Four-wheeler club has a snow day

In the hills south of Laurel, wind had swept the snow clear from the wheat fields. A procession of six Jeeps kicked up dust as they drove over the unplowed county road.

Their CB radios crackled as the drivers traded guesses about whether they would find snow around the next curve or next hill. The road offered a view of rolling prairie punctured at the horizon line by four mountain ranges.

In a winter when most Billings residents are tired of seeing snow, members of the Magic City 4-Wheelers club searched for snow on Saturday morning, looking for a spot to play.

Before long, they found it.

It wasn't much snow, dirty and crusted along the edge of the road, but it would do.

In one stretch of about 50 yards, the snow lay mounded in a 4-foot drift.

Anthony Miller aimed his white Jeep Wrangler Rubicon almost perpendicular to the road to drive at the drift. He drove in a low gear, not much faster than walking speed. The Jeep's large, off-road tires were deflated to 5 pounds of pressure to give more traction as Miller tried to climb the drift. The aired-down tires gave the SUV a cushy, floating feel, as if he were driving an old, boat-like Cadillac.

“You get kind of a floating sensation on the snow, similar to a snowmobile,” said Miller, who runs a financial planning business and is an adjunct professor at Rocky Mountain College. “It's like a rafting trip, but in a vehicle.”

Miller attacked the snowbank with more finesse than ferocity, trying to float over the snow rather than sink into it. He made more than a half dozen attempts, slowing each time he felt his wheels spin and begin to sink.

At one point, the driver's side of his vehicle tilted at an angle perilously close to the tipping point. He backed down in a short retreat, then pursued another line of attack.

Deep snow can do serious damage to a vehicle, including broken axles and other major repairs.

After a few more tries, in what seemed like a grown-up version of King of the Hill, Miller made it to the top.

“So now, I'm floating on top of it. It's like you're on air,” said Miller.

He likes the satisfaction that comes from doing something that others cannot accomplish. “It's like trying to conquer something,” he said. “It's kind of a skill thing and knowing your vehicle and what it can do.”

While snow drifts are fun, he prefers driving in the rocks of a dry creek bed or boulder field.

“The challenge as you go through a boulder field is like trying to figure out a Rubik's Cube. You've got to figure out where to put each tire.”

He initially bought a Jeep just to drive on icy winter roads. He and his wife enjoyed driving it so much they sold their car.

After Miller relinquished his spot at the top of the drift, other Jeeps tried to conquer the same snowbank.

“As long as the snow's deep, it's fun,” Miller said. “I know the snow's too deep if I get stuck, and then I just back out of it. Either that, or I have them pull me out.”

Club members carry tow ropes and often have winches on their vehicles. All the vehicles must have hook points on the front and back, so they can tow, or be towed, from either direction.

Club members who need to be towed out owe a buck to the club's “winch fund,” but it seems more likely that pride rather than the penalty keeps them trying repeatedly to free themselves, as their tires fling clumps of snow high into the air.

Club members also carry shovels, said Mark Cardwell, who organized the day's outing.

“The less you've got to shovel, the better,” said Cardwell, who drives a Lara Croft Tomb Raider customized Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. The Jeep has 36-inch tires with a deep lug pattern. A slogan on the back reads, “You can follow me, but it's gonna hurt.”

Brian Casteel, who works in tech support for Computers Unlimited, compares the rush he gets from driving through fresh, deep snow to other sports.

“In deep snow, you're just bustin' snow. When it sprays out, it's kind of like when you're skiing in powder on Red Lodge and the snow's just kind of bustin' out all over the place. It's just so much fun. It gives us a chance to be a little bit more aggressive on the skinny pedal and we're not doing anything. We're just throwing snow.”

Casteel likes getting out with the club to see the kind of gorgeous scenery that a street vehicle can't get to. He also likes the camaraderie of the group. “We trash talk each other on the radio and just have a good time with it. We kind of one-up one another when we're out playing. The one tries to out-do the other, just to see how big a drift you can get through, and if you get yourself stuck, if you can get yourself out of it without help.”

On a Christmas-tree-cutting run in December, Casteel spent about two hours stuck in snow as everyone helped to dig him out. He had headed up a hill when he lost traction and tried to back out. The vehicle's rear end ended up more than 3 feet off the ground.

The mishap helped him win the club's annual “most stuck” award.

Outings in the family-oriented 4x4 club range from trail rides and rock climbs to campouts. The club, which is based in Billings, also hosts a rally on the last weekend of June.