Did I miss this " bone headed "recovery?
Nope--it began to unfold right in front of you. However, I presumed you were too busy prepping your winch and maneuvering your Jeep to fully comprehend what was going on.
I think he was talking about you guys snatch blocking red jeep.
THAT.
For those of you who weren't there, here is what happened. The red TJ (piloted by a non-RME member) was hopelessly wedged. We wanted to drag its tail end to the left a bit. For our first attempt to do this, they used a short strap and the Jeep behind him and tried to pull... but this only managed to drag him into the large rock behind him rather than move him around it. Clearly, we needed to change the direction of the pull. "Let's use
omgbecki's winch and that tree up there," we quickly decided.
As soon as we verbalized that,
omgbecki began prepping his winch and moving his Jeep for a more proper pulling angle (which is all exactly what should have happened). At the same time, Mr Red Jeep began pulling out a
second strap. This made me silently raise one eyebrow. He then grabbed a d-ring and attached this second strap to the first one, which was still attached to his Jeep. Now I quietly asked the guy next to me (Chris) what was happening. Next, the guy climbed the hill, routed the second strap itself around the tree, then tossed the free end down toward
omgbecki for him to attach to his winch cable.
Now it was time to speak up. "
What are you doing?!?" He mumbled something about winching his jeep with the straps. "No, no, no; you need to use a tree saver and a snatch block." He looked at me like I had just pronounced the Earth was flat. Chris and others quickly chimed in, explaining how to route the winch cable to safely redirect the pull without destroying any straps, killing the tree, or killing any of us. After a few minutes the second strap was removed (along with the d-ring), everything was properly configured, and the winching was performed without incident.
I was impressed how you all drove with patience instead of beating your rigs up.
So much this. In case I wasn't clear with the photo in my original post (captioned, "
omgbecki quiety getting it done"), you did a great job driving like always. Nothing stupid or ham-fisted; just calm, sane driving. This is why I'd wheel with you on any trail at any time.
