# Plow This!!



## RamPainting LLC

I've got a new found respect for CDOT snowplowing operators in San Juan county, CO. I just took 4 days to travel down to Silverton, CO for a few days of Epic skiing on CO most challenging mountain, Let me tell you, getting there was more frighting than skiing 50 degree slops with 100' cliffs!! This section of road is CO 550, Red Mountain Pass! I've heard the folks on the weather channel say this road is one of America's most dangerous road ways.

Just wanted to share a few pics i took along the way.


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## RamPainting LLC

More pics


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## albhb3

thats so cool


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## RamPainting LLC

Last pics Enjoy


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## KSikkema

ummm... anyone ever heard of guard rails or cement barriers?! that's crazy!! I've been both brave and stupid before (sometimes at the same time) but i'm not sure about those cliffs


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## RamPainting LLC

KSikkema;710110 said:


> ummm... anyone ever heard of guard rails or cement barriers?! that's crazy!! I've been both brave and stupid before (sometimes at the same time) but i'm not sure about those cliffs


Most mountain passes here in CO don't have guard rails, except for 180 degree turns and switch backs. Red Mountain pass is the only place you can drive 15 mph with out people behind you getting pissed off.


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## artic429

Yeah its wide open for any takers on going off roading there.... I know i was a little tense and ready for a few cocktails after a day of driving around on the roads out there. Pretty scenery but i was too worried about keeping the car on the road instead of sight seeing.


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## mike6256

Wow thats incredible!! Looks beautiful though...


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## oldmankent

I went to school in Durango for a couple years. Beautiful country up there. Drove Red Mtn. Pass a few times. Definitely hairy stuff. The best was going over Ophir Pass in my truck in the summer. 4wd low range. nuts. Where were you skiing?


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## Turbodiesel

no thanks , i like having fun while i work . not trying to stay alive. LOL


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## RamPainting LLC

oldmankent;710742 said:


> I went to school in Durango for a couple years. Beautiful country up there. Drove Red Mtn. Pass a few times. Definitely hairy stuff. The best was going over Ophir Pass in my truck in the summer. 4wd low range. nuts. Where were you skiing?


I went to Sliverton mountain with a few buddies from Collage, it's the closest you can get to alaska heli skiing with out going to Alaska.


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## Supper Grassy

Amazing Pictures.

that mountain pass looks scary


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## rawdog

what "CollAge" was that lol....jk

sweet pics...did you hike that or is it serviced?


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## MSS Mow

Turbodiesel;710745 said:


> no thanks , i like having fun while i work . not trying to stay alive. LOL


I'll second that!!!

That's #(*&$*(#&(*#&%(#*&$ insane!!! I think I'd have a nervous breakdown driving that pass. I'm petrified of heights as it is.  I can't image that.:crying:

Don't get your tire off the edge. That first "step" is a doozie!!


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## tom_mccauley

WOW!, beautiful pics!


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## J&R Landscaping

Looks beautiful and insane at the same time!


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## hedhunter9

You lucky Dog !
And here we are busting our balls plowing ....


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## RamPainting LLC

rawdog;711032 said:


> what "CollAge" was that lol....jk
> 
> sweet pics...did you hike that or is it serviced?


lol, oops 



hedhunter9;711141 said:


> You lucky Dog !
> And here we are busting our balls plowing ....


I was Bord, it hasn't snowed in Denver in since December 10Th!

You guy's can check out the video of the mountain, it's sick!!!
http://www.youtube.com/silvertonmt


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## pldann86

You guy's can check out the video of the mountain, it's sick!!!


That's some steep stuff, usually ski steamboat which is a bunny hill compared to that
maybe one year get down there


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## jomofo

That's nothing for colorado roads... Loveland pass is just like that and I drive it all the time because it's the _fast way_...

Check out black bear road - _that's_ a scary road...

http://flashoffroad.com/Articles/blackbear/blackbear.htm


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## hlntoiz

jomofo;712884 said:


> That's nothing for colorado roads... Loveland pass is just like that and I drive it all the time because it's the _fast way_...


Loveland is pretty nuts. Especially in a 2wd pickup. Did get a chance to board it though. Good times. I also had a chance to board Berthad Pass (on the way to Winter park) that was a good time also! More fun then Winterpark itself. Hitchhiking to get back to the top was fun!


