Pictures of Black Bear

[old_man]

You always hear about the infamous first switchback on Black Bear. Well I'm here to tell you that it isn't what its cracked up to be.

These are old pictures back with the 31's and the 2.5L

 

[Nay]

I still read literature from time to time that says Black Bear is a "10 out of 10" in difficulty.

On a flatlander pucker scale, maybe...

 

[old_man]

If that is a 10 out of 10 then Red Cone before they bladed the downhill should have been a 12 or 13. Now its a 6-7. How would they rate upper proving grounds? a 100

 

[John_Sprague]

Appearently Black Bear can be dangerous to some...

Jeep falls 200 feet down cliff; two dead
Two people were killed Tuesday afternoon when a Jeep with Missouri plates left the road on Black Bear Pass and tumbled down a cliff, authorities said.

The accident occurred about 4 p.m. in unincorporated San Miguel County. In heavy rain, the Jeep, heading west, was negotiating steep switchbacks down the mountain when it left the road and rolled at least 200 yards down the side of the mountain, said San Miguel sheriff's Sgt. Michael Westcott.

Colorado State Patrol officials were investigating the crash late Tuesday and did not identify the dead male and female, pending completion of the investigation and family notification. The victims have a large extended family on the Front Range, officials said.


http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2298611,00.html

 

[Art Triggs]

I just was looking at these posts , that talk about that accident, here's the link.......

http://www.midwestjeepthing.com/Forums/topic.asp?whichpage=1&pagesize=15&topic_id=17410&forum_id=5


no matter how easy or difficult the trail, this is a sad thing......

 

[old_man]

The trail is not all that hard. The only place they could have dropped that far would be just infront of my XJ in this picture. You have to make a right turn.

Here is another view from below. The quad in the upper left corner is right at the turn. If my XJ was still at the place the previous picture was taken you would see its front end poking around the corner. The corner is not tight and is pretty flat. The only thing I can think is that they either didn't see the turn in the rain, simply got the pedals mixed up, or had a massive mechanical failure. I have been down this section when it was raining and it is not all that slick.

I am trying to track down the family. They live in my home town. Maybe we will do some flowers from the crowd or something. You just really never know when your time is up.