| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 2/11/2008 9:11:45 PM | So last night I was making a trek from Edmonton to Calgary and have never been so scared driving in my entire 20 years of being behind the wheel. The highway should have been shut down. Between Ponoka and Red Deer I probably drove 20 - 30 km/h for that 50 km stretch. The highway was down to one lane and there was ZERO VISIBILITY. I couldn't see the road at all! - the only guidance I had was from the hazard lights of the semi I was following. I have no idea how many cars were in line behind me but there were a lot and everyone was following bumper to bumper so that they would be able to follow the hazard lights of the person in front of them. The terrifying part is you couldn't pull over....there was nowhere to go. If one person would have had any sort of vehicle problems it would have been a complete disaster. I saw at least 20 vehicles (including semis) that were in the ditch.
When I finally got to Red Deer my hands were so cramped up and in pain from grabbing the steering wheel I had to pull over and catch my breath for 10 minutes. I was so thankful that I made it there alive.
So how about everyone else? Let's hear your tales.
Hydro. | |
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 2/11/2008 9:16:01 PM | Oh.
I misread the title. I was gonna share my story from last summer where I came back from the Diary Queen with a Blizzard and the temporary brain freeze I had...
BB | |
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 2/11/2008 9:32:51 PM | Christmas Day, years ago, I drove from Toronto, Ontario to South River, Ontario. The trip was clear till north of Barrie, Ontario. After that...it took 8 hours to go 250 kms. I had dual tanks on my Jeep & I'm just glad I had a Jeep. I had to piss in my Tim Hortons cup because nothing was open and I couldn't stop for fear of getting stuck. It musta snowed over 80 cms that day from Lake Effect Snow off Huron. And it was freezing cold. Jeeps (at the time) had...well no heat. At the time, I had no cell phone so my only communication was a CB Radio in the jeep where I talked to locals as I crawled up the highway.
I got to where I was going and promptly burned the motor out on my snowmobile. | |
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 2/11/2008 9:55:16 PM | Calgary to Winnipeg one time, years ago, with two kids under five in the backseat of a Camaro (not so great on ice ).
Total white out just east of Regina.
Couldn't see the road, where it ended, the ditch..nada.
Followed a semi straight from Regina all the way to Virden,Mb. (the worst part of the trip).
White knuckles, cursing myself, the weather, the damn highway, the circumstances.
Wanted to cry so bad but didn't want to wake the kids in the backseat and scare them.
Anytime my car slowed up too much, the semi driver slowed down too to wait for me.
Regina to Virden is at most a 4 hour drive.....took me 7 hours that night and coasted into the town on fumes and a prayer.
Once I figured out I had gotten us somewhere safe with a hotel room paid for, I absolutely broke down and just told the kids I was excited about seeing Gramma the next day and was crying happy tears.
I have never forgotten that feeling of being totally scared $hitless and wishing more than I ever had in my life that I had a man with me ( I know that sounds lame to Femi-nazis but there ARE moments in life when you NEED a level-headed, fine- driving man!!)
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 2/11/2008 10:19:18 PM | ^^^ sounds like you held up pretty damn good considering the situation you were in.
Both of your stories seem like you were in far worse situations than my small 50 km trek through a blizzard. | |
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 2/11/2008 10:23:04 PM | | About ten years ago the Ex and I drove from Kelowna to Calgary. We left in the early morning and it was about to snow . We got to Three Valley Gap and it really started coming down. When we got to Revelstoke I was wondering if I should stop and get a room for the night, but it wasn't even noon yet so I figured if the road was still open I'd find a semi and tuck in behind him and follow. Only thing was, by the time I realized I'd made the wrong decision, you couldn't see the vehicle in front of you and if you could, you were WAY too close. I figured they'd shut down the hi-way but they didn't and it was like that all the way to Canmore. We got home early in the morning!! | |
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 2/11/2008 11:33:53 PM | Back east headed home from North Bay, Ontario driving six hours north to Kapuskasing. It started as a gentle rain, then torrential downpour. The further north we got, the worse the weather got. About hour three, the wipers broke. We had to climb out the passenger side window with a squeegie to wipe the windows in my buddy's Camaro. Hour four, it started to snow. So a half hour through slush and then into a squall that you had to watch for hazard lights from the vehicle in front of you on a narrow two lane highway. One lane coming, one lane going. At about hour four and a half, we realized that the gas mechanism in the engine bay had frozen in a position that forced us to keep driving at the 100kph we were doing. We found out as we rapidly approached the tail lights of a transport. So the driver swerved into the oncoming traffic lane and we were on our way.