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## LET IT SNOWDOGG

I love it there, go 4x4 in the summer.. Ouray, silverton and moab, beautiful.. They don't call it, the million dollar highway for nothing, you know.....


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## NootDogg

I think my GMC quadrasteer would handle them switchbacks just fine.


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## coldcoffee

That's just sick...a few driveway markers might help a little though.

Waaay cool pics!!


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## Sandbrew

Red Mt Pass scares the crap out of me. I had a tire blowout on a 6 horse trailer I was towing over that pass one year on my way to elk hunt. One of the 2 outside tires blew. I clipped a rock just off the edge of pavement avoiding an RV 2 feet in my lane. There was a 200+ foot drop and no place to pull off for 3/4 of a mile. 

Sandbrew


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## silvercity

Awesome pics.....


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## f250man

That is some awesome country out there and I would say a little pucker factor.


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## andcon83

Can't imagine having to plow those roads. Looks like a good place to spin out and start sliding backwards. On the good side, you always have a place for snow to go on the downhill side!!! 

Awesome pics. All I can see in the skiing pics is a bunch of broken bones for me!!


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## Koonta

after those pics I wonder how long for me to unpucker


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## ColumbiaLand

That is incredible


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## OCB

*Winter is a piece of cake*

I have driven the Silverton route many times and winter was my preference as opposed to Summer. Summer was the time for white knuckles and you never knew what would happen and traffic was SLOW. Winter ( snow slides excluded) was always the fastest route if the snow was going to slide, drive the extra 50-60 miles but if you want guard rails forget it. Guard rails limit pictures.
As for Black Bear Road, they either widened the road or that is the turn about place.


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## timmy1

Yea, plowing that road at night in whiteout conditions must be fun! Claw marks in the dashboard, Yikes! It's probably like anything else, once you get used to it and know the road, not too bad.

I drove that "Road to the sun" before pulling a camper. No guardrails, thousand foot drop offs. White knuckled with an log truck on my ass all the way down. Those guys are nuts flying down those mountain roads with a 80,000 pounds of logs like they were driving a prius.


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## OCB

*Dangerous Roads on SPEED Channel*

Just saw part of an hour program of driving the million Dollar Highway. I saw 18 wheelers and an Ambulance but no snow.


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## LET IT SNOWDOGG

THEY DO HAVE SUMMERS THERE TOO... :yow!


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## BKFC255

The show was on the speed channel, it's called dangerous drives.


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## Drew2010

BKFC255;964026 said:


> The show was on the speed channel, it's called dangerous drives.


I just watched that about two weeks ago.


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## Drew2010

BKFC255;964026 said:


> The show was on the speed channel, it's called dangerous drives.


I just watched that about two weeks ago. I would love to drive it but not plow it.


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## ohiogreenworks

Nice views and all but I think I'm good without that....that black bear road article is wild


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## timberseal

wow that would be one hell of a motorcycle trip


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## dellwas

Heres' some links to a story about two Texans getting stuck on the side of a mountain just outside of Siverton, Colorado. For a while it looked like helicopters were the only way to get the trucks out:

http://www.hispanianews.com/archive/2000/December01/01.htm

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/printthread.php?t=108161


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## billet-boy

timberseal;966004 said:


> wow that would be one hell of a motorcycle trip


I second that


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## A.K_Donaldson

*Wow*

Cant imagine what plowing those roads must be like round of applause for those plow drivers thats some risky stuff.


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## BossPlow614

getting vertigo as im looking at the pics. deathly afraid of heights. i think ill stay in MN where it's nice and flat!!  

beautiful countryside though!


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## SMLCAT

I drove that road (the million dollar highway) from Silverton to Durango a few years ago in a rented RV with my family.

What the pictures don't show you is that the white line on the right side of the road is missing about 40% of the time where the road has crumpled away. Also there are concrete roofs built over sections of the road where it transverses the chutes so that the snow from avalanches actually goes over the top.

It was so scary driving a wide vehicle that I actually had to pull over in just about every turn out just to calm down...

It was definitely the scariest road I've ever driven (and that was in the summer time), There is NFW you'd get me to drive that in the winter...


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