there's some lovely, helpful people on this forum apparantly. It's safe to say mr.cheng did not suffer a mechanical failure. I'd be far more sympathetic to his plight.
I have had to get a tow cause my starter pooched it, and I had my camper on my truck. That was not fun, and I am well equipped.
mr.cheng was 25mks up an fsr, and he was not alone. He was stuck. His lack of a follow up post to his original also indicates the likelihood of him 'not being prepared'. And to me, lacking a ton of common sense.
I'm not trying to be dickish, I would have definitely helped. Using the winch can be fun at times... But the question still remains, what the hell is he doing that far up and fsr with zero recovery equipment, in god damn january.
hopefully he bought a shovel and some straps.
Okay...the guy was irresponsible and stupid for being that far up, but let's change the scenario. Let's say it was a pretty blonde girl in that situation...would you have treated her the same way?
The point is not about why he was unprepared (it's already been established that he was irresponsible), it's about giving assistance to someone in dire need. We're not talking about a break down on some city street, this was up in the boonies where conditions were poor.
Ten years ago, I helped out a couple of teens who got stranded trying to wade across the river up by the slides. They literally froze because of fear so I waded in to guide them back to shore. It was dicey and heart pounding due to the fact they were crossing in the middle of a run, but I was experienced enough that we managed to inch our way back using the arm in arm technique. Why did I do it? Because there was not enough time to call for help and I knew if I didn't, there was a high probability of them being swept away. Stupidity shouldn't constitute a life threatening sentence. In fact, by helping they learned a life long lesson that hopefully in turn, they passed on to someone else.