Bald Mountain Run - UPDATED w/PICS and VIDEOS!

[freds40]

Hollywood is okay, it's mainly the length of the hill that is a little un nerving. Posi and v- rock might be fun since they won't have a ton of rocks stacked yet. Wish I could make it but I'll be pounding away in the garage to hopefully make the next trip.

[BigMike]

Hey Brenden-

I've been to Hollywood hill one time and I think I was about 12 yrs old. I remember it being a very steep granite slab and near the top there is a slight left turn with a rock ledge which is even steeper + off camber. I hate side hills (for now) and I don't have a roll cage so I don't know about that one-

Tim (TURBO) knows the area really well. He started naming off all kinds of places that I've never heard of, so he is gonna give us the round tour. He makes the Poker Runs or whatever, moonlight madness or something -- events every year.

We will go again sometime in early July I think.. Probably right before I tear my truck apart I will make another trip so I can get an idea of what my truck feels like now so I can compare it to its revolution I've got planned for it.

I'll take lots of pics

[BigMike]

I was looking for some pictures on the net and here's a pic I just found of V-Rock:


Can't wait! But I am afraid there might be too much snow, but I have no idea.

[freds40]

That pic must be from early in the season as there really are no big holes @ the base iof the rocks, makes it more interesting. I'm not sure on the snow up there, I saw on the news that the Summit is still open and they are only skiing the top half of the hill because the lower half is all dirt. Who knows what you guys will run into? 

[freds40]

I remember last year when we did the Rebel Snow Run, the guy from Hanford with the fullsize chevy running duals all the way around (yeah 8 tires) just about launched off the top of V-Rock with about 3 feet of snow on the ground.    (best Kip voice on) It was prety sweet Napoleon (best Kip voice off)

[freds40]

Soooo. tell me how crappy the conditions were and that I didn't miss a darn thing. 

[reaceracer]

Well the conditions were pretty crapy. The trail was kinda tuff because of all the snow. But that is what makes it fun. You know what i mean. Everything went smooth, even after i almost rolled it the first 10 minutes. But after that it was all cool.Thanks everybody. It was a tight trip.

[BigMike]

Hey guys-

Here is the report and pics from the trip that you've been waiting for

It was a perfect day to wheel, not to cold and just breezy enough to not be hot. Perfect blue sky, with clouds coming in later in the day.
7 Rigs showed up and we all have fun-

reaceracer in his White '83
Kyle in his Nissan Pathfinder V6 auto with factory rear locker
Zack in a fullsize Ford extracab Turbo Diesel truck
Ferg in his '80 frame/extra cab 2nd gen body
Mike in a 3rd gen shortbed stock yota
TURBO in his white '83 with a flatbed
and myself in my '83

I met TURBO, Ferg, and Mike at the Starbucks and then we met the rest of the group up in Prather. We got to the trailhead around 9:40am.

The conditions were actually pretty good. Patches of snow drifts in the shade and later lots of dry dirt and rock crawling There were alot of other vehicles up there today and we even bumped into gturismo and also the www.4x4him.com club.

[BigMike]

Everyone did better than I thought they would. Zack in the fullsize ford was the only rig who was open/open and as a result he had to turn around just past the trail head and left early He'll get it next time when there's no snow-

Reace did really good too. We've gotta convince him NOT TO SELL his '83 pictured above! He bought a daily driver car and now he's gotta let his yota go

Kyle in the Pathfinder did well also. His tires worked really well for him, but with only 31s, he was dragging diffs a bit and that pretty much limited his day.

There were some steeper longer uphill snow sections before the climb up to where Hollywood hill is, and after working hard at those climbs, the majority of the group had decided to call it a day.

So Everyone except Ferg, TURBO, and myself only got into Hollywood hill.

[BigMike]

TURBO shows up the correct way to conquer V-Rock above Hollywood hill.

TURBO's truck did really well and I was impressed with his tires ability to handle the snow packed sidehills. He's running 34x10.5 Swampers on 15x8 rims. The narrow tires worked really good in the snow.

Everyone in our group was running around 10-20 psi, but TURBO and I were both running 3.5 psi all around. We were both dominating the snow.

I did really well on this trip and by far this is the best my truck has ever done in the snow. The last snow run I did I ran 10psi and what a difference running 6.5 psi less makes! My truck was nearly unstoppable!

[BigMike]

I did V-Rock one time right up the middle straddling the crack, and I did Hollywood hill twice, the first time I tried to go up some really steep rock ledge near the top, but decided to back down from it when I was about half way up it. I will try it again once I put our springs on and stretch my wheelbase a bit more.
The second time I did it was later in the day and in front of an audience of about 15 people I put it into 510:1 and got out of my truck and just let her crawl with no driver One guy was really impressed and recorded the whole thing! It was pretty cool. I guess I've been hanging around Marlin to much

[BigMike]

And that was about it as far as the "smooth" trip went.

[BigMike]

Now what you are all wondering: Did we make it to the Tower?

Well, No. While we were at Hollywood hill playing around, we heard reports over the radio that trucks were on their way back out and that the trail was impassable. TURBO and I thought we should show people how its done so we left the main group and headed out by ourselves.

And actually the trail conditions got really nasty real quick. Sidehill snow drifts nearly claimed my cab three different times by almost sliding into trees. It took me about 20mins just to drive around this one tree because I kept sliding downhill into the tree.

