Mountaineer Memories

One day, the crew followed a very narrow cat bladed mining road near Ouray, CO for about two miles along some very steep mountain slopes to get in closer to the plot.  After going as far as they could, they walked on in and took the plot.  When they got back to the Jeep, it was obvious, with no turn-around places for two miles, they were going to have to back the jeep out that very narrow road for a long way. 

In order to be careful not to back off the cat track, the driver asked his assistant to get out and observe the outside tire so it would not end up off the road, causing a roll-over down the slope.  This worked fine for about a mile, until the observer, watching the outside tire, failed to notice a big rock in the inside track.  The jeep hit the rock hard enough to bounce the outside tire over onto the slope and the Jeep went into a roll down the slope.  It rolled over about 5 times before a barbed wire fence caught a front wheel and jerked the jeep vertical to the slope, stopping the roll-over. 

One of the added damaging features to this accident occurred because we carried all of our project aerial photos (hundreds of stereo pairs) in file boxes in the back of the Jeeps.  After the Jeep stopped rolling, there were aerial photos all over the steep slope, some with battery acid and oil on them.  A good deal of time was spent immediately after the accident just picking up the photos scattered all over the slope.  

 

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