Chris' Toyota is a pretty impressive collage of engineering. I think most people figured he'd climb out of the gully and into the Monkey Trench without too much trouble. Somewhat surprisingly after he spent several minutes trying to get up the hill, he finally decided to pull out the winch. Not until he had done a pretty good job of digging holes in the side of the bank though. That was ok, just makes for a more challenging time of it for the next truck.

Seeing the winch cable come out got me even giddier. Not relishing someone's defeat (it's not a contest between people, but between the trail and the driver), but at the prospect that "hey, this trail really is a challenge, and these guys are having fun". I knew that this is the sort of thing they were looking for, and I was glad it was panning out for them. On top of that, Moose was firing off his potato gun for every truck that had to be winched.

Most of the other trucks had to be winched as well. This bank was proving to be quite difficult, much like trying to wrestle a Moose to the ground, you're not likely to succeed and you're probably going to come out of it a little bruised if not seriously injured (truck-wise that is).

Dave Podmorof had the bright idea of taking a slightly different line than that of the others. This line positions the truck with more of a straight shot at the obstacle. On the previous runs we had done on this trail (both forwards and backwards) we came to the conclusion that this was probably the best position to attack the climb from, and where success was most likely to be achieved. I thought Dave along with Rob McFadden had the best chances at making this hill. They both have a good combination of lightweight and plenty enough horsepower. This hill wasn't going to be crawled; gassing it would be the only way one would make it. Unfortunately for Dave, today wasn't his time to concur this beast, although he came within just a few feet of making it. BANG, (off goes another potato into the wild blue yonder) and so Dave takes the cable.

When Rob pulled into position with his V8 a rumbling away, you could get the sense that a "first" was about to happen. Everyone who had cameras were scrambling for position, and people were even yelling at Rob to give the crowd a signal when he was going to punch it. Cody was standing straight in line with Rob's line, but across the trench. Even so, Rob was heard yelling for him to get out of the way. Prime evidence that a certain someone was determined beyond all doubt to make it or break it on this hill.

Rob hit the pedal, and started his way up the hill. He wasn't giving it as much gas as was expected, but still the same he was making good progress. He made it past the point that others had gone, and just when it looked like he might not make it, some throttle manipulation and corrective steering sent him flying into the trench. He crested a dirt bank with about a two-foot drop into the trench and stalled. He stopped with his passenger side tire tangling in the trench, driver's side on the crest of the bank, and his arse end hanging back towards the bottom of the gully. After starting up the engine he clawed his way into the bank with all tires gripping due to the dual lockers, and with that he officially crowned himself King of the Hill. I couldn't help myself, I just had to go over and shake his hand.

Like I said, pretty much everyone else couldn't make the hill. There was a certain Nanaimoite who was pretty determined though. Again, Dave's line was taken, and Tony ??? from Nanaimo in his Toyota was hell bent for not being left in the dust by Rob. Tony didn't have a winch so Rob had backed down the trench a bit into a pretty nifty parking job (no double parking here, not because of a by-law, but because of some very persuasive mother naturing).