wasn’t sure where the trail was. We walk it and decided a tall locked rig should try to push up and through the big drift. We sent Havo in.

Havo slid off the trail.

Havo trying to get back on the trail.

I walked back down to the Tweety Jeep to see if I could help Havo get his rig back on the trail.

I winched the back of Havo’s truck onto the trail a few times but the ruts kept pulling the rig off.

I took the lead and was able to make it through. Around the corner the drift got real soft and I got stuck.

Collin coming to pull my rig back.

A few pics to show the soft snow.

Collin pulled me back and then I was able to go forward breaking through the snow.

Up the trail others came around me to break trail. I got stuck switching lanes. Test Dummy came to pull me out with my Sami.

Well that did not work and we had both rigs stuck. A little shoveling and we both drove out.

We flew up the trail to where the lead rigs were. The tracks in the snow were real deep and it was like being on a roller coaster track.

Here some of the rigs are turning around to go help some others up the trail.

Tiny buried it.

On up the trail waiting for others.

Moving on.

Blindpilot had been running tail gunner and wanted to lead for a challenge. Here he is going around me.

Blindpilot buried it as soon as he got into the lead.

Tiny came to pull Blindpilot out.

Havo broke trail as Blindpilot was being pulled out.

Moving again.

Things at this point started to get hairy.

I do not like off camber when there is a big drop off.

Five rigs made it through the off camber section and were getting close to Jumpoff Lookout when we heard TJ40 on the CB.
TJ40 said the back of his Jeep slid off in the off camber section.

Blindpilot got stuck.

We turned around to go back after Blindpilot got unstuck.

TJ40 tried to winch from a tree to get back onto the trail. The tree flexed and that caused an avalanche. The group shoveled a new path.

The path was made but TJ40 kept sliding off as he tried to back down the trail.
The five rigs on the west side of the problem area backed up to give TJ40 a safe place to turn around.

Here we are coming across the problem area.

TJ40 slid off the trail again and we waited for him to get going again. It was a little scary waiting in the avalanche area but to hairy to back up.

Once we all made it through the problem area we back tracked back down to the parking area to air up and part ways.

This was a very fun run thanks to all who came.