Towing in snow?

romore wrote:

crosscheck wrote:
We headed out of Coldstream October 2nd towing our Creekside TT up #97, eventual destination Smithers. Good time of the year to see our son's family and fish for steelhead in the Bulkley river. It's about a 12 hour trip if you take it easy. Weather generally good as there are not any real high passes to traverse.

Still have summer tires on, weather good when we left. Stopped in Cache Creek and watched the south bound ice coated trucks and RV's that the hunters were driving cruising by.. Stop to talk to a Greyhound driver who had just come down from the north. His bus had a 3" coating of ice and snow on it. Said all of the semis were chaining up and he would not recommend starting off at this time as there are 2 climbs before you are up on the plateau.

Looked at the weather and it said that after Lac La Hache, everything was clear even sunny. Decided to head out. Drove up to Clinton and the snow was on the ground but highway was just wet. Kept climbing until we got to Big Bar where this photo was taken. About 12" of snow in the fields and the north and southbound lanes where solid compact snow/ice. 1 1/2 hours in 4x4 at 60km/hr. Temps= -3C so the snow was a bit slick. Trucks were in the ditches all over the place because if you decided to pull over onto the paved shoulder, the snow would pull your wheels into the ditch.

The ice finally turned to slush after 100 Mile House and after that , the roads where just wet. Stopped off at the Quesnel Walmart and had a nice overnight stay(-7C), then an uneventful day to Smithers.





Just near the Chasm turn off, #97. Still had the climb up to Begbie summit. Do not try this at home kids. I have driven hundreds of hours on snow covered roads but this is the first time pulling a TT and with summer tires to boot. This was no picnic.

Dave

Winter tires are REQUIRED by law in BC after October 1, you were taking an unecessary risk. A lot of good suggestions here, the main thing is to slow down and avoid sudden speed changes. The worst conditions are when the temperatures are close to freezing, once the weather stays cold winter conditions can actuallly be good.

I have 4 good studded winter tires sitting in my shed. 30years living in the north and being prepared for winter driving has always been a priority. 13 years of living recently in the Okanagan has made my winter driving brain mushy. Lucky, it was only 1.5 hours of icy conditions compared to the total of 12. DriveBC had excellent current info that we followed. If conditions were prevelent all the way to Smithers, we would have made other plans. Luckily, the poor conditions were only a relatively short stretch. Have an appointment to change over the SUV and the truck to winter tires tomorrow. The only thing is that the long range forcast is for double digit highs for the next 2 weeks in the Okanagan.

As to the OP, use the weather technology that is available to forecast where you are are towing to. Most places give you up to the minute weather and road conditions and web cams at important highway sections like mountain passes or busy corridors.

Dave