We got up to Eldorado a little before 10:30, gassed up and headed to the double parking lot. There we aired down, unloaded the trailered rigs, and started on Rocky Mountain. It was cold and raining a little, and already very wet.
The first obstacle you come to this way is what they call guard rail hill. It's a decent little climb, but nothing really to it.
We continued on to Saw Mill, Slab Pile, and Wolf's Den on the way to Dutch John. In some of the higher elevations of the rain changed to sleet. As we were nearing the entrenched hill climb, I saw what appeared to be an ATV light bar, facing back at me, on its side. As I got closer I realized it was an Xterra on its side, facing me (see Brooks' pic). I radiod for Brooks to come up and everyone else stay back while we evaluated the situation. It started snowing. We tied off the back of the rig up the hill, used Brooks' winch to pull it onto the bank, and mine to slide it sideways on two wheels until it cleared the bank. The owner then cut the air bags and drove it the rest of the way down. We waited for a group to come down, then continued up the hill with no issues.
At this point, we took the shortest route to gravel and went down to the start of Dickey Bell, what they call Little Daniel. I hurried down to the cabin and made sure we could get in, caught back up to the group and went through little Daniel. It took some spotting for those with 33s, and momentum for those with 35s, but no issues. We turned around and headed to the cabin to get warm.
That night we had burgers, fries and cookies. While we were sitting around that evening, discussing the xterra rollover, somehow rolling 4.0 jeeps was discussed. Miller was telling us that rolling to one side was fine, the other side would fill the cylinders with oil. Little did we know that would come into play tomorrow.
Saturday morning we got up, had our coffee and breakfast casserole (thanks to Mrs. Mosier), and headed to Daniel. It was already sleeting. There's a few new holes before you even get to the ledge that required a couple tries and some momentum. Brooks was hanging back making sure everyone got through, and I went on to the ledge. I put the front end up on a few different lines but the back didn't even try to climb. I backed off and when Brooks got there I motioned him to go ahead. It started snowing. He hit it pretty hard a few times, and got the back tires right to the top, then slid, left rear in the hole, and over it went. After making sure he was ok, I radiod for Miller to come up to winch. When he got there, I asked which side it was ok to flop on... "Wrong side!".
So, we winched Guzzy over, picked up some parts that came out where the window used to be, and rolled it back so he could clear the oil. #6 Was full.