With a new DPS climbing season nearly here, I thought
I would remind you about back country driving AND SURVIVAL for you and your
car. Automobiles were used in the desert shortly after their introduction to
the West and were soon used by prospectors and explorers everywhere. Many
Indian trails and wagon trails became roads in what we would call backroad
driving. About 1910 the Nash automobile company had what they thought an
unbeatable stunt when they drove one of their touring cars to Stovepipe Wells
and out into the Death Valley dunes on the Fourth of July. The photo taken
there of the car, driver and a giant thermometer showed the thermometer
registering 151 degrees, 'The highest temperature ever recorded by a motor car
in any part of the world". In 1916. the Dodge Brothers Corporation printed a
pamphlet, "Through Death Valley in a Dodge Brothers Motor Car". The booklet
told of "the most strenuous trip ever recorded in the annals of motoring"
through the dreaded and most difficult desert in America driving the car
through temperatures exceeding 144 degrees. Well, J Holshue, Maris Valkass,
Greg Roach, Suzanne Mamedalin and most other DPS peak baggers regularly test
their trucks in country worse than that described above and I want to remind
all of you to re-read that section of the DPS ROAD AND PEAK GUIDE dealing with
back country driving.
How many times have I heard of DPSers
who drive in the desert with a spare tire that is flat; who don't carry a lug
wrench that fits their lug bolts, who don't carry emergency gas or a spare
quart of motor oil.
1. No matter what kind of vehicle you drive, be
sure it is in proper running condition before you leave home.
2. Never
travel alone. Take at least two vehicles.
3. Don't try to push a 2WD
vehicle into areas where you really need a 4WD and don't push a 4WD into an
area it doesn't belong because a stuck 4WD may be harder to get out than a
stuck 2WD.
4. Top off your fuel tank before going into remote parts of
the desert.
5. Familiarize yourself with your vehicle and carry the
tools for and learn to make a few repairs such as changing a fiat, jumping a
battery, replacing a radiator hose, fan belt and alternator belts, or fuel
filter (and carry those spare parts).
Read or review before the start
of this climbing season the list which appears in the DPS Road & Peak
Guide, of survival items and clothing that should be carried by all cars on our
trips. One item not mentioned in this list but which can prove very valuable is
a CB Radio.
HAPPY TRAILS (and Back country roads), - RON |