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Question: Driving in Heavy Snow: What's your deal-breaker?

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
I'm with pequenita - my life is worth more. And I can work almost anywhere with a computer and phone.
 

skibetty

Certified Ski Diva
Take it slow and don't go faster than what you are comfortable with! There will always be someone who wants to go faster than you. Around here I think there are quite a few who think they are invincible! I have a 4WD pickup with all weather tires and ended up driving to the Vail valley in one of the worst conditions that I had seen in a long time! I think Clear Creek was mostly ice and cars were sliding everywhere! I made it 5hours later and was not even going up to ski! but I was not going to turn around either as I70 was closed going back towards Denver! One thing that I always think about is you will have better traction on the snowpack that is on the road rather than the tracks that could potentially be icy. Always leave plenty of space between you and the car in front of you. I definitely am more worried about the other drivers! Going downhill you can always drop into the lower gears (3 2 1) so that the engine holds you back instead of using the brakes all the time. Slow and steady wins the race.....
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Going downhill you can always drop into the lower gears (3 2 1) so that the engine holds you back instead of using the brakes all the time.

I'm always puzzled by the brake lights I see on Floyd Hill and coming down from I-70. Granted, I drive stick, but I'm pretty sure all automatics allow you to downshift.
 

sibhusky

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
The ski area is only 16 minutes from me in good weather, and the speed limit on the fastest road section is only 45, so I'm unlikely to die. I could go down an embankment at low speed, but my daughter's multiple feats of same show that it's the car that suffers.

I usually pull over to let the people behind me go by. I'm slow enough to irritate everyone else.

Today, however, I'm home due to the lifts not being open. Too cold.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
I'm always puzzled by the brake lights I see on Floyd Hill and coming down from I-70. Granted, I drive stick, but I'm pretty sure all automatics allow you to downshift.

I think people who have never driven a manual transmission don't even remember the idea of a lower gear. It doesn't come naturally if all you've ever done is put it in Drive and go.
 

Pequenita

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I'm always puzzled by the brake lights I see on Floyd Hill and coming down from I-70. Granted, I drive stick, but I'm pretty sure all automatics allow you to downshift.

Yeah, I'm a downshifting maniac in my automatic, but it doesn't look like a ton of people do so. My concern is that people won't realize that I'm slowing down because I don't hit the brakes. I did notice that a rental that I had a while back didn't allow you to shift into 3rd - it only had drive, 2nd and 1st. :crazy: I really could have used 3rd - I was in Glacier NP.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
My concern is that people won't realize that I'm slowing down because I don't hit the brakes.

I've developed the habit of tapping my brakes if there are cars behind me when I'm downshifting. Just enough to demonstrate. Same on my motorcycle - even more critical, and the downshifting on the motorcycle produces some crazy sudden deceleration. Cars can't easily slow that fast. Possibly can't at all.

I did notice that a rental that I had a while back didn't allow you to shift into 3rd - it only had drive, 2nd and 1st. :crazy: I really could have used 3rd - I was in Glacier NP.

Blargh!
 

Christy

Angel Diva
Last night I was feeling like I just needed a lazy day today, and with heavy snow in the forecast I really didn't want to spend extra time getting there and back, so I bailed on our ski plans and my husband went up with his friend. They arrived to find all the upper lifts on wind hold, so everyone was crowded into a just a few lower areas, and then the power went out completely because of the storm (this is not uncommon at Crystal). So glad I stayed home...for me sometimes it's just not worth it.
 

Little Lightning

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
One of my favorite sayings: "Judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment." And then I think of that time when my dog Cooper was in the back seat, and I was coming down from the tunnel on I-70 going way too fast, and had to brake, and ended up fully experiencing all three lanes. Miraculously didn't hit the guard rail.

