What's your worst "Commute to the mountain" Winter driving story?

[Puck it]

I sometimes wake up at night in a cold sweat from the nightmare of being behind one of these on a powder day

What's yours?

Even after living here since 1993, this practice still baffles me. And it gets worse every year because they use pick ups. Where I grew up, one plows does the work of all of these.

 

[bigbog]

Bill & Steve's Mad Adventures....

I sometimes wake up at night in a cold sweat from the nightmare of being behind one of these on a powder day:

What's yours?

..ROTFL....I hear you guys!..those convoys..Maine just can't afford!:lol: Cold sweat..LOL..LOL.

My old log cabin story...never forget it..my day off from math/computer classes(Northeastern) and job as Mass Art's parking lot commandant(LOL), ...already told it so won't detail it.
Went up to Killington..but slid on ice on #4..wound up on top 50-on/50-over wooden guardrail. After the ride in the tow truck I get out and see my baby that got 8-balled by other car that lost it on same patch of ice..bumped me into the side pocket..down ~60' embankment..but still upright. The guys got it back up! and with my ~$60 additional to lift ticket-$ in my pocket(NO Plastic!..LOL).
I crept back to Boston suburbs at ~45mph...to enjoy the rest of my day off..
$.01
steve

 

[Marc]

I remember a drive one night going up to Killington I think where there was ice on the highways under a few inches of snow and we passed something like 14 SUV's and 6 cars that had gone off the road in one fashion or another in the span of about 15 miles. After that the roads were just snow and the driving conditions improved markedly.

 

[wa-loaf]

Coming home from Stowe 10 years ago in a snowstorm a Subaru spun out in front of me. Cars had gone to the left and right and I had nowhere to go except slam/pump on the brakes and ride it out on my bald tires. Hit the front end of the subi and pretty much totaled my old Saab (i.e. not worth the cost to fix it). Nobody was hurt, but I had the joy of riding the greyhound home from New London.

 

[bvibert]

What comes to mind for me wasn't going to the mountain, but coming home. We had just spent the day skiing Gore in less than ideal conditions. Not too long after we left it started snowing, then snowing rather heavily. The snow caused traffic to grind to a halt at times. It took an extra couple of hours to get home (IIRC), all the while knowing that we missed some great skiing by a day.

 

[x10003q]

I was in Vancouver for a week of work training mid-May of 1996. I was flying out Sunday at noon so Friday night I took the rental and drove up to Whistler. The 75 mile trip took a little longer than normal because Monday was a 'bank holiday' 3 day weekend. It snowed over night and most of Saturday. The lift ticket was $9us. I skied in snow, fog, some rain, but I had a great day. I went out on Sat night with some people I met while skiing and we were in some bar with music playing when the music stopped. The dj announced that the there was a rock slide on the road back to Vancouver and the road was closed. The crowd went wild. Somebody explained to me that it could take days to unclog the road. About 1/2 hour later the music stops and it is announced that the road is still passable by 1 lane. I am happy to hear this as I have a flight to catch the next day.

I get on the road Sunday morning at 7am and stop for some gas and call the wife. The trip normally takes 2 hours and I have 5 hours to catch my flight. Since it is Sunday morning on a 3 day weekend there is hardly any traffic. I am driving for about 20 minutes when I get to the rock slide and I come to a stop. The cop tells me the rest of the road was just covered by a rock slide and they were trying to figure out if anybody was buried and I had to turn around. If I hadn't called my wife I might have been buried.

I drove back to Whistler and spoke with some of the people I had met the night before and I decided rather than stay I would drive the other way going north around the mountains to Vancouver. There happened to be two 20 year olds who were desparate to get back to Vancouver in the hotel so off we went. I drove up to Lillooet then south to Vanc. It was about 300 miles and it took 8 hours. Some of the roads were washed out and we were driving on dirt roads on the sides of the mountains we went over. It was a beautiful drive but very scary at times. For most of the ride until we got down to Canadian Hwy 1 we saw about 2 cars. The best town name we saw was Spuzzem. What the f is a Spuzzem?

