2008 Hwy 12 Avalanche Pics

[TruckerBrad]

Not sure how many of you are familiar with Hwy 12 in Idaho. It's a narrow, winding two lane that follows the Lochsa River. I run the road a lot and it's one of my favorites.

Super Bowl weekend of 2008 I was coming east towards Montana and an avalanche blocked the road at mile marker 134 on Thursday afternoon. The plows were stuck on the east side, so there we sat. It was snowing like a mother all night when we were out there. Friday morning things went south real quick. Another slide came down and took the truck that was behind me over the bank into the river. We could see the mirror sticking up out of the snow and we went down over the bank and got the driver out. Other than being scared shitless he was fine.

Long story short, we ended up getting hauled back to Kamiah, ID for the weekend and most of us just got loaded for a couple days. There's not much more to do in Kamiah. They had the trucks dug out by Monday morning and after we left the road was closed for two more weeks. There was 48 hours of labor getting the truck out of the river.

On to the pics.......

These are from Friday before they hauled us out.








Here's the trailer in the river


This is the driver's side mirror.


These are from the day we got the trucks out. There was only a little new snow over the weekend.

Here's the truck I was driving.


Pic of me where they dug through






First truck through....woot woot....


These are some pics that Idaho DOT emailed me


This one is on top of the ridge where the slide broke off.




This one is from up above the highway a little bit.

[montana.matt]

Cool pics Brad. I used to haul grain trains from the highline down to Lewiston/Clarkston and remember the crappy winters along Highway 12 (I don't miss it one bit)
I chased a bull Moose for about 3 miles down the highway one night. The snowbanks along the shoulder were too high for him to get off the road

[chrisjlittle]

Wow, that's amazing. This one blows my mind:


That's a shit load of snow!

[ROSS]

Originally Posted by chrisjlittle

Wow, that's amazing. This one blows my mind:


That's a shit load of snow!

And Trees.............Wow..

[kasper]

and i bitch and moan about the snow we get in northern wisconsin

[chrisjlittle]

Originally Posted by kasper

and i bitch and moan about the snow we get in northern wisconsin

I rarely bitch and moan about the snow we get here in Colorado, but I definitely bitch and moan about how people drive in the snow.
It's astonishing, there was a 3 car pile up at a 4 way stop sign in a neighborhood (25mph speed limit) on the way to work last time it snowed. I want to blame it all on transplants from Texas and California, but I know some of them are natives. Idiots.

[BJoe]

Originally Posted by kasper

and i bitch and moan about the snow we get in northern wisconsin

Yea, we're not normally that bad off here either.

[Duuuuuuuude]

Awesome pics.

Originally Posted by chrisjlittle

I rarely bitch and moan about the snow we get here in Colorado, but I definitely bitch and moan about how people drive in the snow.
It's astonishing, there was a 3 car pile up at a 4 way stop sign in a neighborhood (25mph speed limit) on the way to work last time it snowed. I want to blame it all on transplants from Texas and California, but I know some of them are natives. Idiots.

You should see drivers in Phoenix when it rains. Yes, I said rain. You'd think that the streets were covered in ice the way cars get plowed into...

[gernade]

Where is the picture of you crawling in the snow?

[Mr.Slave]

Originally Posted by chrisjlittle

I rarely bitch and moan about the snow we get here in Colorado, but I definitely bitch and moan about how people drive in the snow.
It's astonishing, there was a 3 car pile up at a 4 way stop sign in a neighborhood (25mph speed limit) on the way to work last time it snowed. I want to blame it all on transplants from Texas and California, but I know some of them are natives. Idiots.

Making fun of natives isn't cool dude.

[JeremyH]

Originally Posted by chrisjlittle

transplants from Texas

You bet! Texans have no business driving in that evil stuff....

[Badd]

great pics thanks for sharing

[DonsATV]

Originally Posted by Badd

great pics thanks for sharing

X2!!!

[K_Willis]

Originally Posted by Mr.Slave

Making fun of natives isn't cool dude.

I think he meant Native citizens of Colorado, as in born and raised. Not Native Americans...

[Jeepial]

Awesome pics man!! Glad you made it out safe!!

[03libertysport]

Wow! That pic of you standing there between the piles is a bit intimidating. Glad you made it out of there safe.

*Note to self: Never travel this road!

[2JSC]

Originally Posted by Duuuuuuuude

You should see drivers in Phoenix when it rains. Yes, I said rain. You'd think that the streets were covered in ice the way cars get plowed into...

SO TRUE! It happens every year, you'd think they'd remember what rain was.