Stranded on Imogene Pass for 3-Days

The following story provides proof that what we have written about high country weather being very dangerous.  You really never know when a deluge of cold rain will come down and fill all dry washes and streams.  

Snow storms in late spring or early in the fall can shut down many of the roads and trails we drive in the summer.  If you happen to be in the wrong place, you may become part of the white landscape as happened in the story below.

When we tell you to "Go Prepared", it comes from many years of high mountain experience.  PLEASE take this advice extremely seriously.  Your life may depend on it!!

From the PostIndependent

Serving Glenwood Springs and Garfield County, CO

Floridians stranded for three days on Imogene Pass

September 14, 2003

Heather McGregor
GSPI Managing Editor

In late August, part-time Glenwood Springs residents Don and Nan Seaton took a fun trip in their Land Rover over Ophir and Imogene passes in the San Juan Mountains.

So when their son and Danish daughter-in-law, Daryl and Jane Seaton, came for a visit from Florida last week, Don and Nan encouraged them to take the same excursion.

Caught by a massive cold front and snowstorm that pummeled all of western Colorado, Daryl and Jane spent three days and two nights trapped just below the 13,120-foot summit of Imogene Pass between Telluride and Ouray.

A rescue helicopter pulled them from the mountain midday Thursday and flew them down to Telluride, where Don and Nan were waiting.

“It’s kind of amazing what you can accomplish when you have to,” Daryl Seaton said Saturday, speaking by cell phone while waiting at Denver International Airport to catch a flight back to Florida. “You just look back and go, `Wow.'”

For his mom, the waiting without knowing was the hardest part.

“You want to help, but you can’t,” said Nan Seaton, who had high praise for the search and rescue crews and sheriff’s offices in Telluride and Ouray.

Don and Nan are former owners of the Caravan Inn in Glenwood Springs. They now own the four Sea Wake Resorts on the Gulf coast of Florida and divide their time between Glenwood Springs and Florida. Daryl and Jane, married 23 years, live at Oldsmar, Fla., and manage one of the resorts.

Nan said Daryl and Jane (pronounced ya-NAY) drove to Ouray and then over Ophir Pass to Telluride on Monday, Sept. 8. They called from Telluride Tuesday morning, and said they’d call again when they got down to Ouray that afternoon.

“Then we never heard from them,” Nan said. “So about 7 p.m., we called the sheriff’s offices in Ouray and Telluride.”

A search and rescue crew set out from Ouray that evening, but couldn’t even get halfway up the pass because of blowing and drifting snow. Searchers tried again on Wednesday, coming from both side of the pass. They got very close but couldn’t find the car in the raging blizzard.

Meanwhile, Daryl, 43, and Jane, 42, huddled in the Land Rover, a soft-topped 1994 Defender 90 model. Luckily, Nan had stocked the car with blankets, boots, down jackets and hot packs, and Daryl and Jane were wearing wool clothing.

While they were driving up the pass on Tuesday, it started to sprinkle snow. They drove over the summit and got about four minutes down the east side before getting blasted by the storm.

“It was a total white-out, winds blowing 50 to 60 mph,” Daryl said. “I got out and tried to guide the car down the road, when it slid down the hill. That was it. We were done. We were going to wait for them to come get us.”

The couple stuffed underwear and paper towels into the cracks of the soft top and settled in for the night, thinking they would be rescued the next day.

“I can’t explain how bad it was,” Daryl said. “It sounded like a freight train. It would go dead calm for about 30 seconds, then you could hear it coming like a train and it would hit us.”

High winds rocked the car, and they worried that it would be blown off the road. In fact, blowing snow packed in around the Land Rover, but it shook with every gust, he said.

Don and Nan headed over to Ouray Wednesday morning, and hung out at the Ouray County Sheriff’s Office while search and rescue crews made their second attempt at finding the stranded couple.

“I cannot tell you how good they were,” Nan said. “They kept us informed. They said, `Good or bad, we’re going to tell you everything.'”

On the mountain, Daryl and Jane realized their rescue would take longer.

“It never cleared up. It was a grueling day, mentally. The gusts of wind never stopped, and we knew they weren’t coming,” he said.

From the sheriff’s office, Don and Nan could hear about the rough weather conditions searchers were dealing with: high winds, deep snow and visibility of no more than 10 feet. The searchers gave up, and planned to try again Thursday.

On Thursday morning, with the temperature in the Land Rover hovering at 18 degrees, Daryl saw an opening in the storm. But his cell phone battery was dead.

He first tried to charge it up from the car battery, using turn signal wires from the dashboard. Then he took a close look at the battery, and saw that it was a 3.7-volt type. The car’s 12-volt battery wouldn’t work.

“Then I saw my camera. I had just bought a new battery, and it was a 3-volt.”

Using Band-Aids from his parents’ survival kit, he taped the signal wires onto the two batteries, and the cell phone immediately began to charge up.

“We were pretty excited,” Daryl said.

He waited a half hour for it to charge, put on boots and hiked back up to the summit in hopes of getting a signal.

From the car, Jane heard Daryl say, “Dad! Dad!”

At the Ouray sheriff’s office, Nan heard her husband’s cell phone ring. It was Daryl.

Two days of tension and worry dissolved into whoops and tears.

From Telluride, the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office sent a rescue helicopter up to Imogene Pass, while Don and Nan drove around from Ouray.

Because Seaton had a fishing license, there will be no bill for his rescue, said Jennifer Smith, spokeswoman for the San Miguel County sheriff’s office.

Daryl and Jane were taken to the Telluride Medical Center, where Daryl was treated for frostbite and his Jane was treated for exhaustion.

Then the family drove back to Glenwood Springs, where Daryl and Jane recuperated Friday before leaving for Denver Saturday morning. On their way to the airport, they drove through another snowstorm.

The Land Rover is still parked in the snow on Imogene Pass, but the staff at the Glenwood Springs Land Rover Centre is itching for a chance to go retrieve it.

Daryl said San Miguel sheriff’s deputies told him that if the vehicle stays on the pass until next summer, marmots will eat all the soft materials – the soft top, the seats, steering wheel and wires in the engine.

Mvcvccc9iDon is coordinating a plan with the Ouray County Sheriff, Nan said. They think there’s a good chance the weather will lift, and the snow will melt enough to drive the vehicle off the mountain, she said.

“We’ve got to have a break in the weather. But if it’s accessible, we’ll go get it,” said Randy Tuggle, manager of the dealership.

“That vehicle can be driven down on its own. It’s a matter of getting the right equipment up there to make a path, things like snow ladders and tire chains,” he said.

“It’s up to Don and the sheriff’s department,” Tuggle said. “We don’t want to jeopardize anyone’s safety, but the majority of my staff are trained in extreme off-roading and recovery. That’s something the manufacturer does for us. As for volunteers, we are more than willing to attack the task.”

Contact Heather McGregor: 945-8515, ext. 517

hmcgregor@postindependent.com

 

 

High Mountain Driving – part 4

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.

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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.