I missed my flight and got on the Monday flight. Sunday night in my hotel in Vancouver I watched the news and they were unable to figure out how long the road would be closed.
The next morning I went to the airport to catch my flight. The TV news was explaining that they were able to clear the 1 lane and the was a 4 hour back-up to get through. If I hadn't drove around on Sunday I would have missed the Monday flight also.

 

[Glenn]

I get on the road Sunday morning at 7am and stop for some gas and call the wife. The trip normally takes 2 hours and I have 5 hours to catch my flight. Since it is Sunday morning on a 3 day weekend there is hardly any traffic. I am driving for about 20 minutes when I get to the rock slide and I come to a stop. The cop tells me the rest of the road was just covered by a rock slide and they were trying to figure out if anybody was buried and I had to turn around. If I hadn't called my wife I might have been buried.

Yikes!

 

[Geoff]

I have quite a few. All the bad ones had black ice involved.

Mid-70's: I was in the back seat of a massive Delmont 88 doing a day trip to New Hampshire. The driver hit ice slid off the road. A tow truck shows up about 30 minutes later, runs a hook to the car down the embankment, and starts winching. The car was so heavy that the front wheels of the tow truck start lifting off the ground. The tow truck guy stands on his front bumper and starts bouncing the truck. The frame of the truck folds in two. "I guess I can't help ya, boys" and he drives away. The massive tow truck shows up 30 minutes later. We get pulled to some small rural garage. The front suspension is a mess. The guy puts the car up on the lift, pulls out a torch, heats things up, and "Wham! Wham! Wham!" with a sledge hammer. A couple of repeats eyeballing it and he drops the car. $25.00 and the car is drivable. We managed to ski the afternoon.

Late-70's: I was on NH I-89 when I hit black ice on a long sweeping left corner. I started in the left lane and gradually drifted across the road to the breakdown lane. I managed to get enough traction to avoid hitting the guard rail.

Early-80's: I had a K-Blazer towing a couple of snowmobiles fishtail and jack knife right in front of me about 5 miles up NH I-93 in Windham. I just managed to squeeze by him without hitting anything.

Mid-1980's. Ice & freezing rain on a Friday night. On Vermont Route 4 in Bridgewater, the traffic comes to a complete stop. After a few minutes, I turn off the car and get out. I then slid across the road to the guard rail. It took me about 5 minutes to work my way back to the car.

Late-1980's. A Vermont Transit bus hit black ice and did a 540 right in front of me 30 miles up I-89 in New London. I managed to stop my car about a foot from his front bumper.

Early 1990's: I got stranded in Denver when the flight to Aspen cancelled. I rented a Geo Metro 1-way to Aspen. The I-70 drive was a real trip. A foot of driven-on unplowed snow in an econobox with no ground clearance and crap tires. All the highway light boards said "Chains and 4WD Required". I just put my foot to the floor and plowed my way up the passes. My then-fiancee was in the right seat pretty terrified. The strays we'd split the car with were in the back not saying much.

 

[x10003q]

Yikes!

The cop said to me I was a lucky guy. The slide was covering about 500 yards of road around a bend and they could not see the other side. They were gapping the cars by about 200 yards. It turned out that the last car they sent made it through. I kind of shugged it off when it happened, but when I spoke to family members and heard them freak out a little I realized how lucky I was.

