By Randall C. Resch
Beyond the Edge: Lessons from an Arizona Off-Road Recovery
By George L. Nitti
When an overturned Jeep came to rest below a narrow road in New River Canyon, Arizona, veteran off-road recovery operator Carl Girard found himself leading an impromptu classroom.
As owner of Wild West Off Road Recovery in Arizona, Girard takes his wrecker where conventional tow trucks rarely venture. "We only do off-road work," Girard explains. "If you call with a flat tire or a broken-down transmission on the side of the highway, we're going to refer you to somebody else."
His expertise was put to the test in February 2025. A Jeep driver misjudged the narrow edge of a shelf road running alongside a seasonal wash. Although the weather was dry, years of monsoon flooding had eroded the road's outer edge. As the Jeep crept too close to the shoulder, the ground gave way, sending the vehicle tumbling eight to ten feet below the roadway where it came to rest upside down.
As luck would have it, veteran recovery instructor Nena Barlow was conducting a training class only a few miles away. Girard, who has worked alongside Barlow on other technical recoveries, saw an opportunity.
"If your students want to see a real recovery," he told her, "we're just across the road."
What followed became a class, as Girard and Barlow turned the scene into an off-road recovery lesson, challenging students to think through this recovery with a myriad of practical questions. Was the shoulder stable? Could it continue to collapse? What would happen if the Jeep shifted unexpectedly? Every question reinforced the first rule of recovery: understand the scene you are working in.
"Nena asked the students why they think we're doing something," Girard says. “And there would be a small discussion before we moved on."
The recovery itself demanded creativity. There were no suitable anchor points directly above the Jeep, and the unstable shelf road made it impossible to position the recovery truck directly over the casualty. Instead of attempting a straight uphill pull, Girard studied the terrain and took advantage of a section of road that curved back toward the hillside.
Using his twin-line wrecker, he first worked the Jeep closer to the roadway, carefully rotating it back onto its wheels before beginning the final extraction. Snatch blocks, redirected winch lines, and carefully selected pulling angles allowed the crew to control the load while keeping the wrecker safely positioned on stable ground.
"There was no way to get a vehicle directly above it," Girard explains. "We actually had to use some interesting angles and leverage to make the recovery work."
The students became part of the operation as well, positioning a vehicle in front of the wrecker to serve as an anchor, preventing it from creeping forward under load. Every step prompted another discussion. Why this angle? Why redirect the line? Why use leverage instead of simply pulling harder?
For Girard, every recovery is different. "The terrain changes. The vehicles change. The anchor points change," he says.
By the time the Jeep was safely back on the roadway, the students had watched experienced professionals assess risk, adapt to changing terrain, communicate as a team, and solve problems methodically under real-world conditions.
For Girard, that's what makes the work worthwhile.
"I enjoy what I do," he says. "My office is outdoors. My worst day out here is better than my best day sitting in an office."
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Dennie Ortiz x213
