The thrill of skiing fresh snow vs the drive to get there?

[cantunamunch]

Why don't they just ban cars completely? Use buses. It's not like you can do anything with a car up there. Really, it's moronic.
Get a Swiss train.

The price of 'freedom' is getting stuck in traffic.

 

[crgildart]

It's not that you can't drive in whiteout, sleet covered road conditions... It's that you can't drive and whiteout, sleet covered road conditions prove it!

 

[SSSdave]

I ski Tahoe resorts and for the last couple decades that more often is Kirkwood, one of the snowiest resorts anywhere. Lots of multi foot storms every winter and though that can mean epic fresh days for those resident at a resort, it also means for those not resident, highways are often closed or tedious to travel on even with 4WD. I've never had a serious accident I could not drive away from in over 4 decades but that is not just the result of being conservative and driving skill but also luck. The one advice I will offer is once a snow sports enthusiast drives 4WD on snowy roads, they will never buy another 2WD car. In any case the choice of whether to chance driving or stay away is a complex issue that weighs against how great skiing might be.

A few times, mostly as a young adult I got really lucky where I almost crashed so wised up. Sometimes it can be snowing so hard that windshield wipers are ineffective, quickly riming up, and piling up snow at the bottom resulting in extreme visibility issues as one strains to peak out through any tiny clear spot. At times that means stopping and getting out to clear a windshield every few minutes. Each time one does that it brings more snow on clothing and blowing spin drift inside that since your heater is going full blast with the fan, just evaporates causing the inside glass surfaces to fog up continually. One might be driving slowly so for miles thinking one can do this by being careful and then suddenly come across black ice on an incline that even 4WD with chains won't hold still on as a vehicle starts sliding side wise and backwards. Or worse get stuck behind some other vehicle that crashed or is blocking the road because they have no traction going up an incline. And that could be a long chain of vehicles with those in front behind the crashee just standing around clueless about doing anything to get by.

Last winter gave us the biggest snows in years. Our biggest coldest storm was mid January that closed a lot of highways including SR88 that goes to KW. Snow level was down to Sierra foothills that is rare. Instead early dawn drove to Dodge Ridge and had R2 4WD conditions between the east end of Sonora and Pinecrest, a distance of about 30 miles. That took about 1.5 scary hours behind a long slow chain of mostly other 4WD vehicles. The pavement on the highway was barely sanded because at those lower elevation county road crews are not used to prepping for snow. At the resort it had snowed 66 inches of very light snow over 48 hours. That day it was worth taking on extreme driving conditions because the reward was a day I'll remember and brag about for the rest of my life. Below image of my previous run taken from chairlift on ride up near end of afternoon with still lots of untracked slopes.

 

[Josh Matta]

4wd, 5 speed, 4 skinny snow tires and decent ground clearance. Bonus I only paid 1700 bucks for it. I also used to do Solo 2, Track day road racing and some Rally X. Nothing is stopping me, and mostly other drivers scare the hell out of me.

 

[Doug Briggs]

I enjoy driving in the snow when there aren't a bunch of goofballs sharing the road with me. I had a pleasant diversion one time returning from Denver to Breck when I-70 closed at Georgetown. No waiting in G-town permitted so I turned around and turned left at Empire, taking Berthoud Pass and Ute Pass home. I don't think I saw more than 5 other vehicles. The roads were snow covered and had that sweet muffled sound only a snow covered highway can offer. 4WD, Hakkas and a Tacoma were the driving trifecta that night.

 

[James]

The price of 'freedom' is getting stuck in traffic.

It's so absurd. The destination is a parking lot at the end of a dead end road. Yet everyone wants their stupid car.
It makes zero sense!
Sense would be parking at the bottom. Just think of it as a long shuttle from the parking lot.
If you charged people $1k for getting stuck it might change things.

Expect the stupidity to continue in the excercise of freedom. Then we'll have self driving cars and people can blame those for the wrecks. They'll get out and argue how their Tesla is smarter than your Ford.

 

[fullStack]

4wd, 5 speed, 4 skinny snow tires and decent ground clearance. Bonus I only paid 1700 bucks for it. I also used to do Solo 2, Track day road racing and some Rally X. Nothing is stopping me, and mostly other drivers scare the hell out of me.

Nice, but think you were pushing the heel a little on that last turn...

 

[Doug Briggs]

Why don't they just ban cars completely? Use buses. It's not like you can do anything with a car up there. Really, it's moronic.
Get a Swiss train.