I'm much more conservative about driving these days.
You're not the only one. It was snowing on our drive up today. Started around Bakersville. Light traffic west bound. Coming down the pass there was a car stopped on the shoulder and I could see the passenger checking the front end of the car. Then I saw the car tracks - into the guardrail then shooting across all 3 lanes to the shoulder. Conditions weren't that bad. Driver must have been looking at the bumper to bumper traffic headed up to the tunnel and hit the guard rail (just a guess, not sure what happened).
 

captain_hug99

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I'm not afraid of driving in snow, I don't like driving on ice. Residential roads in Colorado Springs don't get treated or plowed unless 9 inches of snow has fallen, and when we did have 9+ inches of snow, they still weren't plowed. :rolleyes: So, the worst part of my drive is usually my own road.
 

Little Lightning

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I'm not afraid of driving in snow, I don't like driving on ice. Residential roads in Colorado Springs don't get treated or plowed unless 9 inches of snow has fallen, and when we did have 9+ inches of snow, they still weren't plowed. :rolleyes: So, the worst part of my drive is usually my own road.
Same in Lakewood. However, we live on a corner lot next to a street that has a school on it and those streets do get plowed. I just have to drive a few feet to get to the plowed section and then I'm on my way. :smile:
 

SkiBam

Angel Diva
Wow. Nine inches before your road gets plowed!! People here would go nuts if that happened. They're out doing our roads basically as soon as it starts snowing and pass repeatedly during a storm - plowing and sanding. Then once the storm is over, snow on the main roads is removed (not on my street - it just piles up). And these are village and rural roads - which possibly are better cleared than streets in Montreal (though I read today that has improved). I've often thought that if there's one thing Quebec does well, it's snow clearing.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Well, I may be discovering my limit, and it's whatever the heck is going on tonight on I-70. I'm still hoping to drive just because I'm not sure tomorrow will be better - with 3-5" predicted overnight, and another 3-5" tomorrow during the day.
 

Little Lightning

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Did you make it? Sounds like getting out of Breck right now will take awhile due to accidents.
Well, I may be discovering my limit, and it's whatever the heck is going on tonight on I-70. I'm still hoping to drive just because I'm not sure tomorrow will be better - with 3-5" predicted overnight, and another 3-5" tomorrow during the day.

Did you make it? Sounds like getting out of Breck this morning will take awhile due to a multicar accident that blocked both lanes.
 

geargrrl

Angel Diva
I remember I-70 from 30 years ago and can only imagine what a mess it can be, now!

Now, I'm only 30 miles from the ski hill and there's very little that will hold us back. Here, the worst kind of conditions we get, freezing rain and roads that turn into ice sheets, generally do not coincide with skiing awesomeness so it's easy to stay home and off the skating rink. When there is a big snow storm, we've got no hesitation whatsoever to not go. We've got a heavy 4x4 with huge snow tires, lots of power and clearance, so we just go for it and be smart about driving. The access road to the ski area will get tres and power lines down on it. The trick is to get through right before the road closes behind you :smile:.

I would have some considerations for a road trip. We drove back from Kicking Horse in a big storm where the four wheel drive went out; that was not a whole lot of fun.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Did you make it? Sounds like getting out of Breck this morning will take awhile due to a multicar accident that blocked both lanes.

Gave up around 9:30 and set alarm for 5:30. Kept waking up and checking traffic, so I felt like poop in the morning, but was on the road by 6:30. Vis was tough - the kind of precip that just seems to swallow headlights - but it only took an extra half hour to get home to my work laptop. Going to try to sleep a couple hours before working and also canceled tonight's PT/strength training.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
To answer the actual point, accidents were cleared by the time I checked at 5:30. There were accidents past Vail I think.
 

TeleChica

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
White-out conditions and ice storms will stop me from driving. I hit a white-out once on 93 north just before Lincoln, and nearly drove into the guardrail. Very scary.

I will never go without an AWD car again. Before I got my Subie, we used our FWD Jetta Sport wagon with snow tires (which do help a lot). But even with those tires, we could NOT climb the hill back up to Jay from BC skiing in the area. We tried 5 times to get up it, and the car would not make it. Had to drive around to the north and just made getting over the other pass to get back to our hotel in Jay. I have also just barely made it up the hill to MRG before, even with snows, and there are several BC trailheads I would not trust making in a car without AWD. It's just not an option. AWD with snows is the way to go if you are a skier, IMO.
 

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