An early winter here in the Pacific Northwest reminded me that cascades can get you into trouble and potentially kill. “Cascades” are what I call the series of events that take us farther and farther from the safety of home and hearth. Let me explain what happened to me just yesterday: Yesterday, the temperature warmed to just above freezing for the first time in about three weeks. During those three weeks, about two feet of snow had fallen. My tractor developed a leaky rear tire, so I took it off to take it to town to get fixed. The tire weighs about 350 pounds, so I got a neighbor with another tractor to use the bucket to lift it into my trailer. After hooking the trailer (filled with snow I neglected to shovel out) to my 4×4 pickup I headed out my private road toward the county road. Coming over my ice and snow covered bridge, I got just a little off track and tried to correct.
Well, you recall I told you that the temperature was just above freezing? I slid into the deep snow on the side of the road and sank my left front wheel. Since I was already in 4-wheel drive, I tried to plow forward and get the truck back on the hard packed snow on the road. No luck. I tried reversing. No luck. I tried rocking back and forth. No luck. I got under the back seat to get my shovel out and dig out. No shovel. (I knew that I had one) Then I remembered that I had left in the travel trailer which is in storage. No luck. Fortunately, I had my brand new tire chains with me. I got them out and fitted one to the right rear tire. It was then that I realized that I had changed tires on the truck and the chains were just barely large enough to fit the new tires.
Digging with my glove covered hands, I scooped enough packed snow from the wheel well to almost get the chain on the driver side tire…almost. Reaching into the box of supplies I keep under the back seat of the truck, I pulled out some 550 parachute cord. Using the ten feet or so of cord, I made a rope by threading it through the links of the chain and wrapping the last third around itself. With this makeshift rope, I was able to connect the ends of the tire chain. I hoped it would hold as I eased on the gas and backed out of the hole I’d created while unsuccessfully trying to extricate the truck by rocking it. Nope, couldn’t do it. I had a heavy trailer attached to the truck and was trying to push it uphill. Tried going forward too. Nope, that didn’t work because the trailer exerted forward force on the truck as it tried to roll down hill. The front tire just plowed deeper into the snow berm.
So, I found a log, blocked the tires of the trailer and lowered the front stand, lifting the hitch off the truck. So far, so good. Back into the truck and easing it forward, I plowed the snow with the left front tire far enough that I could now back out onto the firm (but still slippery) surface of the road. Made it! With the truck on terra firma, I backed up to the trailer and hitched it up again. Total time: One hour and 45 minutes. Oh, and by the way, this all happened when I was within 200 feet of my back door.
So, the lesson to be learned, put succinctly, is one mistake can lead to another and another in a cascade that leads to failure or worse. Here are some of the lessons this little incident taught me:
1. Make sure you have the equipment and supplies you will need in an incident.
2. Check your equipment & supplies on a routine basis.
3. Prepare for your trips –even the routine ones before you leave the garage.
4. Redundancy is important. While I had a pair of warm gloves; fine for keeping my fingers warm, they were inadequate for putting on chains and tying knots. A pair of rubberized mechanics gloves would have made the job much easier.
5. Cotton kills. It was a warm day, so I had slipped into a pair of lightweight cotton long johns and a pair of jeans for my trip to town. An hour and a half later, I was wet and chilled. Normally, I carry a day-and-a-half pack with my necessaries. (I don’t have to bug out.) In the pack there are a set of military polypropylene long underwear and powder pants. The pack was in the other vehicle.
6. If you live in snow country, keep your chains/cables in the vehicle. I keep mine in an old plastic gas can that got partially squashed. I cut a hole large enough for the chains to easily be placed in and removed. It keeps the chains ice free when they’re in the back of my pickup, has a handle and is easy to pick up and move.
7. Practice putting chains on before you need them. If they don’t fit, get some that do. Don’t put it off. [JWR Adds: Also carry some short lengths of chain, stout wire, and a couple of boxes of Monkey Links (no longer manufactured but can still be bought as “new old stock”), in case you have to repair a broken tire chain, or improvise–perhaps fitting your chains on someone else’s tires.]
8. Take your time. Being in a rush makes it more likely you’ll make mistakes. Mistakes cost time and can cause injuries. An injury might trigger a cascade and ultimately be fatal.
9. It’s best to turn off the engine unless your battery won’t start it again Being down by the exhaust pipe putting chains on can expose you to carbon monoxide. The gasses probably won’t kill you outside.
10. If you’re in a remote area, don’t be reluctant to leave your vehicle and go for help before the situation becomes so dire that it’s too late. Remember those folks in Oregon a few years back. They stayed with their stuck vehicle on a road closed in winter until it was too late. It was a sad event but one that can teach us lessons.
11. Men: If the woman in your life is with you, chances are she’ll be pretty stressed out. Have a talk with her before you start and when you stop to take a break. This will keep her calmer and allow her to express her concern over the situation in general and over your safety. Suggest that she get out of the vehicle and watch. If you give her small tasks, she’s much less likely to feel panicky over the situation.
In sum, don’t let little, seemingly minor, problems cascade into life and death struggles. Take care of the little things before you get stuck.