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Mogs (& Pinzgauers) at Moab, April 11-19th 2003

The Rocky Mountain Moggers were nice enough to invite the Rocky Mountain Pinzgauers  to their annual event which coincides with the start of the annual jeep safari.  Peter Kula and I jumped on the opportunity.  The Mog group were great and treated us like we had been wheeling with them for years.   Ron, Eric, Alan, Bob, Rob, and the rest you guys were great!  A very casual get together. All the Mog participants have run these trails a zillion times and it's really nice to have that expertise. On many of the trails it's easy to take a wrong turn and at least miss the trail or worse get lost.  But these guys know exactly where to go.

As for how the Pinzgauers did.  I can say after running a decent cross section of what is available there that both  Pinzgauers (710-712)  work very well on the slick rock with the high ground clearance and lockers. The trucks performed wonderfully.  True, we lifted some wheels in normal Pinzgauer fashion (so what) and a few minor mechanical problems slowed us up,   but the whole thing was a big E-ticket ride.   We spent a whole lot of time answering questions from people about the Pinzgauer and folks in general no matter what they were driving were very friendly.

There is an open invitation for Pinzgauers next year to attend, there is no registration fee  If you like to wheel your Pinzgauer and have not done Moab yet. you really do need to go at least once. 

 

 

Peter Kula and his 710 on the First day in Hey Joe Canyon, Very scenic but really dusty!

And here's my 712. I was anxious to see how it would do. All in all I was pretty happy with the results.

Here's is "Pinzgauer Central"In the Slickrock campground, A very small Pinzgauer island in a vast sea of Jeeps and Suzuki's!

The first trail we did was Hell's Revenge. A really FUN trail with unbelievable ascents and decents.

I found a nice hole to stick my right front in. and did the Pinzgaueer wheelie thing. Yahoo..

Here's another angle.. the dropoff to the L. is way steep! I wasn't stuck, just scraped the winch bumper..

Climbing a slickrock dome. This trail apperantly is marked much better than it has been in past years.

This trail was fun from beginning to end.

Climbing yet another set of ledges..

At the very ernd of the trail near the Lion's Back, There was a really nasty short section of ledges and dropoffs. It got worse. ...

As the trail progressed, it got to this spot where anywhere forward would have resulted in a rollover,

Peter calmly backed up, then drove straight off a 4ft ledge to the left! No rollover.

Another trail we did was Metal Masher,. Another very fun trail Here's the lineup at the start of the trip.

Note the G-Wagon owned by Rob Pickering of "Rock Mog" fame. The stock G wagon did great on the trail even with the "hip hop" style wheels and tires. Much to the amazement of the numerous Jeeps we encountered.

This is Alan Draper's gorgeous 1964 406 on Widowmaker . Alan took 3 years to restore this mog. A strap was needed to get over the obstacle.

Eric Johnson after a couple of trys finally crawled his big Turbo 416 DOKA up the obstacle.

The obstacle was very tough this day. Only 3 trucks out of 12 in the group we were with made it up wthout help. Everyone had lockers. The Jeep group we met there were from Maine and Mass. Intersting accents to hear in the Utah badlands..

And here's my attempt... I made it this far then the carbs decided not to flow any more gas & the truck stalled

I had to take "The strap" to get over $#^@$#!! I'm sure it woulda done it though.... Wait'll next year...

Stalled but otherwise happy..

Peter gave it great try but couldn't get over the wall. He's basically sititng on the Pintle Hitch here. This obstacle is steep!

There is a bypass that no one took. Even the G-wagon gave it a shot.

Eric did Yeoman's duty pulling the other vehicles up the obstacle.

A front view of all the group on the Gemini Brdge Arch. This place is gorgeous...

Here's a rear view on the bridge with everyone lined up.

Another angle of the Gemini arch. Very dramatic.

This memorial was at the Gemini Bridges. Added a sobering aspect to the trip. There are 500ft+ dropoffs in almost all directons here.

Sunday night Peter decide to tackle Potato Salad Hill. This is no mean feat if you've ever seen it. Many broken drivelines and rollovers occur here

Anyway, Peter gave it his best shot with at least a hundred onlookers.

Potato Salad hill is very steep and tricky.At least 2-3 drivelines bite the dust here everyday during the Safari.

Peter tried the L. approach and did great until the last ledge. There were over 100 spectators there. Some really supportive and others... well just drunk and wanting to see carnage.

No Peter is trying to push the 710 over the last obstacle.. Just checking clearance issues with Mike (also a Pinzgauer owner)

Kind of looks like the famous picture on Iwo Jima...Check out the moon behind the truck.

I ran the 6x6 around to the top of the hill and anchored another Jeep to pull Peter over the obstacle.

Next year with some better tires, a little less pressure and a better line, He'll make it up. So who's going to come watch, or better yet try it themselves?

This is Jason

Note the Unicycle. This guy Unicycled up and down Lion's Back, over the Golden Crack and down Potato Salad Hill. There are crazy people, then there is him..

 

 

Heres a video of Peter Kula coming off of the steepest hill on the "Hells' Revenge"  trail in Moab.  The hill averages about 45 degrees but gets even steeper.  Pardon my poor camera work but it's fun to watch anyway. Hold your mouse cursor over the picture to start. This is a preview for you folks joining us this year!  The slickrock affords amazing traction....Believe me..