• For more information on how to avoid pop-up ads and still support SkiTalk click HERE.

Your car is your Baselodge

raytseng

Making fresh tracks
Skier
Joined
Mar 24, 2016
Posts
3,330
Location
SF Bay Area
That's a bold assumption, assuming they carry chains in the first place. Coastal Californians thinks they can ignore the chain laws to begin with.

Over the weekend, at Tahoe, I saw a guy driving a G-wagen with summer tires... good thing it wasn't cold during the day or snowing... because I would have laughed my ass off watching a guy driving a $100K plus vehicle with 4WD, struggling for traction to accelerate from a stop light going up a mild hill

Yea, I'm referencing the 80/20 pareto principle. I view it as 80% percent freak out when they see 1 person chain up, and that's why then the snake ends up chaining up 3miles down the hill.
But I'm agreeeing there are still going to be 20% that will go to the front and try to sweettalk their way past controls.

None I see as a generic stereotype based on where they came from though. 80/20 still applies regardless of "californians" or "Florida Man" or "Texans" or whatever.
 

Rudi Riet

AKA songfta AKA randomduck - a USSS coach, as well
SkiTalk Tester
Contributor
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
2,462
Location
Washington, DC
That's a bold assumption, assuming they carry chains in the first place. Coastal Californians thinks they can ignore the chain laws to begin with.

Over the weekend, at Tahoe, I saw a guy driving a G-wagen with summer tires... good thing it wasn't cold during the day or snowing... because I would have laughed my ass off watching a guy driving a $100K plus vehicle with 4WD, struggling for traction to accelerate from a stop light going up a mild hill

I see stuff like this all the time in the east (south of New England, mostly the coastal areas): people with zoot 4WD SUVs (Rovers, G-Wagens, Suburbans, et al) who believe that four-wheel drive is an invincibility shield. Most are running all-season tires with minimal tread life, few get proper snow tires, and few realize that four-wheel drive doesn't equal four-wheel stop.

As they say: physics is a cruel equalizer.

The cars you most often see spun off into the median and off the shoulder of Interstates 91 and 93 in Vermont and New Hampshire: big SUVs, often from the cities (especially ones with New York tags). Meanwhile, the Vermonters driving two-wheel drive cars with full winter tires and/or studs putter along just fine.

Even those without the best tires do OK as long as every move is slow and deliberate. I drove in terrible New England snow for years in a front-wheel drive Geo with all-season tires and without antilock brakes or traction control. I did fine, I knew the car's limits. The only time I got seriously stuck was at a Mid Atlantic gathering at Blue Knob, but the crew helped me out. Otherwise, flying low and slow, knowing every move had to be methodical, and not being in a hurry were keys to success.
 

crgildart

Gravity Slave
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
16,328
Location
The Bull City
The only time I got seriously stuck was at a Mid Atlantic gathering at Blue Knob, but the crew helped me out.
I wasn't going to tell anyone about that. It was a layer of frozen rain with a 1/4" of shiny ice over the packed snow too. Only chains would have been ideal at the time you arrived. And you ALMOST made it!
 

David

"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati"
Skier
Joined
Oct 14, 2017
Posts
1,346
Location
Holland, MI
Yea, I'm referencing the 80/20 pareto principle. I view it as 80% percent freak out when they see 1 person chain up, and that's why then the snake ends up chaining up 3miles down the hill.
But I'm agreeeing there are still going to be 20% that will go to the front and try to sweettalk their way past controls.
Every time I tell the officer's I'm from Michigan they just wave me on with no chains.
 

crgildart

Gravity Slave
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
16,328
Location
The Bull City
Every time I tell the officer's I'm from Michigan they just wave me on with no chains.
It's more often than not tags from snowy winter states we see in the ditch down here when we get that 2" Snowmagedoon. I grew up in Minnesota and lived a decade in New York before moving here so I know what I'm talking about.

Here's why it's always a colossal cluster frick when we get a little dusting of snow here. It's usually well above freezing when the cold front vortex arrives and snow starts falling. It hits the warm ground, melts to water.. then as the cold blast settles in everything freezes up as ICE. Happens up north that way sometimes too, but.. up north there is usually sand down on the roads from the the snow last week. here, NO SAND. Recent transplants from the "I now how to drive on snow" areas think they got this. I did at first too. It's an entirely different animal with no sand under it.

So ya, please throw that iron on..
 

tch

What do I know; I'm just some guy on the internet.
Skier
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Posts
1,542
Location
New England
I remember visiting friends in Atlanta many years ago when they had a freak snowstorm of about 4". The entire city shut down. There were two -- count 'em -- two snowplows for the entire metro area.
 
Thread Starter
TS
LiquidFeet

LiquidFeet

instructor
Instructor
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
6,697
Location
New England
Three Christmasses ago I visited family in Charleston SC. It snowed 8" and that snow did not melt for a week. They had no snow plows. Everything shut down, including the airport. The roads, which some people did drive on, became monorails of compacted ice. My grandson had a blast being pulled on a makeshift sled.
 

Jersey Skier

aka RatherPlayThanWork or Gary
Skier
Joined
Jan 16, 2016
Posts
1,956
Location
Metuchen, NJ
It's more often than not tags from snowy winter states we see in the ditch down here when we get that 2" Snowmagedoon. I grew up in Minnesota and lived a decade in New York before moving here so I know what I'm talking about.

Here's why it's always a colossal cluster frick when we get a little dusting of snow here. It's usually well above freezing when the cold front vortex arrives and snow starts falling. It hits the warm ground, melts to water.. then as the cold blast settles in everything freezes up as ICE. Happens up north that way sometimes too, but.. up north there is usually sand down on the roads from the the snow last week. here, NO SAND. Recent transplants from the "I now how to drive on snow" areas think they got this. I did at first too. It's an entirely different animal with no sand under it.

So ya, please throw that iron on..

What is this sand you speak of? Never seen it round these parts.
 

crgildart

Gravity Slave
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
16,328
Location
The Bull City
What is this sand you speak of? Never seen it round these parts.
Wow you beaches must really suck! Seriously though, it's gotten better down here past year or two. DOT has a few plows for the trucks and sands AFTER ice. The brine pre treatment rarely helps though because it's often washed away by the rain that comes first.
 

Uncle-A

In the words of Paul Simon "You can call me Al"
Skier
Joined
Dec 22, 2015
Posts
10,893
Location
NJ
Wow you beaches must really suck! Seriously though, it's gotten better down here past year or two. DOT has a few plows for the trucks and sands AFTER ice. The brine pre treatment rarely helps though because it's often washed away by the rain that comes first.
Plus the people that relocate to the south are better drivers in the snow than the life long residents.
 

jmeb

Enjoys skiing.
Skier
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Posts
4,490
Location
Colorado
Healthy ski day lunch and beers.
54B4BF23-32FE-4E1E-9ACF-0A30147E189E.jpeg
 

Tricia

The Velvet Hammer
Admin
SkiTalk Tester
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Posts
27,298
Location
Reno
Last edited:

Tricia

The Velvet Hammer
Admin
SkiTalk Tester
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Posts
27,298
Location
Reno

Sponsor

Staff online

  • Andy Mink
    Everyone loves spring skiing but not in January
Top