Was not smart to drive over waterfall ice on cliffy road (more pics added)

Okanagan · January 08, 2011, 01:34:37 PM

Last Sunday afternoon I went exploring a logging road I hadn't driven. Got into a bad spot where a waterfall covered the road with ice. It was cold and clear, many frozen streams cascading down the hillsides, with a big sample shown below.

A little farther up the road a similar ice fall had covered the road with ice for a couple of sections 50 feet long.

I drove up the lower section of ice without even thinking about it, across a bit of gravel and up the slightly steeper upper section of icy road almost to the waterfall where the ice formed a small speed bump. I wasn't going fast enough to get over the ice hump, and the instant I stopped moving ahead, the vehicle started sliding backwards down the ice!

It was MUCH slicker than I realized. There was a film of water from waterfall mist on top of the ice.

The vehicle slid 46 feet backwards (shakily measured afterwards). I wasn't much afraid of going over the drop off side because there was a bit of dirt berm most of the way along that. But I was expecting to bang into the cliff face and smash up a rear corner and maybe a side of my rig. It stopped where it is shown below, just before it hit the wall,.

Closer shot below of the bottom of the main ice fall and a pile of fallen debris on the road.

The backwards slide spooked me enough to shovel frozen gravel onto the ice surface downhill from me before I turned the rig around and drove down the lower 50 foot section of ice road. Pic of that below. It's about a 300 foot drop from the road to a creek in the bottom of the canyon, with the upper section of ice I slid down undercut past vertical. But trees would have stopped the rig within 15-30 feet had I slid off that side. No harm no foul.

FinsnFur · January 08, 2011, 01:40:10 PM

That looks really cool....but I think your crazy, and lucky both.
Thanks for taking the time to snap some shots of that.

Tikaani · January 08, 2011, 01:44:01 PM

Funny how something that does not look too treacherous can be a major danger. Glad you made it out ok Ok. What caused the ice fall, not a creek or it would wash the road. We get ground over flows up here in the winter, does something very similar as the water comes to the surface it freezes rapidly.

pitw · January 08, 2011, 01:46:04 PM

Gravity works

. Glad it was so nice to you cause it coulda been worse

.

Bills Custom Calls · January 08, 2011, 01:47:46 PM

Glad ya made it out ok I am sure it would have smelled like someone farted if I would have been along

Tikaani · January 08, 2011, 01:50:26 PM

/\
l
l
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oh I forgot I have to say something, very funny Bill.

Just being a smarta$$ Jim

Okanagan · January 08, 2011, 01:59:43 PM

Quote from: Tikaani on January 08, 2011, 01:44:01 PM
Funny how something that does not look too treacherous can be a major danger. Glad you made it out ok Ok. What caused the ice fall, not a creek or it would wash the road. We get ground over flows up here in the winter, does something very similar as the water comes to the surface it freezes rapidly.

Yep, I got fooled.

All but my wife think I am conservative as to driving dangerous spots, etc.

This area is similar to SE Alaska, extremely high precipitation, so water is seeping and running everwhere. As you describe, when it gets cold enough to freeze, the seeps and streams build up huge ice masses.

From the look of the frozen waterfalls in my pics, I'd guess that they are sizeable seeps or trickles down a cliff face most of the year, with falling water in volume only during spring snow melt. As the water trickles down the cliff face in the pics, it freezes and as more trickles out it freezes on earlier ice and keeps building.

Bill: You get out and walk past such places from now on!

golfertrout · January 08, 2011, 04:00:58 PM

that would be a rush sliding down backwards and knowing there is a big drop off

FinsnFur · January 08, 2011, 07:14:54 PM

Quote from: golfertrout on January 08, 2011, 04:00:58 PM
that would be a rush sliding down backwards and knowing there is a big drop off

yeah, a rush of human waste screamin for the nearest Exit

Bills Custom Calls · January 08, 2011, 07:17:21 PM

I guess your walking too Jim

KySongDog · January 08, 2011, 07:22:07 PM

If I had been driving the seat would have a major pucker mark in it right now.

shaddragger · January 08, 2011, 07:51:29 PM

Quote from: Semp on January 08, 2011, 07:22:07 PM
If I had been driving the seat would have a major pucker mark in it right now.

Just a mark? It would look like I had a headrest caught in my back!

Okanagan · January 08, 2011, 08:21:47 PM

Quote from: golfertrout on January 08, 2011, 04:00:58 PM
that would be a rush sliding down backwards and knowing there is a big drop off

I wonder if there is any money to be made by charging people to ride on backward ice slides beside a drop-off?

It would be like Disney ride, 'cept it gave me more of a rush!

You got dibs on the first ticket, Dave! Come on up. You need a change from that boring Florida weather anyway.

Okanagan · January 09, 2011, 01:16:58 AM

Here are a few more grab shots of Mr. OK's Wild Ride (with deference to Disneyland and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride).

First, it looks like the Suzuki dug her claws into the ice to try to stop the slide. This photo also shows that much of what looks like exposed gravel in the other pics is actually gravel covered with clear ice. Not all of the ice was white. Nearly broke my neck walking around to take pics.

The pic below isn't very good but shows the drop-off side about halfway through the slide, no berm for a little ways and vertical drop for a few feet, though guarded by trees.

View down the slick road slide showing the canyon scale and vehicle where it stopped sliding.

Scenic of the Fraser River on the way down to civilization and paved roads. The Trans Canada freeway runs along the base of the mountain on the other side of the river, and other side of the farmland.

golfertrout · January 09, 2011, 05:33:59 AM

lol i would love to come up there but i dont wana ride that ride

you wouldnt want the mess on your seat

thats some awesome looking country

Bills Custom Calls · January 09, 2011, 06:30:09 AM

See Clyde I am not the only one that would be leaving a foul odor in car

Dave · January 09, 2011, 08:26:37 AM

Not sure if that looks like a Disney ride - more like the scene from Misery. Be careful dirving that chit as you don't want Kathy Bates beating on your broken legs.

pitw · January 09, 2011, 08:58:22 AM

That is pretty for a fact OK and to make the ride more entertaining put 16 tires under the guys with a 100,000 lb pump or load of lumber behind them

. I kinda got a chuckle out of the farmland thingy too

.

HaMeR · January 09, 2011, 09:10:49 AM

Those are some very nice scenery pics. Sure glad the Suzuki dug in when she needed to!!

golfertrout · January 09, 2011, 12:16:50 PM

probable be a good idea to get a set of chains in that country,and a extra pair of shorts