A Short Walk Away From Near Disaster

As early winter weather began to set in, the crew of which I was part found ourselves high in the mountains with a "line" to finish surveying and recording seismic data. As we worked late into the afternoon to finish up and get out of that soon to be snowed-in location, the snow showers began to fall and beautiful clouds full of the swirling white stuff began to scud across the mountains and slide into the valleys.

Access to this location was by a mountain road that was treacherous at best during dry weather. I drove a truck carrying the seismic instruments and designed to cross rough terrain by the use of large balloon tires that had very little traction on snow and ice.

After finishing our job I left the crew to do the cleanup work and knowing that the sooner I got the million dollars worth of instrumentation out of the mountains and down to the valley the better. By this time, the snow had begun to pile up over the road and lay over a layer of ice slicked up by our traffic up and down the road.

I slapped the recording truck into low gear and started slowly down the mountain. On one side of the road, the mountains rose like a wall into the clouds, on the other lay a steep drop of 800 feet or more. Things went well for a while as I eased the truck down the mountain but in my mind was the image of one particular location where the road curved leftward around the mountain and the drop off into the valley was particularly frightening. Just a mountain road, there were no rails at the bottom of that curve to prevent anyone from sliding off into the abyss.

Soon enough I reached the section of the road I had dreaded, still in low gear... and then it happened, the tires of my vehicle lost their grip and the truck began to slide uncontrollably down that steep treacherous section of road. To my right lay a very deep rocky chasm, it's maw open ready to receive me.

That particular moment will be forever etched in my mind. What was I going to do? In those few seconds while I tried to keep the truck on the road I considered bailing out to save my life. I thought about losing my job because of letting a million dollars worth of scientific instrumentation disappear into a deep Utah mountain valley and in the end, just as the truck had began to grip the road again and come to a stop I had made the decision to stay with the vehicle.

I had come to a stop! I peered out the passenger side of the truck at a tree-lined rocky stream far below.... I applied the emergency brake and exited to discover the tires of my truck less than a foot away from the edge of the road that fell away into the depths.

My knees were shaking -- my whole body was numb, it was the most frightening experience I've ever had... I walked around outside the truck and calmed myself down, finally enough to consider trying to get the truck away from the edge of that road to a more safe position, and I got back in, started her up and eased into low gear again.. and once again, I felt the tires lose their grip and felt the sickening sensation of sliding.

That pretty much did me in for a while. I radioed for help and probably said a few choice words the FCC never intended to be heard over the airwaves as I demanded some tire chains for those huge tires and a truck with a winch to come up and help out.

So I set about waiting and calming myself once again and I took a walk down that road, eventually coming to the scene pictured in this photograph. I remember thinking about how beautiful it was, about how it was just the thing I needed to see and I was thankful that I was still around to see it.

I went back to the truck, got my 35mm and snapped this photo. It is a color photo but now the colors have bloomed and faded. Nevertheless, it will always be a treasure to me.