very well writen dude!
that hill looks fun!
be pretty nasty if it was muddy...
I know how pics don't do it justice...
I've got a movie of me doing a step-up hill, not that big, but 3, 3-4' cliffs in it...
easy when its dry, a lot more difficult when its wet...
anyways, I've got a movie of it, and it looks very easy...
http://www.pa-tacomas.com/videos.html
there's also a movie of marshall jumping his rig before he sas'ed it...
http://www.eng.ysu.edu/~melliott/hobbies.htm