After consulting (somewhere between the ride of our life and outright terror) we decided rather than shut down the engine at the next town, we'd keep going.
We made the run in regular time and Andy (driver) had to c.b. his dad, tell him to open the transport garage door and get out the oxy-aceteline torch with a heater head on it because we were ten minutes away and coming in fast.
After having a few beers there, we flipped on the news and watched how they had been shutting down section after section of the highway right behind us pretty much the whole trip up there. | |
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 2/11/2008 11:43:35 PM | Edmonton to Kelowna........ me, 2 kids, 82 accord 2 dr hatch.....4 yr old in booster seat in back, 1 yr old in car seat in front.......... road conditions for the trip deemed optimal at time of departure from E.......route, Rogers Pass....... basically dry roads throughout Alberta........ cross boarder, so far so good........couldn't have asked for a better trip I thought. Now nearly at golden, I'm going down long very steep decline with quite the sharp curve in the mix.................. as I'm cresting the initial curve, all the sudden I'm smack dab in the middle of a fresh "mush slide" that's completely covering the road with about 6" worth of sheer slop and the car starts to lose control in an instant......... Instinctively I know if I hit the breaks I'm done for....the accords a$$ is swinging wildly yet so far I've still got control ...I calmly select 3rd gear to test a downshift hoping I can slow this thing down.............
........ slowly let out the clutch so I don't achieve full engagement which would be equally as devistating as full out slamming the brakes................no luck, car does a lil wiggle so I go back to the previous gear with no immediate trouble............. the problem is, I'm gaining speed, and being back up in 4th gear, I pretty much have minimal to no engine braking going on to help slow me up..... all I can do is ride it out..........
...... well, to make matters worse, I'm passing a sign saying "caution up coming bridge deck icy" or something like that......... and I can see that the curve is about to arc even tighter......... right near the declines end
well, the car just starts losing it, cars bum passing it's front on the left, correct........breathe......cars bum passing front on right, correct, breathe........ one more, two more...........ooooooooooooooooh $hit...........
........now I'm basically at the bottom, arcing this curve and inbetween what at the time seemed like two atleast 7 foot concrete walls lining each side of the road **which were in fact, 7 feet of ice build up piled atop the typical cement safety baracades ..... and basically, this ice wall had taken up the space where the roads "shoulder" should be.............. so in addition to my dilema, I also had half a road worth to work with all of a sudden........... and a fresh coating of ice coating the asphalt beneath this "mush" due to the bridge deck situation............
back to "oooooooooooooooooooooooooh $hit" ........... I spin 3-4 full circles while hurdling around this curve between these huge ice walls at the bottom of this decline......................
in this moment, I literally had my life flash before my eyes as though time stood still amongst the frenzy..................... looked at both my kids **currently sleeping amidst the mayhem** as these "my life" images flashed accross my wide open eyes as though my cornea were indeed a movie screen this film of my life were projected upon............ I was 100% sure I was about to die and accepted it......... thinking only "don't take the boys" ......
...... WHAM, the back of the car hits the wall, car spins 360 degrees in the opposite direction of the original spin........... WHAM, front end hits the opposing wall...........slide sideways for a few hunderd feet and wind up stopped fully sideways between these two ice walls............ the car now half in one lane, half in the other...... and the front bumper hanging halfway off the car, hood and fenders crinkled up a fair amount..............
once I realized I wasn't dead, I immediately looked over at each of my boys who were now wide eyed and awake................ then it really hit me............"holy shit, this isn't over yet", I'm at the bottom of a blind cornered valley, inbetween 2 walls of ice, in both lanes............. anything coming at me in either direction is gonna smoke me bad............ tried to drive, but the hanging portion of the bumper would wedge itself into the tires going forward, and in reverse the tires just spun............ I get out.......... 1 yr old now crying, 4 yr old shreaking "daddy, daddy" start frantically yanking this bumper around until finally I was able to rip it right off the car and toss it off to the side of the road............ get back in the car......... couple fwd / reverse manouvers and I'm finally mobile..................... about 100 feet more of this ice wall section remain between us and a rest stop area type clearing ............
well, just as I hit the end of the ice wall and pulled over......... no more than 2 seconds later**which is about 10 seconds after I'd ripped the bumper off the car**, a semi rolls on quickly "brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrroughvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrom" ......from the opposing direction..................... fortunately for him, the mush didn't start in his direction until halfway through the flat between the ice walls........... us, seconds from impending death.................
