Time for "Plan C," (one thing I've learned in my travels that you can never have too many back-up plans!) I got out to investigate and found hard packed snow above the top of my rims, which meant that I was plowing through about two feet of packed snow. Both differentials were dragging through the snow, but the rest of my lifted truck was well above the surface. Another ten feet or so of forward progress and I would be home free - but there was a lot of snow in that final ten feet. I wasn't confident that I could winch my way forward through the packed snow, and besides there were no trees or rocks in front of my truck to attach my winch to. Even though I had never used it in the two years since I first installed it, this was exactly the situation I had in mind when I had installed my Warn 9000 pound rear winch.