Mountain Driving Skills

This was written many years ago when my commute to work was on the snowiest pass in Colorado, Wolf Creek Pass.

A Winter Driving Primer or Getting a Clue About Driving on Snow!

I’m writing this in mid-November. There are a couple of fresh inches of snow on the ground, and its still snowing moderately. The snow is wet and slushy, typical fall snow. It’s not unseasonable weather for a high mountain town. Yet what is happening at this moment out in the streets is absolutely terrifying, though a hilarious at the same time! People are driving five miles an hour in the middle of the road, vehicles are off in ditches, and new residents are madly stocking up at the grocery store as if Armageddon approaches! And as entertaining as this all is, some people clearly need advice.

Panic is the number one cause of accidents when driving on slick conditions, although sheer stupidity is a close second and in fact possibly intimately intertwined with panic. Part of driving on snow and ice is sliding, to panic about it makes no more sense than to panic about sliding on ice skates. You will never eliminate slides from your life, so the trick is knowing how to predict and control slides. A generic winter fender-bender often goes as follows: A driver is steering around a corner, already tense with fear just at the sight of all that white stuff around them. Suddenly their vehicle begins to fish-tail a little, confirming to the driver that their tension and fears were justified. The driver then stomps on the brakes, and madly jerks the steering wheel in the direction they want to go. If they are of particularly quick wit they dimly remember something about “pump the brakes” or “steer against the slide” and they try and do that. Regardless, they end up in the ditch - likely plotting to sue somebody over the roads being in such poor condition. Sound familiar? It happens almost everyday when there is snow on the ground.

Getting Used to Sliding is the first step to confidence when driving on slick roads is. Yep, you’ve really got to go out and slide around a lot. In fact, to really become a great snow and ice driver you actually have to sort of enjoy the sliding sensation. Sound sick? Talk to professional drivers and they will tell you its true. If when you slide you are terrified, you will never be calm enough to respond correctly. So if you really want master slick road driving you need to log a lot of time sliding around. Be smart about this, choosing places and times when you will not put other people at risk. You also need to find spots wide enough that you don’t double your insurance costs by banging up your vehicle.

On to specifics. Every vehicle will slide differently, depending mostly on weight distribution/overall load (center of gravity), and contact patch size and pattern (your tires). How you stop or control a slide will depend on those factors and also whether or not the vehicle is front, rear, or four wheel drive. Most of the time the best thing to do in a slide is . . . nothing! That’s right, if its just a minor slide and you don’t make any frantic motions your vehicle might just pull right through it. But if the vehicle is really sliding quickly, not straightening out, and/or sliding rapidly towards a dangerous situation - you will have to take control. How you take control of the slide depends on what vehicle you are driving.

In a Rear Wheel Drive slide the first thing you will usually need to do is back off of the gas. More throttle will often just send you deeper into trouble. If you are sliding towards something frightening, like a cliff for example, the natural instinct is to steer away from it. But if your tires are all sliding, steering away from the danger just makes your tires become even more like skis and less like tires. You need to get your tires rolling at a speed and direction commensurate with the speed and direction of the vehicle. Then you can smoothly begin changing the angle the vehicle is moving. In plain English: you have to bite the bullet and steer into the slide, once you’ve regained tire grip you can steer back into the direction you want to go. The feel for this takes a lot of practice, and if you just read this or other articles like it and think you now have it whipped - you are wrong. You have to get to where this is instinctive, because when the need actually arises to use it you will certainly not have time to think about it.

Front Wheel Drive vehicles often require the same counter steering as RWD’s when sliding. They have a decided advantage though, they can often pull themselves out of a slide. In FWD’s the main weight is over the front tires and the powered tires are also the steering tires. Often a driver can feather the throttle just right and pull themselves out of trouble. This also takes a lot of practice - do it.

Four Wheel Drive vehicles are definitely superior in slick conditions, but can often cause more trouble for people because they feel invincible in them. A classic bit of country wisdom is “four wheel drives don’t stop you from getting stuck, they just get you stuck further from help”! Remember, a FWD will not stop any faster than a regular car, where they are superior is in controlling a slide. With all four wheels pushing, FWD’s (in experienced hands) makes a very smooth and predictable skid. With subtle and confident use of the throttle and steering the passengers will often not even know that the vehicle was sliding. If you are driving a pickup truck make sure that their is weight over the rear tires though, if the rear end is light you might as well just be driving a front wheel drive when you shift into 4x4 mode. Incidentally, I’ve found a few big bags of generic kitty litter to be great weight source since you can always pour some on the ground to help with traction in desperate situations (sand gives less grip, and I’m always afraid salt will leak out and corrode my truck bed).

