Lion's Back

[Sombeech]

Lion's Back is the infamous rock in Moab that's been on those "REAL TV" shows with the Blazer crashing down it.

What happens is people will drive up it no problem. Going DOWN is the worse part. Never ride your brakes down, or they'll go out, and bye bye. ALWAYS let first LOW gear take you down. Let the engine and tranny do the braking for you.

Enough with the tutorial, here's some pics of it. I've been up it about 8-10 times, now they'll have it shut down from time to time due to idiots falling off of it.

[accadacca]

I thought you had some video of you on lions back?

[Sombeech]

I thought you had some video of you on lions back?

I do, it's not converted to digital yet. Still on VHS. Maybe I could send it to you? If you have the equipment anyways.

[accadacca]

I thought you had some video of you on lions back?

I do, it's not converted to digital yet. Still on VHS. Maybe I could send it to you? If you have the equipment anyways.

Yeah I could fix it up for you.

[Sombeech]

Just thought I'd give you guys a location tool to find Lion's Back if you were ever interested...

Click on the attachment below. This is used with Google Earth.

[Sombeech]

As I STILL haven't gotten around to converting my footage, here is some more famous footage most of us have seen with the Jimmy coming down...

[nitmik]

I wanted to take my wrangler on this when I had it, my Dad was with me and told me there was now way he was doing it. So we did the white rim trail in one day, I was never so glad to see pavement again in my life

[Sombeech]

The funny thing is, Lion's Back is much easier than most of the trails down there. It's just intimidating.

Most people know this but... while going down the rock, hardly ever should you hit your brakes. Just let 4 low take you down.

The woman who went off the side just had it in neutral, and rode the brakes down.

Going up Lion's Back is actually very easy.

[nitmik]

The funny thing is, Lion's Back is much easier than most of the trails down there. It's just intimidating.

Most people know this but... while going down the rock, hardly ever should you hit your brakes. Just let 4 low take you down.

The woman who went off the side just had it in neutral, and rode the brakes down.

Going up Lion's Back is actually very easy.

was that the video of that woman in a older blazer?

[Iceaxe]

The following is from Grand Couty SAR a couple of years ago..... thought you might enjoy reading it....

02- 12 3- 30- 02 The stoopids get lucky at Lion's Back

This was one amazing event.

Two teen boys and 2 teen girls start up Lion's Back. Part way up they came face to face with a descending vehicle. They roll backwards a bit and start to tip. One guy gets out. The vehicle rolls back a bit more and..........rolls side over, then woosh.... off the fin, thru the air and big wham into the crack below. Witnessed by hundreds of onlookers.

The call came in as "Jeep off Lion's Back." Gasp. Archie was there shortly, Louis too. The DPS helo circled above with Steve White talking to dispatch. Responders from town roared up the hill. EMTs climbed up the crack expecting to find total carnage. Arches Helicopters was paged.

Curt Brewer stepped in as IC and a helo LZ was established on the road cuz there were jeeps and people packed in all over the landscape.

Fire Chief Corky was first to helo in to assess extrication needs. By then, the EMTs had one girl on a backboard so out she came. Another rescuer and litter were flown in and the second gal was lifted out. Another litter went in and it took some more time to extricate and stabilize the male driver. Out he went. Time for all this was about 1 hour.

And that's the short version of an event that had 10,000 more convolutions, parts and pieces.

Turns out, the major injuries were a broken arm and a bruised pelvis. At first glance, we figured rather a heap.

Comments: Silt hereby bestows some kind of award on the EMTs and Deputies and helpers for outstanding energy and aplomb in a very awKward place.. Two Extra Rations of Grog go to Arches Helicopters pilot John Ruhl. Awesome.

Responders: Maybe 50? To those who participated, THANK YOU.

http://www.gcsar.org/silt/2002/2/silt.htm

[shaggy125]

I was down in Moab when this happened. I remember seeing the helicopter landing near lions back from near town. The next day we hiked up the crack to check out the vehicle, pretty crazy that everyone survived.

Eric.

[Sombeech]

Yeah, I've seen it in the crack. Wasn't it a green Cherokee?