Worst Travel Conditions You've Ever Experienced?

[andyzee]

Up until Friday I would have said driving up the Big Cottonwood Canyon road in Utah. However Friday this changed. Driving up to Killington I experienced my worst conditions ever. Normally this ride takes me 4 hours, this time it took me 8 hours. The ride up was pretty uneventful with the exception of a lot of snow all the way up. There were cars run off the road all the way up the NYS Thruway. For a change, I didn't see any SUVs run off the road and stuck in the snow. Guess SUV drivers have learned that they need to be careful. The ride on the Thruway was slow but not too bad. Most of the way up was at 35-40 mph. Once I passed the New Baltimore rest stop, I was actually able to speed up to 50+ mph. Took exit 23 and drove through Albany and Troy and across to Bennington, a lot of snow, but not too bad.

Where the extreme conditions started were on RT 7 between Bennington and Manchester. Here RT 7 winds along a ridge above Manchester and other towns below. The road was snow covered all the way, to the point that all I could do was look at the reflectors on either side and just try and stay in between them, this however was not the worst of it. As I got further up towards the high point of this road, started getting hit by really strongs gusts of wind. Everytime the wind blew towards the truck, it would blow large amounts of snow as well, making it virtually impossible to see anything in front of you. When this happened, I would step on the brake and this is the first time I ever experienced vertigo while driving. I had no idea as to wheather had stopped, was moving or if I slowed down how much. Yes, I know I could have looked at the speedometer, but when you can't see in front of you, you don't take your eyes off the road. There had been a car that had been sticking close behind me for some time. With the way the drive was going and the possibility of my having to have to step on the brakes at any time, I was constantly keeping an eye on him. Eventually I got tire of doing this and decided to take the next exit and let him pass, well he followed me on the exit. I got off and pulled a u-turn and decided to get back on RT 7. The ramp going up was covered as was the shoulders, there was no reflectors or anyway of telling where the road was, where the shoulder was, or where there may have been a ditch. I stuck to the left and my wife stated that she thought the road was to the right, I moved to the right and it's a good thing I did, we eventually saw some black top poke through inbetween the snow bars. Got back on 7, continued on a ways figuring it would get better as I got off the ridge. To a certain extent it did, no more wind, but less plowing on the road, they were completely covered. Eventually made it, but got white knuckles to show for it On the bright side skiing was great!

 

[ajl50]

Family got lost going to williamstown mass to visti my cousin at williams. Was dark and pounding snow at 1.5-2 inches per hour.
Ended up having to go up and over an unplowed route 2. Had a big caddy deville at the time and the car did great. Well except for some insane fishtailing.

that was scary.

Oh and driving in africa- at night with one headlight and throngs of people on the road and oncoming trucks with no headlights and monkeys. But that doesn't count.

 

[BeanoNYC]

Met my buddy near the Throgsneck Bridge at 5:45 PM this Friday. We got to Stowe at 4:00 AM!!! White knuckle drive is an understatement. Totally worth the drive though.

 

[FRITOLAYGUY]

Andyzee and Beano you guys are diehards, im glad in the end it was worth it for the both of you.

 

[andyzee]

Andyzee and Beano you guys are diehards, im glad in the end it was worth it for the both of you.

What really shocked me is that fact that he mentioned having a buddy :lol:

 

[BeanoNYC]

What really shocked me is that fact that he mentioned having a buddy :lol:

It was an imaginary friend.

 

[andyzee]

It was an imaginary friend.

10+ hours driving in whiteout conditions, you know, not only can I believe that, but I couldn't blame you. Did he answer you when you spoke to him or did you both just remain silent all the way up? :lol:

 

[BeanoNYC]

10+ hours driving in whiteout conditions, you know, not only can I believe that, but I couldn't blame you. Did he answer you when you spoke to him or did you both just remain silent all the way up? :lol:

He just passed a lot of gas.

 

[andyzee]

He just passed a lot of gas.

That's what I would call bad travel conditions!

 

[Zand]

I guess this past weekend to Stowe was the worst. Left here at 12:30 on Friday, took 2 freaking hours just to get to 91 from the Pike (normally 40 minutes), then another hour from the Pike to the VT border on 91. Took a total of 4 hours through Vermont including a 30 minute stop (normally 3.5 hours). So it must be that MA is closer to CT than VT is making the drivers worse and the roads slower.

Otherwise, besides a few hairy trips to Wachusett, not too much to mention.

 

[SkiDork]

Andy, the general rule of thumb is to do Northway->149-4 in a snowstorm. I was able to do 60 on the Northway. 149-4 was OK, not great. It DID take me 9-1/2 hours but it took me 3 hours to get to the Thruway/17 intersection so I made it in 6-1/2 hours from there...

 

[andyzee]

Andy, the general rule of thumb is to do Northway->149-4 in a snowstorm. I was able to do 60 on the Northway. 149-4 was OK, not great. It DID take me 9-1/2 hours but it took me 3 hours to get to the Thruway/17 intersection so I made it in 6-1/2 hours from there...