Did you read about Zermatt being closed? The trains can't get in or out of the town. ;-)

I recall one pleasant, solo drive to Sugarloaf for races. I was putt-putting along in my VW fastback with unstudded snows. It was dark, the roads had that muffled sound and the hyperspace effect was set to maximum. We raced DH and I did pretty ok. Hard to say which part was more fun.

Edit: Ok, the racing was more fun.

 

[crgildart]

Driving in the snow and skiing in the snow are very similar in that the more you have the terrain all to yourself without moving obstacles that are trying to wreck you or seem like they are, the more fun and enjoyable it is.. Loose or lighly packed snow on a sanded road all to myself, FUN! Refrozen slush and rain in a traffic jam going from 0-40mph and back to 0 over and over with bad drivers in bad vehicles skidding out all around me.. WROD, not so much fun..

 

[Josh Matta]

It's so absurd. The destination is a parking lot at the end of a dead end road. Yet everyone wants their stupid car.
It makes zero sense!
Sense would be parking at the bottom. Just think of it as a long shuttle from the parking lot.
If you charged people $1k for getting stuck it might change things.

Expect the stupidity to continue in the excercise of freedom. Then we'll have self driving cars and people can blame those for the wrecks. They'll get out and argue how their Tesla is smarter than your Ford.

I will never be ok with self driving car that can decide my life is worth less than people outside of my car. There needs to be constitutional amendment promising the right to drive your own vehicle. I am not against self driving car, but I am against mandating them......I could just imagine the more regulations and more the car companies would have people by the balls to update stuff and routine maintenance.

 

[crgildart]

It's so absurd. The destination is a parking lot at the end of a dead end road. Yet everyone wants their stupid car.
It makes zero sense!
Sense would be parking at the bottom. Just think of it as a long shuttle from the parking lot.
If you charged people $1k for getting stuck it might change things.

Be careful what you ask for. If you think it's tough to find room for your boot bag in the crowded lodge on a holiday.. The satellite parking lot shuttle buses are pretty impossible to negotiate with your skis AND a trans pack, Booting up at the car is the only feasible option when shuttles up the access road are required. it's also why so many folks in Europe just wear their boots all over the place. Even the boots around the neck on a string is troublesome packed in to those little school buses used around here. ... because schlepping the boot bag around on the shuttles and trains is such a HUGE hassle.. so they/we just boot up at the car and suck it up about so much walking around in the boots on pavement and sidewalks, etc..

Also give up having more quiver in your ski box down in the lot, chill there for lunch, etc..

 

[squill]

Why don't they just ban cars completely? Use buses. It's not like you can do anything with a car up there. Really, it's moronic. Get a Swiss train.

The price of 'freedom' is getting stuck in traffic.

It's been talked about for decades, even a tunnel between LCC and PC with a connection in BCC but the lift interconnect pipe dream, a $1B pricetag and all the watershed/NEPA/NIMBY stuff keeps it in an eternal planning process.

If I'm solo, I take the bus. It's free and included w/any season pass, runs every 15 min at peak times...

 

[Sibhusky]

I'll have to give a thrill report after tomorrow

 

[focker]

We're hoping for 5-6" tomorrow at the ski hill. My son has a HS SL race and is pissed about all the snow lol.

Some people...

I got a cousin who's kid is also on the team driving me out there in his Ford F150 with Snow tires...

 

[James]

We're hoping for 5-6" tomorrow at the ski hill. My son has a HS SL race and is pissed about all the snow lol.

Some people...

I got a cousin who's kid is also on the team driving me out there in his Ford F150 with Snow tires...

Might want to show him this 2009 night race from Schladming for inspiration. I doubt he'll have tens of thousands of fans with smoke bombs, flares, and flags though.

US announcers:

In German, final two skiers, better quality usually.

 

[Wolfski]

There's a lot of drivers that don't need a snowstorm to be white knuckle and IMO If you're driving white knuckle I think you shouldn't be driving, All that tension will reduce your reaction time and smoothness needed to navigate said conditions.

Best powder drive was from Spirit Mt to the cities during a monster storm closing the area by mid-afternoon, I could only see the indentations of the ditches and kept between them, probably saw less than two dozen vehicles and no plows till we got near Minneapolis, by then the drifts were hitting my vans windshield.

