How'd you like to drive this highway?

I'd park the truck and leave it before I'd ever drive a road like that. Hell I'm scared enough just driving on icy mountain highways. Love driving the mountains, but when there's snow/ice I'd rather be home.. lol

 

Give me a truck with a big kitty under the hood and a 53' trailer. I'll make it. (maybe?!)

 

Reminds me of a winter trip when I was hauling a semi-load of cement to an oil rig in the mountains late one night. I forget how long the road was, but it had to be around ten miles in total. In many spots the road was barely wider than the truck and just carved into the side of the mountain ... no guard rails, no berms, or curbs, or anything else to keep you from going over the side. The mountain wasn't super-steep like in the pictures, but most of the road was above the tree line so there was nothing to slow you down if you did go over. The surface was mostly hard-packed snow with some exposed rock in places.

I was running up to the rig without any chains, which normally isn't a problem. Then a Chinook wind blew in (warm west wind) and brought the temperature up dramatically (it can occur very quickly ... there can be a twenty-degree temperature change in as little as a couple of hours). Above freezing weather on snow-packed roads leads to water ... which leads to ultra-slippery conditions. I was now beyond the point of no return; there was no way to back down the several miles of twisting road in the dark, there were no turn-outs to stop in to chain up, (the idea of stopping was a bad one anyhow because you really don't want to lose your momentum), and the Cat that normally worked the road was absent (being around midnight he had gone to the camp for lunch).

Then it happened ... there was a small hump from a large rock in the road that I had to get over. Normally that doesn't sound like a big deal, but this road is already about a 13-14% grade, and then you toss in a small increase and bad traction on a mountain side in the dark.

Well, I didn't have quite enough traction to get over it. Now, if being stalled out was all that happened then it wouldn't be that big of a deal. We could just sit and wait until the Cat Skinner went back to work and he could drag us in, or we could throw the chains on and try to get going ourselves (most times though, on ultra-steep grades like this, once you've stopped there's no way to get going under your own power again).

Unfortunately, with warm tires on a wet, snow-packed (ice) surface just being stopped wasn't an option. Slowly, the truck started to slide backwards. Now I've got a real dilemma on my hands. Just steering into the mountain at that point wasn't a good idea as the road was very narrow and I'd run the risk of putting the tractor tires over the edge. Bailing out wasn't such a hot idea either ... I might successfully make it and avoid falling too far, or avoid getting run over by the front wheels, but my passenger (on the uphill side) likely wouldn't be even that lucky. So, the only option was to stick it in reverse and try to keep control of the wheels while moving as slowly as possible. Which I managed to do for several hundred yards until we came to a ravine-like depression in the side of the mountain that created an uphill slope on the opposite side. I steered the truck into there with as shallow an angle as I could and the truck came to a stop.

Eventually the Cat Skinner went back to work and he drug us up to the rig to off-load.

Yeah, that was a bit of a "pucker" moment, but I'm not sure it was the worst one of my oilfield adventures.

 

That'll make you get religious right there!!

 

There's probably a weigh station there somewhere, too. And the coops are OPEN!

 

I would be scared to drive that road even if I was the only one on it

 

It's nicknamed The Death Road, And it is the most dangerous road in the world!


http://www.liebreich.com/LDC/HTML/Climbing/Mountain_Biking_Bolivia.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yungas_Road

 

Just shoot me....... That is just to much for me even if I was walking

 

No way No how, that would definitely cause some puckering

 

wonder what they get per mile?