[GTO]

Own a Pajero or Montero? Here's your chance to participate in an organised off-road event.

Event duration: 01 day
Drive duration: 3 - 5 hours
Terrain: Open ground with a little bit of preparation
Drive originating point: Hotel Sarovar Portico, Ludhiana
Registration fee: NIL

Event schedule:
a) 7:00 am: Breakfast at hotel / Stickering of vehicles
b) 8:00 am: Briefing by Northern Motorsport
c) 8:30 am: Flag-off
d) 2:00 pm: Arrival back to the hotel / De-briefing / Lunch
e) 3:00 pm: Distribution of souvenirs / Customer send-off

[sudev]

Hope we get enough pictures to fill this thread. Any ways here is picture from recce trip for this event:

Through a water crossing:


Resting among paddy fields:

[sudev]

The event route was on the two banks of Sutlej river which crosses the NH1 just north of Ludhiana.

Track A consisted of drive through some dense poplar cultivation up to the river "bund" and then crossing over that in to the river plain. Here a bit of slush, water wading and articulation challenge was organised. After this the convoy turned back and took the narrow "bind" track to go through slushy paddy fields (see pictures from previous post) and come back to tarmac.

Water wading and slush fest: The conditions of this area under went a huge change from the day of recce and the day of event due to virtually no rains in between. The track which was slushy and difficult became a child's play. So the team tried going nearer to river bed at review meeting the night before:

[sudev]

So next day watch this sequence of events at the slush fest and water wading point.

Hesitant approach under heavy articulation


Going in


going going going


gone


Tow with winch did not make it budge


Heavy artillery is called to do the job


Not that it had easy time

[tsk1979]

Now I know the secret of the phone call
How many vehicles participated. The crowd looks thin.

Looks like the sutlej area has some lovely offroading opportunities.

In totality, what was the length of the trail?

[sudev]

Check this out from youtube

This from top of a thirty foot climb up the embankment.

‪PAJERO Heart-in-Mouth in Ludhiana‬‏ - YouTube

The slush pit claimed a few who had to be rescued so that they could try again. The vehicles in background were then going down a rocky slope with point man guiding them slowly inch by inch.

‪PAJERO Hear-in-Mouth in Ludhiana‬‏ - YouTube

Water wading and sand troughs were all part of the course.

‪PAJERO Heart-in-Mouth in Ludhiana‬‏ - YouTube

Ofcourse traffic jams can occur anywhere:

‪20100707191257‬‏ - YouTube

[sudev]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Now I know the secret of the phone call
How many vehicles participated. The crowd looks thin.

Yes that day I was trying to find some area for doing this off road demo event. There were twenty seven vehicles. Check some of the other pictures and you will see the "crowd"

A view of half the convoy. The other half attacked segment B first and then the two convoys swapped trails.

Looks like the sutlej area has some lovely off roading opportunities.
In totality, what was the length of the trail?

The length including transport on highway was forty kilometers out of which 50% was trails.

[nilanjanray]

Why did some of the vehicles get stuck, Sudev? Not enough momentum maintained?

Di you do the same course in your GV?

[sudev]

The B track was on other bank of Sutlej river. Couple of weeks back lots of water had been released from upstream dam so the sand bar was slushy. However this had dried up considerable with finger of water showing in the low areas.

The path was marked by flags and you had to do water slush sand articulation and wall climb as part of the layout.


Water wading had a bit of deep slush and those who did not pay attention to the instructors suffered as their vehicle got stuck in slush and they had to walk through the goo to grab tow straps.


And then there was a steep incline down and up along the river embankment.

One young participant lost his nerve and handed over the control to me to climb back up. It was simple task of engaging 4LLC and let it climb up with a little push of the pedal in first gear. However the steep climb and neinty right at the top on narrow embankment made it a bit tricky. Once on top he confided to me in chaste punjabi "To be honest I lost my ba!!$ down there"

[sudev]

Originally Posted by nilanjanray

Why did some of the vehicles get stuck, Sudev? Not enough momentum maintained?

The participation was by mix of experienced and newbies. That was one reason. Second over enthusiasm in trying to go beyond the mapped territory. Or simply not listening to instructors on how to tackle the challenge.

The participants also enjoyed watching people getting stuck and getting pulled out. But then if you do not get stuck you have not done off-roading!!

[akshay4587]

Nice,good to see the turnout.
I dont see any outlanders?
Was it a Pajero\Montero specific event?

[sudev]

Personally I felt that Outlanders could not have done many challenges. The invite was for Pajero and Montero owners.

[Vid6639]

I see a Fortruner in the midst.

Some friendly competition perhaps.

[wanderhermit]

There were no fortuners. Only Mitshibhishi vehicles. That could be a Montero.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by wanderhermit

There were no fortuners. Only Mitshibhishi vehicles. That could be a Montero.

Do check out the last pic. There appears to be a fortuner parked. May be owned by an official or something