Powder days or nights aren't just for skiers

 

[François Pugh]

The worst part of I-89 is actually the Bolton Flats. Between exits 10 and 11, it's a couple miles where the road is just dead straight and flat. That's the point where every half cocked yahoo decides they can speed up because it's straight. It's also where everybody who has been stuck behind someone slower goes to attempt a pass. Inevitably, a fair share of them end up in the ditch. Either because they lose traction even going straight, or because the end of the straightaway sneaks up on them, and they end up in the ditch when they can't take the next bend at their current speed.

I recall back in my late teens or early 20s, I knew all about Newton's laws. I figured straight road if I'm going to slide I'll slide straight ahead on a straight level road....so I was doing 100 mph down the highway during the ice storm. Along comes big gust of wind putting me flat sideways. It's a fortunate thing for me there were no other cars on the road.

I also wonder how many folks who say they'll drive through anything to go skiing have a lot of experience driving in white-out conditions. Let me explain white outs. It's snowing and the road is covered in snow over ice, but everything is fine and you can see a good 300 feet down the road so you're booting along at 60 mph, then suddenly you can't see sh*t, not even the end of your hood for 4 or 5 seconds. When you can see again, you guessed right and you're still on the road, so you slow down to 40 mph, then you see nothing again for 10 seconds, and when you can see again you're on the left shoulder, so you slow down to 10 mph. Driving at 10 mph is very dangerous, because there could very well be some idiot behind you driving 60 mph, so you speed up to 20 mph. The irony is that if you were to stop at a hotel and get 5 hours of sleep you would still get to your destination at the same time.

 

[Chris Walker]

Yah, whiteouts are the worst. Afraid to go for fear the guy in front of you stopped, afraid to stop for fear the guy behind you didn't stop. Not to mention the tendency of roads to occasionally curve.

 

[Slim]

I ski Tahoe resorts and for the last couple decades that more often is Kirkwood, one of the snowiest resorts anywhere. Lots of multi foot storms every winter and though that can mean epic fresh days for those resident at a resort, it also means for those not resident, highways are often closed or tedious to travel on even with 4WD. I've never had a serious accident I could not drive away from in over 4 decades but that is not just the result of being conservative and driving skill but also luck. The one advice I will offer is once a snow sports enthusiast drives 4WD on snowy roads, they will never buy another 2WD car. In any case the choice of whether to chance driving or stay away is a complex issue that weighs against how great skiing might be.

A few times, mostly as a young adult I got really lucky where I almost crashed so wised up. Sometimes it can be snowing so hard that windshield wipers are ineffective, quickly riming up, and piling up snow at the bottom resulting in extreme visibility issues as one strains to peak out through any tiny clear spot. At times that means stopping and getting out to clear a windshield every few minutes. Each time one does that it brings more snow on clothing and blowing spin drift inside that since your heater is going full blast with the fan, just evaporates causing the inside glass surfaces to fog up continually. One might be driving slowly so for miles thinking one can do this by being careful and then suddenly come across black ice on an incline that even 4WD with chains won't hold still on as a vehicle starts sliding side wise and backwards. Or worse get stuck behind some other vehicle that crashed or is blocking the road because they have no traction going up an incline. And that could be a long chain of vehicles with those in front behind the crashee just standing around clueless about doing anything to get by.

Last winter gave us the biggest snows in years. Our biggest coldest storm was mid January that closed a lot of highways including SR88 that goes to KW. Snow level was down to Sierra foothills that is rare. Instead early dawn drove to Dodge Ridge and had R2 4WD conditions between the east end of Sonora and Pinecrest, a distance of about 30 miles. That took about 1.5 scary hours behind a long slow chain of mostly other 4WD vehicles. The pavement on the highway was barely sanded because at those lower elevation county road crews are not used to prepping for snow. At the resort it had snowed 66 inches of very light snow over 48 hours. That day it was worth taking on extreme driving conditions because the reward was a day I'll remember and brag about for the rest of my life. Below image of my previous run taken from chairlift on ride up near end of afternoon with still lots of untracked slopes.

That situation is a good example. You had very high rewards (untracked powder in sunshine) and low risk: you were only going 10 mph, so even if there would have been a crash, you would likely have walked away from it just fine. The driving issue isn’t just being stuck n snow or traffic, but getting injured or dying in an accident.

 

[James]

Did you read about Zermatt being closed? The trains can't get in or out of the town

Imagine how bad it would be for the cars! Besides, I believe the trains can but it's too dangerous because of avalanche risk on the route.