I drove the rest of the trip at 40 kph with one of my headlights shooting off to the right, and the other pointing directly into the air as if I was sending out the bat signal to show my appreciation to what ever higher power saved the day   
er, I suppose my story wasn't a bizzard story............ but, um, yeah, I've driven through some of those too lol | |
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 2/12/2008 1:19:58 AM | Silver-surfer
As someone that used to be a crazy driver for a living testing cars for one of the big 3 in winter conditions, not only did you do everything right, but... just... friggin'.... wow.
Glad you and yours are still with us! | |
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 2/12/2008 7:11:20 AM | Fort McMurray to Edmonton, driving my FIREFLY!! (Yes, those little, tiny, annoying bugs we used to see all over the road years ago). It was snowing heavily, a slushy snow fall, and I wanted to wait the storm out overnight in McM, but the ex said "NOOO, get me outta here!" (umm, ya, he didn't have a driver's licence at the time)... So off we went.
About 1/2 an hour out of the City, my windshield wiper broke off. I managed to catch up to a grator, and followed him to Marianna Lake (about an hour out of the City) fixed my wiper, and back on the highway SOUTH BOUND. But, where's the grator? Oh, that's right, it turned around at Marianna Lake and headed back north. But at the insistance of my ex, we plowed through, heading back to Edmonton. It's amazing what a Firefly can plow through for it's size!
NOT A SINGLE CAR ON THE ROAD, the WHOLE way. A 4 1/2 hour trip took 10 hours to get HOME!! There SERIOUSLY was NO road, I and often wonder how many farmers looked at their field the following morning to see my tire tracks wedged in the snow.... lol
I was told that the news had been reporting the highway was closed (2 hours before we left Ft.McM!!).
Oh.... and my ex? He slept most of the way.
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 2/12/2008 7:47:37 AM | I think there is some rite of passage growing up on the prairies to drive through some sort of nasty weather.
I was going to university in Ottawa in 1990 and had a 1974 toyota celica. Coming home in April I spent the night in Winnipeg with my cousin. It started snowing that night but didn't look like anything out of the ordinary. Early the next morning there was a lot of snow but it didn't look too terrible so away I went. Winnipeg to Brandon is a two hour trip under good road conditions. The highway out of Winnipeg was okay but once you got out on the highway it was a different story. This particular day you couldn't really tell where the sky ended and the road began. It was foggy, snowing and so overcast the road and sky were the same colour. All you could really see were the tail lights of the vehicle ahead of you. There was a long parade of people out on the highway that day and no one going over 20 mph (1974 celica!). If you didn't stay in the track of the car ahead of you, you were in the ditch. It was stressful because visibility was so poor but since we weren't going fast it wasn't too bad. By the time I hit Brandon the sun was shining and the road was clear. It started snowing at home shortly after I arrived. The storm behind me in Winnipeg came west and the highways in Saskatchewan were closed for two days. I guess the four hour trip to Brandon wasn't so bad after all. | |
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 2/12/2008 9:16:02 AM | Wainwright To Consort, Hiway 41. I was driving my 1995 Nissan Sentra. Not a good car in bad conditions. I was going to visit my sister roads looked in good driving conditions and it suposed to be nice the whole way. I left Edmonton and when I was outside of Wainwright it started snowing a little I turned on to hiway 14 heading south for about 20 mins and it was amazing the storm seemed to come out of no where. White out could not see a thing. Snow, Wind, and Deer Season. The wind was blowing not only the snow but my car as well. I started to slow down by just taking my foot off the gas and my back tire hit a small patch of ice and the the backend started to slide. I knew enough to just let the car continue to slow on it's own and not touch the brake. I managed to steer myself out of the slide and got the car straight again. I was doing about 30 to 40 and at times down to 20. Had a car pass me blowing more snow at me when he did.
The car that had pulled past me was in the ditch about a km up the road so I pulled over hoping I was not in the ditch myself and picked him up. He did say he was sorry for passing me he did not realize the roads were that bad. Me being a mom and him being a young drive yes I lectured him. I knew we were not far from Czar and I told him we would go there and get him some help. So I am driving watching the road and looking for the sign to turn off into Czar well there was a power outage there and I missed the sign so when I realized we had passed it when I hit the big curve I told him that I was going to Consort and we would pull off there. Just after that thought another car in the ditch so we pulled over and it was a family of three. So into the car they pile in. So now I have 4 other people with me. White knuckled and scared to death. I could not lecture anyone and take my thoughts off the snow my eyes were burning finaly we got to Consort and at the end of the hiway 41 police cars we were asked where we were going and where we came from. I told him and he said that hiway was closed and we should have been stopped outside of Wainwright. I was never so happy to get out of my car ever in life. Got into my room and cried. The other people found out it was ano tow zone and their cars were there tell the plows went through.
