ASS CLOWNS >It's getting crazier every year

Off-Road Rescues in Colorado Are Getting Out of Hand





Off-Road Rescues in Colorado Are Getting Out of Hand (outsideonline.com)

 

The title of this thread should be "ASS CLOWNS"

 

Even if they aren't getting out of hand, they will say they are so they can close more trails.

 

I’ll take the possibly unpopular opinion that dumb shit like this is hurting the off-road community as much as anything.

 

This accounts for most of it.

The “Dunning–Kruger effect.” The psychological phenomenon is when people who are non-experts in a skillset are significantly worse at estimating their true ability in that very activity. For instance: people who are not especially skilled at driving on challenging roadways are often unable to accurately judge just how bad they are at it.

This also goes for just simple, every day driving.

 

I don't see the point of complaining about these idiots. You allow them to go on these trails and then complain about the money and effort wasted to go save them.
Either don't allow anyone on these trails, or don't go rescue them.
Knowing you'll be bailed out is probably the biggest reason people do stupid shit. Second only to the stupidity that caused them to do it in the first place.

 

I helped someone several years back that had drove their AWD SUV on the beach...just figured they didn't know any better. Saw them same spot next day...somebody else or high tide could help them, that time.

 

One big culprit is the stupid "as seen on TV" ads that has almost everything going off the trail so naturally fools with no common sense that have never been off pavement will buy them thinking they can go anywhere too.

 

Fixed

 

It's definitely a thing now. People are buying these things that make it seem like they can tackle anything. They look at trails that aren't Holy Cross and think "Oh yeah, that's all good. I've spent 10k making this thing off-road capable." They forget the driver mod. I've been wheeling full size shit for a long while. Almost 10 years, started with 90s F150 and Silverado 1500, 90s Bronco, now Tundra. I know where the limits of this stuff is and I can judge where I can, shouldn't, and can't go (very important to distinguish). Research is also critical. I NEVER go out without researching some of the route myself. Leader or not, I am responsible for me and my rig. I will solicit advise, but at the end of the day, I need to do the research to make sure I can get in and out safely. If you find me out there, I've accepted the risk and feel comfortable pointing my truck's front end down the trail head. IMO, it's a mix of advertising and social media. People see others make this stuff look easy and think all it takes is a truck and some mods. It's not easy and you have to build yourself up to stuff like the CO high country passes. Even the widest of them are terribly unforgiving and will take advantage of any mistake, big or small.

TLDR: Be smart, accept your skill, take care of yourself.

 

But he got 13 likes on Instadork!

 

I blame the people that recover em.

When anyone sees something like this, everyone should collectively take a 'this sounds like a you problem' stance.

 

Sounds like a good opportunity to build a few rigs, put a crew together and start a recovery gig. Have one of those handheld credit card swipers and charge up front.
Of you can't pay, you're shit gets hauled to auction.

 

Or at least make them pay for the recovery.

 

They do this in Chevy commercials...

 

A no rescue policy would have it looking like a Mt Everest base camp in a few weeks. LOL

Brad

 

The perfect canvas.

 

I blame the 'Overlanding' trend...

People pay money to throw a tent on their roof and a fridge in the trunk, hatch or bed, and they're immediately experts

Really no different than many other 'areas of expertise' nowadays; watch a couple of videos and you can be anything...

 

Not resulting in the aforementioned above ass clownery, but can be seen inciting it or incorrectly informing or encouraging consumers of the abilities of there vehicles, these articles outline Toyota ads that have been banned over seas for encouraging environmentally destructive behavior. We have similar ads stateside.

Not condoning environmental degradation nor have I wheeled these lines, but it does sure make me think a stock RAV4 or Tundra could easily make it up and over one of these passes without a rescue.

https://www.drive.com.au/news/toyota-off-road-commercials-banned-france/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...oyota-truck-ad-for-promoting-off-road-driving

I’m a badass cuz I drive that same car in the commercial. Hell yea.

 

Fine print getting finer.

 

I did not realize that driving through a puddle was environmentally destructive. We should prolly shouldn't walk through them either. Or walk on mountains - might disturb the rocks; or through forests - might disturb the leaves; or through fields - might disturb the grass; or on roads - it might disturb the assp.. what was I saying? Gripes...

I do try to keep my truck to two tracks and my bikes to single tracks and my feets to trails. That's just trail etiquette. But it does appear that teaching people to follow etiquette is about as hard as teaching people to spell etiquette.

I have mused over attempting some of those passes in Colorado but always find a reason to say, 'nah, I should build a different vehicle for it'. Or at very least, find somebody with first hand knowledge to go on a trail ride with.

 

To prevent ass clownery:

 

Yep, they're everywhere.

 

Thanks. A lot of take aways from reading your post that I didn’t consider. Some call it ORM
operational risk management as everything has some sort of associated Risk but doing your research definitely helps

Sometimes people learn from failures but as the post about the people getting stuck on the beach the next day after being rescued illustrates, some people are hard learners

 

Covid knocked the existing outdoor community on it's ass. Wealthy urbanites and suburbanites fled the cities like cock roaches to discover the great outdoors but without any applicable skillsets other than being able to pull a credit card from their wallet.

Ordinary citizens used to rescue the few folks that strayed into trouble in remote places. As such it was acceptable to call out idiots for being idiots if it wasn't a simple case of catching a bad break on their part.

Then the idiots took over and it became unacceptable to call out idiots for being idiots. They sit around and watch Youtube and Instagram and see something they think is cool and break out their wallet head into the unknown without a clue.

Folks need to pay for their own rescues or as a society we need to let natural selection do it's thing.

 

It’s almost like people think you could build a boat out of tape.

 

They leave people on Mnt Everest constantly.
Just do the same here.