High Mountain Driving – part 4
By Jerry Smith
Director of
Environmental Affairs for the United Four Wheel Drive Associations
Some of the Hazards
In the mountains, you are
going to encounter a few obstacles and situations that are seldom seen in other
areas.
The Weather
At the higher elevations, the
weather is a very, very, fickle thing.
You may begin your day as a bluebird sunny day with the top down and the
doors off. You’ll be thoroughly enjoying
your day when over the mountain top comes a rain or snowstorm. Unless you’ve experienced a mountain deluge,
you don’t know diddly about how cold rain can be.
Even just a misty rain can
soak you in minutes and you can suffer hypothermia in a very short time if you
don’t find or make shelter and get dry and warm. Find yourself in a soaking rain, and this all
happens even faster.
Then there are the storms that
run inches of water down the road in just a few minutes. Yes, flash floods can happen on the road
surface and can wash away the road right before your eyes.
Figure 1 Flash floods can do enough damage to stop you from
getting to camp.
I have seen 3” to 4” of water
RUSHING down a steep mountain road. Let
me tell you, when you start thinking about the fact that you and that water are
going the same direction, and as you go more water will be joining what’s in
front of you already making washed out roads and bridges a distinct
possibility.
Don’t forget about lightning. It often accompanies these violent
storms. You haven’t seen hell’s fury
until you’ve been through a high-country lightning storm. It is best to stay in your vehicle in one of
these, but it is a very good idea to find something taller than your vehicle to
park under or near (not the only tree for miles). A low gully is good, but don’t get caught in
a flash flood.
Other weather you may
encounter will be thicker than the rain.
Every kind of white precipitation known can occur, sometimes all in one
storm. These storms can happen at ANY
time of year, so foul weather gear is mandatory, not optional. If you happen to be in the wrong place at the
right time, heavy wet snows are common.
High winds can be a problem
too. They come from nowhere and can carry limbs and even trees from the forest
to the road. Usually, these heavy blows
will be brief, but don’t count on that. High
winds and rains can even trigger rockfalls that can be dangerous.
I have driven roads in a
deluge of wind and rain in steep mountains and have seen rocks the size of large
beach balls come tumbling down the mountainside, bounce on the road, and
continue over the roadside. If one were
to hit your vehicle, you could be severely damaged and/or hurt.
Another hazard in that kind of
storm is falling trees. You never know
when a tree will reach its final ability to stand up in high winds. We’ve all seen the damage a falling tree can do. All you can do is be where they don’t fall.
Altitude Sickness
Altitude
sickness is a phenomenon that most people don’t give a thought, yet it is very
real at the altitudes you will find yourself driving in the Colorado high
country.
e
Admittedly, I
have no reason to think this accident happened due to altitude sickness. There is a slight possibility that it may
have had a part though.
Altitude
sickness is a sneaky thing that slowly begins taking away your ability to focus. Then you may have a dull headache that keeps
intensifying. Nausea may accompany the
headache as well. If you allow this to
continue, there is a chance you may pass out.
If you are alone, there is a chance you may die.
If
you are driving, your concentration may begin failing and you could drift off
the road or hit something without knowing how.
About
the only thing you can do is to quickly drop down in altitude significantly. Try to breathe deeper than you normally would. This is difficult to maintain because it is
not normal, and your concentration is compromised.
Altitude
sickness is nothing to ignore. In fact,
you’ve been warned about it now. Pay
attention to what your body is telling you.
Remember, high country roads are unforgiving of small lapses of
concentration.
Soft Road Shoulders
On
steep mountainsides where roads have been cut into the mountain (shelf roads or
dugways), the outside road shoulders are often soft and unstable.
I
often kid people I see who tightly hug the uphill side of the road in narrow
sections as “amateurs” or inexperienced.
Truth be told, they are taking a prudent course for their level of
expertise.
With
over 50-years of mountain driving behind me, I have a bad habit of riding the
outside bank of many mountain roads for the “better view”. I do this with total concentration to the “look”
of the roadside to keep from “finding” that soft place unexpectedly.
If
you pay close attention; it is easy to see potential soft roadsides. When the road is being bladed, the operator
will be pushing whatever loose material out and over the side. This soil will require several very wet
storms or snowmelt to “firm-up” before driving on them will be safe.
I
have learned to “read” the outside bank with nearly 100% accuracy and because I
constantly practice tire tracking of all 4-tires, I will chance the possibility
of hitting a soft shoulder for the closer view of the valleys below.
I do NOT recommend this practice!!! It takes years of experience and a good
knowledge of soil compaction to pull this off.
YOUR
best bet is to stay in the middle of the two-tracks on most roads to be
safe. Being safe on mountain roads
should be your first priority. Few
people will take the time to learn critical tire tracking on Jeep roads. They only want to enjoy a day on the
trail. That is a very good choice.
It
is fairly common for mountain roads to have soft shoulders due to the amount of
rains and snowmelt found in the high country.
As rain and snowmelt accumulate on a road surface, it will increase in
volume and velocity until it finds a place to exit the side of the road. At those points, there is often a “V”-notch
carved into the side of the road. These
“V”-notches are dangerous and should be avoided. The other thing is that they sneak up on you. Many are difficult to see from very far, so
you are surprised by them often.
In
my younger years, I would stop and throw rocks and other stabilizing debris
into the deeper “V”-notches to keep the roadside from excessive erosion. If you catch them before they are too big,
they don’t require too much work. Allow
them to grow and soon the trail will not exist.
When
I reopened the Pace Lake Jeep trail back in 2008, I worked a whole afternoon
filling a 3-foot deep and 3 to 4-foot wide trench of about 75-yards length to
re-establish a passable road base.
Let’s
resume this on part 5.
Happy
Trails.