Threshold Braking is a powerful tool in all vehicles, but it is much more often misused than used correctly. The idea of pumping the brakes is a gross simplification of threshold braking, and often causes accidents. The idea behind threshold braking is that you are trying to slow down the vehicle quickly but without breaking the tires loose from their road contact. To do this you have to slow the tires right up to the point where they are about to slide and then release the pressure, then you do it again, and again . . . until you get down to a safe speed or complete stop. To do this you have to have a clear idea of where the boundaries are: how much force will your brake pedal take without locking the tires up? How quickly can you slow down the tires in the conditions you are in without them breaking loose? The feel needed to pull this off correctly takes a lot of experience. You need to practice in safe situations before trying to rely on it in a dangerous situation. If you do not have the feel it is actually more dangerous to “pump the brakes” than to simply gently apply a constant braking force.

Smooth Driving: Your best bet when driving in conditions you perceive as risky is of course to simply not slide at all. Conditions and vehicles do not create slides, drivers do. Slides are created by motions too abrupt for the tools and conditions. You are asking for a slide if you turn too quickly, hit the brakes suddenly, or even don’t shift smoothly. How you drive in regular conditions can give you a clue about your abilities as a snow/ice driver. When you go around a corner, do you tend to need to be making constant corrections to your turn? When going straight do you also have to make corrections often just to stay in the correct lane? Do you corner quickly, accelerate quickly and brake suddenly? If the answer to any of these are “yes”, you need to smooth things out to become a good winter driver. If you watch most drivers you will realize that they all are constantly moving the steering wheel around, most of us do not concentrate enough on the task at hand and/or do not have enough of a feel for our vehicles to hold the wheel steady. The best way to become a smooth driver is to make a game of it. Can you shift so smoothly that a passenger would not even be able to feel it? Can you predict the proper angle of a turn ahead of time, turn the wheel the proper amount, and then keep the wheel rock steady all the way through the turn? When on a straight away can you keep the vehicle exactly in the center of the lane, and keep the wheel still?

Tire Awareness can often make the difference between a nice drive to go skiing, or a hell trip. Often there will be ridges of snow in the road, or ruts where their is either better or worse traction. There can also be rocks or chunks of ice on the highways here. Knowing exactly where all four tires are at all times is a skill an accomplished winter driver (or in fact any driver) should have. One way of learning this is to find a large empty area and practice. You can put paper cups down in various patterns and see if you can put your tires exactly where you want them. Challenge yourself, can you run over two cups at once with both front tires? Can you put your right rear tire on a cup at 20 mph? How about putting the front left tire on a cup while backing up?

Tactics are very important to effective winter driving. Always look as far ahead as you comfortably can, don’t get fixated just on the road immediately in front of you. The best line is the path that requires the least turning, the straighter the line the less chance of sliding. Be aware that you could come around a corner and somebody could be stopped right in front of you, will you slam on your brakes and risk hitting them or steer smoothly around them? By the way, for your safety and that of others remember that the number of lanes in a road does not change just because there happens to snow on the road . . . even if you cannot see those lanes - respect them!

Superior Firepower is always a big help, the best of which is good tires. With studded snow tires even a rear wheel drive car can do amazingly well in slick conditions. If you live in this area, or visit here often, you should have good all season tires at the very least. If you do not have snow tires you will need to have chains, often you cannot get around legally or safely without one or the other. The ultimate snow machine is a 4x4 with anti-locking brakes, a low center of gravity, and studded snow tires. For an experienced snow driver such a vehicle is almost a letdown because they can be so difficult slide in. No matter how good your tools are, you need to keep your skills sharp. If you get too cocky you will surely get into trouble sooner or later. Always be prepared for the worst, no matter how careful an skilled you are its a good idea to have food, water, extra clothes, and a sleeping bag in your vehicle.

These tricks are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other skills that should be learned and incorporated such as: selective braking, the Scandanavian “flick”, condition checking, braking/acceleration selection, reference speeds and more. Driving on slick roads is a skill, and just like any skill you need practice. What is the difference between an average driver and a great driver? An average driver "reacts" to crisis situations, usually with some degree of panic. A great driver anticipates challenging situations and directs the vehicle appropriately, with confidence and skill.

There are many great resources you can turn to for help, among them:

-The Bridgestone Winter Driving School in Steamboat Springs, CO (800) 949-7543, has an excellent program where they get you out there slipping and sliding to overcome your fears.

-The Canadian Safety Council, (613) 739-1535, has a world renowned winter driving program which you can receive by mail.

-Your insurance company may offer free literature on effective snow/ice driving tactics.

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(Old footer) Todd Murchison is a professional skier, computer technician and freelance writer. He thought Hummers were cool snow vehicles until he saw that real estate agencies were buying them, now he wants an M1A2 Abrams tank to drive to work in.