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focker

focker

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There was a time in my life that I drove each weekend day up to the Poconos and back home again same day. 2.25 hours each way. I was young. Couldn't have done much further then after a day of skiing, wouldn't have survived the drive home. Now I think my max would be 1.5 and I certainly wouldn't do it very often.

I'd do 2 hours if I didn't have to do it that often and was able to get 5+ hours of skiing in for doing it. For night skiing I won't do over 1 hour.
 

surfsnowgirl

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I pass so many 4x4s in the ditches when we're driving through a snow storm. 4x4 doesn't make you invincible. I'm generally more afraid of other people crashing into me than I am over my own vehicle's capability to get there. I'm a conservative driver and drive even more so when there's weather. I've had to drive to the mountains and home from the mountains in many a snow storm and slow n steady wins the race for sure. I think there are times when it's not worth it and if/when I think it's going to be THAT bad I'll go up the night before the storm, especially when I have to work at the mountain that day.
 

Guy in Shorts

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Love when the weather gets so bad that the driving thrill starts to reach the scary steep skiing level. Fun is pushing the limits while surviving to play another day.
 

crgildart

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Love when the weather gets so bad that the driving thrill starts to reach the scary steep skiing level. Fun is pushing the limits while surviving to play another day.

Except that the consequences for hooking an edge or washing the tails out can take out an entire family of strangers who just happened to also be trying to get to or from the mountain on that day..
 

Goose

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I pass so many 4x4s in the ditches when we're driving through a snow storm. 4x4 doesn't make you invincible. I'm generally more afraid of other people crashing into me than I am over my own vehicle's capability to get there. I'm a conservative driver and drive even more so when there's weather. I've had to drive to the mountains and home from the mountains in many a snow storm and slow n steady wins the race for sure. I think there are times when it's not worth it and if/when I think it's going to be THAT bad I'll go up the night before the storm, especially when I have to work at the mountain that day.
Yup I agree, The misguided logic and feeling of invisibility by so many that they are so much better off in a 4x4 has always been so dangerous.
As for being over cautious? That too is not without flaws. Like for one example....traveling up hill on a slippery road. Often people drive too slow when some reasonable amount of momentum is actually required in order to move along up that hill. That kind of thing happens a lot and instead of getting up, everyone is tuck and cant get anywhere. So there are times when cautious can be too much and even a detriment. I often say with most things we do where we need to be safe that we need to be confident yet not cocky. Over confident (or cocky) and too cautious are both bad imo.
 

crgildart

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We're up to about 5 inches plus here in Central NC so far. School is cancelled, most stayed home from work. Still, there were 540 accidents reported in the metro area this morning BEFORE noon. Temps are hovering around freezing, wet snow. Set to drop to teens tonight. Gonna get messy out there hahahah.. Will hike for turns at home tonight. Gotta work regular hours anyway..
 

surfsnowgirl

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Yup I agree, The misguided logic and feeling of invisibility by so many that they are so much better off in a 4x4 has always been so dangerous.
As for being over cautious? That too is not without flaws. Like for one example....traveling up hill on a slippery road. Often people drive too slow when some reasonable amount of momentum is actually required in order to move along up that hill. That kind of thing happens a lot and instead of getting up, everyone is tuck and cant get anywhere. So there are times when cautious can be too much and even a detriment. I often say with most things we do where we need to be safe that we need to be confident yet not cocky. Over confident (or cocky) and too cautious are both bad imo.

I definitely agree. I guess I just meant by cautious that I slow it down as far as speed goes. However, there are indeed times when I need to give it a little gas to power through something. Driving in a snow storm is a fine balance between caution and confidence but cocky never should never enter the equation.
 
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crgildart

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I'd do 2 hours if I didn't have to do it that often and was able to get 5+ hours of skiing in for doing it. For night skiing I won't do over 1 hour.