 

[WWF-VT]

Friday March 16, 2007 was the ride from hell to get to Sugarbush. Snow started in the Boston area mid afternoon so I cut out of work early hoping to get ahead of the storm and traffic. No luck ! Route 128 turned into a parking lot by 3 PM and the usual 16 miles from my house to get on Route 3 North took over an hour instead of 15 minutes. Everyone kinda freaks out when there is snow around here, so Friday rush hour traffic starts early which packs the snow into a slick covering before the plows and salt/sand trucks can do their job. Route 3 proceeds to crawl on forever, snow is dumping and we're lucky if we hit 25 MPH in traffic. There's no traffic/snow let up through the NH tolls and getting on 89 North. On Route 89 traffic continues to suck with lots of bad drivers, spin outs and a near bumper to bumper line of cars snaking their way along Route 89 through New Hampshire. I have done plenty of white knuckle driving and have an AWD car with winter tires but this trip was painful. Having been in the car for over 6.5 hours on what is usually a 3 hour trip I decided it was better for me and my family to get a hotel rather than continuing into VT and what looked like another 3+ hours of driving. Got a room at the Fireside Inn in Lebanon, NH and had one of the tastiest Heinekens in my life when we got there. The good news is that it was a lot easier driving in the AM and though the roads were still tough driving we were on the mountain by 10AM. If anyone else remembers -this was the St Patricks Day storm weekend when Sugarbush got hit with close to 40 inches of snow and Sunday ranks as one of the best days of my life skiing.

 

[downhill04]

I sometimes wake up at night in a cold sweat from the nightmare of being behind one of these on a powder day:

What's yours?

OMG that reminds me of a trip to mount snow when I was in college. I think it was the winter of 1998. My roommate and I went to WNEC in Springfield MA. It was about 11pm, the snow just started flying and they were calling for over a foot of snow by the morning commute. We decided in the middle of playing a beer pong tournament that we were going to hit the road at 4am and get to Mt Snow in time for first chair.

We loaded up my blazer and hit the road just after 4am. There was about 6-8 inches on the roads leading to I91. When we got to I91 it looked as if the plow brigade had just gone thru. The roads were empty and we flew until we got to just about the Holyoke Mall. That was when we came upon the yellow flashing lights from the 6 plow trucks doing 15-20mph. Since we were two complete idiot college guys dead set on getting first chair, we instantly looked for a hole to scoot thru and pass the plows. After about 20 minutes of doing 15-20mph we got a little anxious and decided we were passing these trucks ASAP because we didn’t want to miss out on first chair.

My buddy spotted a truck that kept speeding up and then slowing down to return to formation. We pulled behind him and the first time there was the tiniest window I punched it. The only thing I was thinking about at the time was not spinning out in front of the plows and getting caught up in their plow blades. I had just about cleared the plow to the right and started to pull over into the lane he was plowing. I thought we were in the clear until we were just about even with the plow to the left of me. There we were doing 45mph in 6-8 inches of snow, a few feet from a convoy of plows, when the snow from the plow on our left completely covered both the windshield and the driver side window.

Luckily for us we were on a straight stretch of highway and my buddy was a quick helper. He yelled “Keep your foot in it, don’t slow down, speed up!” As I was following his lead he rolled down his window, stuck his whole upper body out, gave me directions while cleaning the snow off the windshield. The whole process took about 10 seconds but it seemed much longer at the time.

Once enough snow was cleared from the windshield, the wipers were then able to move and clear the rest. The roads continued to be empty and covered with at least 6 inches of snow. We made it to mount snow at 6:20 and said “why the hell did we leave so early and why did we feel the need to pass those damn plows?” We then suited up, paid $15 each for a breakfast sandwich and coffee at the lodge, then stood out in front of the summit express from 7:00 until 8:30 when they fired up the chair. Because of the amount of snow on the roads the place was empty until around 10am. We skied fresh tracks all morning. It ended up being a top 5 day for both of us.

I wont be trying to pass one of those damn plow brigades ever again.

 

[Beetlenut]

OMG that reminds me of a trip to mount snow when I was in college. I think it was the winter of 1998. My roommate and I went to WNEC in Springfield MA.

I went to WNEC and made that same trip many times back in the late 80's!

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

We then suited up, paid $15 each for a breakfast sandwich and coffee at the lodge, .