Have to admit though we had a nice weekend and I met a couple new friends buit never ever again I see anything close to that and I will turn around go back to safty. | |
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 2/13/2008 8:18:09 PM | Wow! Some crazy stories here. They were all very good reads.
Hydro. | |
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 9/9/2008 3:49:51 PM | From the quebec laurentians... I had asked a friend if he would enjoy a weekend up in the laurentians ,, my brother had an old farm house he had renovated and it truly was a palace ....big firplace and central heating... indoor plumbing and running water ,,a luxury in that area in those days.... Brother had promised he would come up and join us with his friend...but never showed up , which was`nt uncommon for him... it was saturday night and the radio predicted some snow and freezing rain for the area,... I said to my friend , we cant possibly leave to-night ,,,tomorrow morning early we`ll leave.... Ha !!.. the old dirt road was covered with two inches of frozen ice......and we had two big hills to climb before we even leave the immediate area ...then we had to manouver down the other side of the mountain , it was a shear drop with some small curves... the old car my buddy had was in good shape, but my buddy was a real good driver,..and he kept his cool.... he knew I was a reck !!... anyhow we made it to the small village and filled up with gaz...the attendant said we must have driven in on the fumes in the tank...because the tank was really empty !!!..
On the way home through the mountains, there were many hills to climb and hills to go down,,steep ones !!... In those days the raods people were never in a rush to salt or sand the roads..it was almost as though they did`nt give the damn !!! at one point we started comming down this very steep hill and there was a narrow little bridgre at the bottom...comming down the opposite side of the bridge and down the steep hill was the damn salt or sand truck at 20 miles an hour...we both wondered if we would meet right on the darn narrow bridge ?...it would be game over for us !!!.... fortuately , he must have realized we were heading right for him and with NO control of our car , as we were on shear ice...praying we would stay on the road and not hit the darn cemant walls on either side of the small bridge,, if we hit the 3 foot wall , we`d probably land up in the small river ........... The big man in the sky was certainly looking after us !!!...because as soon as the truck got off the bridge he pulled to one side to let us pass...we sailed right past him at 40 miles an hour... . suddenly we were able to come to a slow stop and drive right into a big hotel`s parking lot !!!.. even though it was still morning, we both had two good shots of rum with our black coffee... we would both be late for work , but, who cared as we were both alive and very grateful !!.....  | |
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 9/9/2008 7:19:59 PM | Dude... cruel to mention this "b" word in September!!!
We know summer's over... it's like a shower that is slowly going cold... you know it's not going to get warmer... but you stand there .... wishing ... | |
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 9/10/2008 8:10:01 PM | Ten years ago I was leaving Fort McMurray to move to Medicine Hat and I took my car in to get it serviced before I left and the mechanic told me I had a weak piston. I'm not very knowledgeable with vehicles and I didn't know what that meant so I thanked him and drove away. I got a couple hours outside of Fort Mac and you guessed it.. my engine blew.
There I was, alone, all my stuff packed in the car, no cell phone and 7 hours away from my destination. I knew I had to flag someone down but I was worried about who would stop. After a half hour or so of chewing on my fingernails in my car I got up enough nerve to flag someone down.
Finally this old grizzled guy stop and asked me what was wrong. I said, "Piston broke." He said, "Well hop in, I"m pissed and broke too." haha
The last line is a joke.. but the rest of the story is true. The old fella .. bless his heart.. gave me a ride to the nearest service station so I could have my car towed and $1200 and 2 weeks later I had another engine in it and was good to go! | |
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 10/18/2008 4:40:33 PM | cruel to mention this "b" word in September!!!
How about in October? Mixed heavy sleet's already starting west of Edmonton. White in the morning I'd wager. (at least in the outskirts) Hopefully the roads ain't a nightmare. Oh well, just over 4 months and the days are the same length again but gettin' LONGER. 
edit: Huh, was an ugly little squall but now the sun's comin' out again. | |
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 10/19/2008 1:04:25 PM | Nah, it musta just been a warning shot. Looked grim for a bit though. I hope it at least stays away for the little ghosts and goblins  to enjoy their "reign of terror".
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| Driving in a blizzard
Posted: 10/19/2008 5:19:05 PM | Driving in the blizzard gives me an exhilarating rush!
even though, i don't mind having a winter, once it gets there, i'm right into it.
Enjoy the winter!
Enjoy the beautiful and intense chaos of our Canadian climate!!
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