The best recovery story I ever heard was like that. It’s from the book Dennison’s Ice Road.
Dennison is a northern legend. He pioneered the concept of using northern lakes as roads in the winter.
One time they are in a truck on the ice in the high Arctic. Bad stuck, alone. In the high Arctic. They unbolt the rear axel, drag it around front, chop a hole in the ice to hold it, and use it as a deadman to winch themselves out. It’s hard enough swapping rear ends in the summer in my driveway. In freezing arctic temperatures? Just wow.
A different sort of story comes from Alaska. A Piper Cub landing on a creek gravel bar hooks a wheel landing, and flips upside down. They dig a hole under the engine so that it can swing down into the hole and right the plane. Then they have to heat the engine oil over a campfire to get the water out. But they did and got out.
Any of my adventures pale in comparison to those.
A story from my dad who served in a logistics
company during the Korean war;
There was a Sherman tank mired in a bog
that was dotted with sizeable trees. The tank
sat there for two days as the higher ups tried
to contact an engineers company with the
available equipment to free the tank. To no
avail. A driver for my dads' company
commander had been raised on a ranch,
and was experienced in witching techniques.
With a multitude of snatch blocks, chains,
and cables, a MJ (jeep) with a pto driven
winch was able to inch the tank backward
enough to get it back on solid ground.
Snatch blocks can double your pulling
power at every turn.
