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[OM] Re: xcountry drive (LA-Chi)--snow?

Subject: [OM] Re: xcountry drive (LA-Chi)--snow?
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2007 00:38:08 -0800
siddiq@xxxxxxx wrote:
>
> Aren't interstates usually kept plowed/clear? Figured if on them, dun  
> hafta worry, and once in the city won't be driving at all.
>   
You show a touching, but misguided, faith in the power of human 
authority to control nature. I had a friend who almost died overnight in 
the Sierras - on I-80. Storm came in fast and dropped so much snow so 
quickly that the whole length over the summit was closed for hours. 
After a night without heat or food, he carried his friend on his back to 
an off-ramp and care for hypothermia.

I simply won't travel through the mountains anywhere near winter without 
sleeping bags and supplies in the car. Have you seen a real snow storm 
in the Sierras or Rockies? I've had it go from dry pavement to chains 
needed - not 'required' by the cops, needed in order to move at all -  
in less than 10 minutes, myself. I had chains.

I've also been in Denver when it was shut down for a day by heavy snow. 
My brother was stranded there for three days once.

You only talk about the Rockies. Do you have any idea what happens on 
the highways across the plains when a big Norther comes through? 
Interstates get closed, the snow goes over the snow fences, cars get 
blown into the ditch and covered with drifts.

I'm not saying any of this will happen, but that it does happen, pretty 
regularly, and you are planning to travel where there are many 
opportunities for it to do so. So if you are going, do some planning and 
be prepared.

Your planned trip sounds foolhardy to me without proper supplies and 
chains - and careful attention to weather reports.

Moose

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