Driving in the snow

We are currently sat in a hotel room in Jasper, Canada, in the middle of a blizzard. We have the TV on and the presenters on Canadian and US news channels are genuinely laughing at the UK “cold snap”. What they are failing to mention is that hardly any cars in the UK would have winter tyres, our gritting services are a joke and we generally are not set up for any prolonged periods of cold as we don’t get them very often.

On the other side of that when we arrived in Calgary a week last Sunday it was -30°C. We picked up the hire car and I had never driven on the wrong side of the road or used an automatic before. We drove out into the unknown, straight on to the motorway, which was an experience. However, everyone has winter tyres, knows how to drive properly in the conditions, drives courteously, gives everyone else plenty of room and as yet we have not seen any incidents on the roads.

Last Sunday we drove a road called the “Columbia Icefields Parkway”. We passed a couple of glaciers, while at -20°C, climbed to 2100m and the hire car, with TCS, ABS and full auto did not struggle at all. We’ve had some ahem “fun” on some mountain passes with the hire car (in my head I am as good a driver as Sebastian Loeb - honest), all in the name of experimentation I should add. Everything and everyone just seems to cope over here as they are fully set up for it. Even the road grit over here seems to be a different sort. The lumps are bigger, almost stoney. It doesn’t so much melt the snow, although I guess it does to an extent, but more dig in under your tyre to give you grip. All in all we are loving driving over here when, to be honest, I was really nervous about it before we arrived.

Edited by chrisg

Gotta say my 1.0 corsa is finding the snow a doddle...It's the pricks that pull out in front of you when you've got a nice pace going up hill that cause the issues especially as all the roads going to my house are uphill  I've also found that 4X4 drivers are the least likely to stop and help...clearly a chip on their shoulders after all the climate change abuse they get.

Be safe guys

Originally posted by Medway Maniac Fact is, ice and compacted snow are much more grippy at -20 than at 0 degrees, as they don't melt and become slippery when you drive over them. Our conditions are actually more difficult than many 'cold' countries.

Yes, ice is definitely less slippery at -20.... urrr ok....

The conditions at home are no more difficult than anywhere else, just we arent geared up for them at all.