Wow..that expensive back in 1998..da damn...lol

 

[Trekchick]

How does being pulled over for speeding on the way to ski and being questioned .......no......interrogated by the police about your car load of skis because they can't believe that ONE person could possibly have FIVE pair of skis......?










fWIW I still think GSS' TR beats most of the stories.....

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

How does being pulled over for speeding on the way to ski and being questioned .......no......interrogated by the police about your car load of skis because they can't believe that ONE person could possibly have FIVE pair of skis......?
QUOTE]

That's actually pretty funny...I drive like a grandma to the mountain so I never get pulled over for speeding..68 in a 65...is how I roll..because PA and NY cops will nail you at 5mph over..


you Know you are having an exciting day when you feel the need to post about it...so I guess everyday of my life is pure excitement..

 

[Bubbartzky]

Mid 1970s - I was working in Manhattan and my (now ex-) wife and another couple drove in from Queens late on Thursday before Washington's Birthday weekend, picked me up, and we headed north, going to my friend's uncle's ski house high on a hill in Granville, VT with a planned stop at a college friend's place just north of Albany. We got stuck in traffic heading out of the city, then it started snowing in Kingston, NY heading up the Thruway. We got to our friend's place around 10:00 PM and left around 11:00 since it was snowing heavily and we still had 3 hours to go on good roads. Slow going all the way to Exit 20, then even slower on 149 (this was before they straightened out the part closer to Queensbury) and on Rt. 4 heading toward Fair Haven. We kept saying it would be better when we got to Vermont but, once we got to the border we learned otherwise. It was snowing so hard, I think road crews had given up for the night. We slogged our way to what was then the end of the highway section (now the exit in West Rutland) and then crawled into Rutland on Rt. 4, through Rutland and all the way to Rt 100 and up to Granville. We made the right turn off 100 onto the road up the hill to the house, got stuck and had to walk the mile or so up hill. Of course, we carried our luggage with us, leaving the skis on the roof of the car. We got all the way up the hill in heavy snow, got into the house around 4:00 AM, only to find the power out and no heat. We slept by the fire in the living room, got up the next morning with power restored, warmed up and went to change into ski clothes before rescuing my car and heading to Glen Ellen. To my dismay, I found I'd forgotten to pack clean underwear. Anyway, skied the afternoon, came back to the house, then headed out to find a place to buy underwear and get some food. All this time it was still snowing. Long and short of it was, it didn't stop snowing until sometime Saturday and, by that time, we'd gotten 38" of snow so it was all worth it - 12 hours of travel, stuck car, no clean underwear, but 38" of snow was priceless.

 

[billski]

How does being pulled over for speeding on the way to ski and being questioned .......no......interrogated by the police about your car load of skis because they can't believe that ONE person could possibly have FIVE pair of skis......?...

I can see that. Interesting stories come to mind about cops finding trunk full of skis in the parking lot at Stowe - a day's haul from two flatlanders that never skied a day in their life. I can see bringining 2 or 3, but five? Could you really not decide, or were you homeless at the time? :lol:

 

[Trekchick]

I can see that. Interesting stories come to mind about cops finding trunk full of skis in the parking lot at Stowe - a day's haul from two flatlanders that never skied a day in their life. I can see bringining 2 or 3, but five? Could you really not decide, or were you homeless at the time? :lol:

Homeless, funny you should bring that up right now....
But no, I often take too many skis with me because I have friends and family who use some of my gear.

 

[bigbog]

...know the feeling...

What comes to mind for me wasn't going to the mountain, but coming home. We had just spent the day skiing Gore in less than ideal conditions. Not too long after we left it started snowing, then snowing rather heavily. The snow caused traffic to grind to a halt at times. It took an extra couple of hours to get home (IIRC), all the while knowing that we missed some great skiing by a day.

Isn't that just a great feeling?...y/n...LOL..LOL

Bubbartsky.....Reality is often wilder than fiction eh!

 

[billski]

Homeless, funny you should bring that up right now....

Hope you're OK!