To make a long story short, TURBO and I lost the trail and started driving all over the place. We didn't recognise anything. Then finally TURBO found the trail and we continued on. But trying to turn back onto the trail, TURBO's truck broke into a  raging little creek that was flowing beneath the snow level. When he hit one of the banks, he lost his passengers side tire beed right at this picture:

[BigMike]

Then trying to get out, he slid down completely into the creek and lost his drivers side beed as well.

So there he was basically in a cut-out the size of his vehicle, about 3' deep all around him and no way forward or back, both front beeds off the rims, and a good sized creek flowing beneath his truck.

It was not a good situation to say the least

[BigMike]

To make matters worse, neither of us had a hi-lift jack so I had to radio back to Ferg and have him help us out.

At first I had no radio contact, so I had decided to leave TURBO and follow our tracks back to where we were as we basically had no idea where we were. Sure we found the trail, but we drove all over the place tring to find it..

So back I went, back all of that nasty snow sidehills and such, and I got radio contact with Ferg who had lost a beed himself He got that fixed and then he jumped a Jeep and winched a full size chevy, and then he met up with me to go help save TURBO's So Ferg was definately the hero of the day and I want to say thanks buddy !! You deserve a couple

But even on his way over to help TURBO, Ferg got himself into a couple spots that required some help to get him out-

[BigMike]

After about 30mins of arguing over how we will pull TURBO out we finally got him out and on dry ground. This whole thing took about 1.5 hours including having to go back for help and getting the help back to TURBO.
So this basically ended our hopes of making it to the top.

We might be going back in again in a couple of weeks, and I'll be sure to let you guys know when!

Here are some last photos of TURBO on Hollywood hill.

It was a fun trip and I can't wait to do it again!

BigMike

[RUGER]

sweet bigmike

happy trails
rich *ruger*  

[BigMike]

Also for your viewing pleasure, I took some Video footage of the trip

They are crappy quality but hey, who cares


Kyle working it.mpg (456 kb)
Here Kyle is trying to get up the first climb past the trail head in his V6 Nissan Pathfinder. He made it all the way to Hollywood hill

TURBO using his TURBO Power.mpg (208 kb)
Here TURBO blasts up the same section Kyle was on. Locked front and rear with a 22R-TE Turbo really helps out eh TURBO?

Hollywood Impossible.mpg (1.0 Mb)
Here I am approaching that ultra steep top legde at the top of Hollywood Hill.

Hollywood Impossible Retreat.mpg (456 kb)
Here I am wimping out and backing down the ultra steep top ledge I'll try it again once I stretch my wheelbase a bit.

Top of H.W. Steepness.mpg (480 kb)
And since you can't really see just how freak'n steep this hill is, check out this video. Yes, it is REALLY THAT STEEP! And then I was trying to go over a ledge just to the right of where I am in this video where Tim is standing, which adds even more steepness. This is definately the steepest hill I've ever been on, including all the times I've driven my fathers truck -- The bad thing is if you go over, its a good 150 yards to the bottom. If you roll it here, I bet it would be a minimum of 20 roll overs before you come to a rest.

BigMike Over Hollywood Hill.mpg
Here's another one of me after getting to the top of Hollywood hill. (248 kb)

Ferg getting unstuck.mpg (720 kb)
Here's Ferg having to winch himself out. This is on the way to help out TURBO who is badly stuck with both front beeds off the rims.

TURBO is really stuck, both beeds blown.mpg (688 kb)
Here's just how stuck TURBO was.

TURBO getting in his stuck truck.mpg (312 kb)
Here's some footage of TURBO getting into his rig for comic relief

Ferg can't get TURBOs crippled truck out.mpg (544 kb)
This is another attempt at trying to get TURBO out. After pulling him from the front and the back, we finally moved my truck into position and we pulled him along the creek bed and out onto flat ground where we reseated his front tires.

[Angelo]

Hey Mike

Looks like you had a good time,  We wont let you down next time, no ifs, ands, or buts we'll be there

Ang    

[BigMike]

Whoops, I forgot the last video I have.

This is me finishing up V-Rock. The camera was set with wwaayy to much exposure so put on some sun glasses or something:
BigMike Over V-Rock.mpg (768 kb)

[BigMike]

Hey Mike

Looks like you had a good time,   We wont let you down next time, no ifs, ands, or buts we'll be there

Ang     

Yup Angelo, you guys would have done just as well as Ferg, Tim, and I, if not better. Next time we will hit the Tower for sure

[gonzo]

Looks like you guys had fun.  Thanks for showing the video

[ozzy93xtra]

S U W EET

[reaceracer]

dude sweet pics. I thought you got a pic of my near death experience.haha. Well keep in touch.

[LA_Fred]

Awesome Trip! Looks like you guys had a blast. Hey BigMike, what were you using to shoot the video?
   

[blackdiamond]

Looks like great fun!

[BigMike]

Hey BigMike, what were you using to shoot the video?

They are just from my dinosaur digital camera, Sony Mavica MVC-FD92. Max res for still pictures is 1472x1104, and max res. for the videos is 320x240 (up to 30 secs) or 160x112 (up to 60 secs).

I really like having the videos, it gives a better idea of what was going on