I do three hours each way... and ski about 3-4 hours tops... Was doing it 12-15 times a season in my 40s.. Now doing it 5-10 times a season in my early 50s.. Thinking 3-5 times a season tops from here on out with some of those being weekenders/overnighters. Good news though.. Oldest kid will have his license next season so I'll have a chauffeur for some of those trips.
 

fatbob

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I definitely agree. I guess I just meant by cautious that I slow it down as far as speed goes. However, there are indeed times when I need to give it a little gas to power through something. Driving in a snow storm is a fine balance between caution and confidence but cocky never should never enter the equation.

I find a little white knuckle helps concentration it's when you relax you suddenly find yourself e.g. catching a slide when you brake a bit late for a turn.
 

Goose

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I find a little white knuckle helps concentration it's when you relax you suddenly find yourself e.g. catching a slide when you brake a bit late for a turn.
can one really be truly relaxed driving through a snow storm? I would think there is something wrong with someone if they were not giving extra effort to awareness in the given storm scenario. But I suppose people do tend to do that. Hence probably why we have so many more accidents than there could be otherwise.
 

Ron

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I love driving in snow. I would rather drive in a blinding blizzard than in rain. Now..If I could just keep the others off of the road. ;)

I remember driving with you the AM of your wedding and snow was coming up onto the hood of the VW! That was awesome surfin' POW baby.
 

Jim Kenney

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Woke up at the usual work day 7am today.. Sat around and had some tea and watched the morning news.. Left for the 3 hour ski mountain commute at 8:15. Arrived around 11am... Got the last parking spot at the farthest public lot, maybe a half mile away and over 500 feet down.. Brutal walk to the ticket window had me huffing and puffing big time..

But, there were NO LINES on all but one lift ALL DAY. People were all sitting inside sipping hot cocoa by the fire I guess.. Other than the long walk it was a WIN! I'll take two more hours of sleep over a shorter walk every time :) Plus, since it was a show gun day there was MORE fresh snow at 11 than there was at 9..

I had a similar experience at Wintergreen a number of years ago (small crowds at the end of a holiday weekend). I can't remember if it was the Monday of MLK Weekend or President's Weekend? I talked to folks there about it and they said that many guests staying for a long weekend at Wintergreen use the holiday Monday to pack up and head home and don't bother to ski on their last morning at the resort. My guess is: they get a lot of once-a-year skiers who are pooped after skiing Sat and Sun, and/or they get guests coming from fairly far south and have a longish drive home???
 

Goose

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I love driving in snow. I would rather drive in a blinding blizzard than in rain. Now..If I could just keep the others off of the road. ;)
I can certainly feel what you mean. That's the skier in us talking.
Well..."blinding Blizzard" is a stretch but a snow storm I can buy that and yea I hate rain in general summer or winter and not just for driving but just in general for anything except to water my veggy garden and my lawn..lol.

You kno whats strange though? I know vehicle nowadays are so much more safe ad capable vs decades of the 70' and 80' s etc. But for some reason I recall getting worund in snows something we did quite well and with less stress and more success back then. I don't know if that's just a feeling or a reality. It could be the higher weight of the average car back then simply did better and/or also the fact that in the days before all season radials we use to all put snow tires on as common practice even in places not prone to a lot of snows. Now this false illusion that all season tires are for snow has too many believing they don't need snow tires. It could also be there were simply so many less vehicles on the roads back then maing things safer (less drivers means less mistakes). Crazy for younger folks to consider but a lot of wives (and many or our mothers) did not drive back then (yes even the 70's and 80's this was still true) and many families didn't even own more than one car. Alot of women also simply didnt work so no need to commute. And not every kid who got there license had a car either. Just the way it was.

So any one or any combo those reasons may have attributed to it but it just seems we did get around in snow more efficiently back then. Or it only appears that way to the memory and was not the reality. IDK
 

crgildart

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My guess is: they get a lot of once-a-year skiers who are pooped after skiing Sat and Sun, and/or they get guests coming from fairly far south and have a longish drive home???

I'm still baffled by the fact that the regular resort day tripper parking lots were full beyond capacity, people were parked almost a half mile down the access road.. yet the slopes were only busy at the Blue Ridge Express load bottleneck. Everything else was WIDE OPEN. Where were all the people to go with those cars parked in the day tripper parking???
 

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