Any one know the history of this wreck?

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max49

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  It's on the "Italian Creek" trail near Taylor Park or Crested Butte CO.
There is the lower or easier route , which we took and we just happened to notice this truck that obviously fell off the upper, riskier route.





The close up pic was with a very powerful zoom camera, the other pic was how we saw it, and my wife had a sharp eye to spot it.

I tried asking about this on a Jeep forum but no body seemed to know any thing about it.
  However, John C seems to around! and if anyone knows some history on this wreck, he may.

 

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That's a Nissan Pathfinder.

It was stolen from the City of Gunnison in 2009.

Investigation By the Gunnison County Sheriff Department lead to no suspects.

The vehicle wreckage was turned over to the Forest Service and they have chosen to leave it be.

The picture you show someone else claims they took in 2010.

Here's a different angle

 

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I'm just not seeing that it is the same vehicle. Might be the angle but the damage is different and the body style is different.
 
Look at the window frame on the drivers door. In the first pic it's knocked down in front and has some kind of strapping wrapped around it. In the second pic the window frame is standing proud, and the wreck is nestled down in the rocks. I'm guessing they made an attempt to remove it and quit before someone got hurt or they broke a heavy wrecker trying to winch it out. Why can't the feds get it out? No interagency co-operation. Forest service calls National guard to bring one of those big honking helos that freight howitzers and hummers to the troops on a sling. " Hey we got a wreck out here we can't remove, can you give us a hand", Guard responds, "not my job, you need an act of congress in triplicate first".

I hope it's understood that I'm not trying to be political, not blaming any party ideology, just lamenting how big and broken our gov't has become. They can't get a wreck out of national forest land. If Hollywood filmed that wreck for a movie scene you can bet they'd have to get it out of there.

Bill
 
I've heard of other abandoned wrecks in the SW on public land which were removed by volunteers, typically by 4x4 clubs.  Why the BLM or Forest Service doesn't act is a bit of a mystery.
 
driftless shifter said:
Look at the window frame on the drivers door. In the first pic it's knocked down in front and has some kind of strapping wrapped around it. In the second pic the window frame is standing proud, and the wreck is nestled down in the rocks. I'm guessing they made an attempt to remove it and quit before someone got hurt or they broke a heavy wrecker trying to winch it out. Why can't the feds get it out? No interagency co-operation. Forest service calls National guard to bring one of those big honking helos that freight howitzers and hummers to the troops on a sling. " Hey we got a wreck out here we can't remove, can you give us a hand", Guard responds, "not my job, you need an act of congress in triplicate first".

I hope it's understood that I'm not trying to be political, not blaming any party ideology, just lamenting how big and broken our gov't has become. They can't get a wreck out of national forest land. If Hollywood filmed that wreck for a movie scene you can bet they'd have to get it out of there.

Bill
Click to expand...
As broken as the gov'mnt is, I don't think we want "them" to act (spend money) outside various budgetary boundaries without pretty high approval.  "They" manage to spend more than enough on stuff within their own areas of responsibility.
 
captsteve said:
Max's kinda looks like a squished Jeep liberty. Not sure they made that color.
Click to expand...

The wheels definitely look like Nissan truck/suv wheels.

Here is a blog post with followup comments with more explanation:  http://www.myfjcruiser.org/2218/reno-divide-roll-over/
 
John Canfield said:
First I've heard about it.
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John, it seems like u have 4 wheeled every where, have u been to the Taylor Park / Crested Butte area?  If not, you've been missing some great trails.
 
Max - we have wheeled in the Gunnison Nat Forest area and also a bunch of trails around the Salida area.  End of the month we're going to Leadville for the All-4-Fun event.
 
I was in Leadville 2 weeks ago.  Mosquito pass is or was snow blocked just east of the Summitt.  Hagerman Pass was open all the way only because someone cut a 8' wide X 100' path through 15' of snow. It was different having 15 to 20' vertical wall on one side and almost that high on the other side.
  I did'nt do Birdseye Gulch or Holy Cross because we were solo.
Camp Hale used to be a great free place to camp, but not any more. some 70 years or so after the Army base closed, they said a hunter found a piece of asbestos so they closed all the free places to camp for  "health safety".  They do have a 'pay' campground there, and amazingly it's still ok to camp there.
 
In regard to the forest service allowing it to stay there;  I would think that if they could get the VIN , the registered owner and his insurance company,  I'd  think that if it was insured the insurance company would be responsible to get it out of there up to the limits of liability.
  IMO, they would need a helicopter to lift it out ; or , tug it down the rest of the way, and get out of the way in case it starts tumbling. Then they may still have a hard time getting a truck big enough to carry it out because it is a 4X4 trail.
  I personally don't think it looks so bad. It's a great warning sign to let you know the dangers.  However, the forest service can look for any excuse to close trails,  so it probably be better to 'get it out of there'.
 
I'm just glad that I wasn't in that thing when it came down that mountain......... hell of a ride!!!!
 
captsteve said:
I'm just not seeing that it is the same vehicle. Might be the angle but the damage is different and the body style is different.
Click to expand...

I beg to differ. Studying it very closely, I do believe it is the same vehicle........and of course, from different angles.
 
wgb1 said:
I beg to differ. Studying it very closely, I do believe it is the same vehicle........and of course, from different angles.
Click to expand...

If it's the same vehicle and different angles, then the vehicle has to have moved a lot between the times the shots were taken, since even the rocks around are somewhat different (size, placement, etc.), unless my eyes are deceiving me. Check out the rocks against the left side (apparently touching) in one shot, vs. not touching at all (in the other shot). There's more. Of course given the orange stuff wrapped around the vehicle in the original shot, maybe there was an attempt to retrieve it that provided that movement.
 
gwcowgill said:
Put the pictures side by side and you will see the rocks are not the same.
Click to expand...
see reply #16....... it explains that pretty well, I think.
 
That post was speculation to what MIGHT have happened, IF they are the same vehicle. I'm certainly not convinced that they are. And it's certain that there are many, many slopes in and around mountain areas that look similar to what we see in the pictures, so that is far from definitive. It would help to know where both sets of pics were taken, whether they are essentially at the same place. If so, then it might well be the same vehicle (though it doesn't look like it to me), but that's the missing piece of the puzzle. After all, there are a number of vehicles that have gone over the side in the last 50 plus years (including, of course, the last 10 or 20 years), at least some of which would be on a similar slope.
 
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