Yeah, kind of figured that out. :-D

 

[SKIQUATTRO]

back in 1998 my GF (now wife) and I were both working in NYC, she was living there, I was living in CT (Middletown area) and taking the train to NYC from New Haven every day (thats after a 45 min car ride to NH) On a Friday afterwork, we hopped MetroNorth to New Haven, got in my Acura Integra 5 speed, 2 door coupe (no snow tires) FWD and headed up to Burlington to ski Stowe as her sister was at St Mikes then....drove up in a blizzard all the way, countless light beams coming from ditches, white knuckle the whole way, took close to 11 hours....made it safe, but had snows on my cars ever since...

 

[billski]

In the 80's we drove through "transition zones" (rain to snow), seeking the goods north of Boston. The zone usually had some form of freezing rain, sleet or other unpleasantries. Usually a slow pace was the magic sauce to get to the goods. Once, we were driving, about 55mph in moderate traffice, and I watched a dozen, yes, a dozen vehicle begin to spin and slide on the flat straight away on I93. they landed backwards, in the ditch, median and in trees all within seconds. I was able to slow down sufficiently to avoid, then I looked in my mirror and about a halfdozen
began to crash into each other like bumper cars.

We continued on, at about 20mph, seeing many, many more vehicles ditched. Decided to get off at the next exit and wait for the highway crews. We had a breakfast that couldn't be beat, wasted an hour, then back to the highways. At that point, everything was rain. Even Franconia was rain. Got to the BW lodge, it was pouring buckets. Bought the sunday paper and read it in the lodge.

No dents, no broken bones, we all got home safe.

 

[ctenidae]

Two years ago, going to my younger brother's bachelor party/camp-a-thon. Driving up a tiny, windy, two lane road in the mountains, with only an out of date topo map and a large scale road map to guide me, trying to find a dirt road off the blacktop, at 4 am, in fog that cut visibility to about 30 feet, in a Hyundai. Turns out that, though the map indicated the dirt road was just before the scenic overlook, it was actually about 3/4 mile past it. I went back and forth on that road for about 3 hours. FInally found the road, drove down it to where everyone else had parked, and humped it in, in the rain, about 2 miles.

That was fun.

 

[hammer]

In the 80's we drove through "transition zones" (rain to snow), seeking the goods north of Boston. The zone usually had some form of freezing rain, sleet or other unpleasantries. Usually a slow pace was the magic sauce to get to the goods. Once, we were driving, about 55mph in moderate traffice, and I watched a dozen, yes, a dozen vehicle begin to spin and slide on the flat straight away on I93. they landed backwards, in the ditch, median and in trees all within seconds. I was able to slow down sufficiently to avoid, then I looked in my mirror and about a halfdozen
began to crash into each other like bumper cars.

We continued on, at about 20mph, seeing many, many more vehicles ditched. Decided to get off at the next exit and wait for the highway crews. We had a breakfast that couldn't be beat, wasted an hour, then back to the highways. At that point, everything was rain. Even Franconia was rain. Got to the BW lodge, it was pouring buckets. Bought the sunday paper and read it in the lodge.

No dents, no broken bones, we all got home safe.

Do you remember the specific section of I-93 that you were on when you saw all of the spinouts? Was it the stretch between Manchester and Concord?

That section of road has been problematic this year IMO...

 

[zook]

andyzee - funny, the same thing happened to us on exactly the same route in January. The moment we got on the 7 in Bennington until Manchester exit - total whiteout, snow covered road, we also had to use reflectors for an indication where the road is. The wind wasn't as bad, but everything else sounds very familiar

Going up the Big Cottonwood Canyon at night in total whiteout conditions was no fun either. Plus there were no reflectors and no ramp on the side of the road. People coming down the canyon probably had it worse.

Another bad one was last year - we drove up north on the 87 during a snow storm and never before had I seen so many accidents and cars that were stuck in the snow. One guy had literally stopped his car ON the left lane. He was lucky nobody run into him.

 

[andyzee]

Going up the Big Cottonwood Canyon at night in total whiteout conditions was no fun either. Plus there were no reflectors and no ramp on the side of the road. People coming down the canyon probably had it worse.

Yeah, that is scary. We drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon during bad conditions, not at night though, and I couldn't beleive that there was no divider or anything to keep you from going off the side of the mountain. Fortunetly though, those conditions weren't as bad as this past Friday in VT.

 

[BeanoNYC]

andyzee - funny, the same thing happened to us on exactly the same route in January. The moment we got on the 7 in Bennington until Manchester exit - total whiteout, snow covered road, we also had to use reflectors for an indication where the road is. The wind wasn't as bad, but everything else sounds very familiar

Going up the Big Cottonwood Canyon at night in total whiteout conditions was no fun either. Plus there were no reflectors and no ramp on the side of the road. People coming down the canyon probably had it worse.

Another bad one was last year - we drove up north on the 87 during a snow storm and never before had I seen so many accidents and cars that were stuck in the snow. One guy had literally stopped his car ON the left lane. He was lucky nobody run into him.

It's interesting that you would take that route from Queens, Zook. How long was the ride? I've been thinking about trying it that way for a change.

 

[dmc]

i have a pretty crazy memory of heading up to Killington in a mid-80's Mustang GT in a huge snowstorm... 5 of us with skis... In a hopped up rear wheel drive... We did so many 360s on the access rd I almost barfed...