With the first snow storm this past weekend emerged a dormant species – Homo imbecillus. The species that complains loudly and immediately when there’s 2cm of snow on the road and that clearly forgot, never learned or simply spent 3s thinking about how to drive on snow.

You know the ones… the species the TV crews love to include in their road crew bashing pieces whenever there’s a dusting of snow on the street just outside their office. BTW, ever wondered why they never include someone saying they love, or at least don’t mind the road conditions (surely they exist)?!

A trip that normally takes around an hour and a half, took an hour more this past Sunday. All due to less than 5cm of wet slush on the motorway that made everyone drive 50km/h. And you couldn’t even overtake since they either drove in the middle of two lanes or they blocked them both. I would totally understand if there was actually 5cm of snow to plow through. But with so much traffic it was all pushed to the side or between the lanes and we were driving on wet tarmac.

Perhaps it’s just me but I get a distinct impression things are getting worse every year. I was so fed up with the complaining last winter that I started taking road photos when we were in Finland. I just wanted people to see what the normal, everyday situation is up there. Their normal being our cataclysmic event if news outlets are to be believed. They don’t clear the road all the way to the tarmac, they don’t dump massive amounts of salt on the roads, they don’t insist on keeping the roads clear and dry in the winter. Even when you do see the road surface underneath it’s most likely covered in ice. Yet over they years I never saw or heard anyone complain or have any sort of problem on the road. And don’t come up with the studded tire argument. Contrary to popular belief they are not used by everyone, especially in the south. Predominantly yes but not exclusively. Non studded cars are about as common as those driving on summer tires over here (which is indeed too common and plain stupid).

Couple of years ago we were in Tampere over Christmas. I believe it was a Sunday (and obviously a holiday) so when 15-20cm fell overnight there was nobody to clear it from the roads until the next day. Even I was a bit skeptical about driving at first (but incredibly excited about laying first tracks in the neighborhood), yet traffic in the city went on as normal. And it was a lot of fun. Sadly, I’m sure people would be prosecuted if the same thing happened here.

Basically what I’m saying… if you don’t enjoy or feel comfortable driving in snow, just don’t!

Three days before we were set to leave for our winter Finland visit I received my climbing skins. I got them at the same time as new skis a week or two earlier but since at the time I didn’t have the bindings yet they were left sitting in the garage. When I finally got them all together I wisely decided I should do a short test run up and down Pohorje to see how it all worked together before doing any serious touring. I took all the stuff out of the car and was ready to start when I realized the skins don’t fit. I fought against the obvious until the lesson that it’s best to do this in the comfort of your own home sinked in.

Turned out the front attachment nut was made with the slightly thinner profile of the new ski model in mind. I bought the last years (at a substantial discount) so it was off by a millimeter. Could have been a centimeter for all I cared. It just wouldn’t work. I called up the factory shop where I got them, sent the package and they returned it in 3 days with a custom fix. Nice customer service. And this time I immediately tested the whole thing at home.

Now there were only 2 days before we left for a vacation and with perfect snow and weather conditions I wanted to make the most of it. Since it would be the first time on the new setup I needed something relatively short and easy so I went north to Weinebene and from there to Moschkogel in the direction of Koralpe. Half a meter of powder from the day before was great (where it wasn’t blown away) but the terrain sucked. Not a fan of touring on the flat and all I earned during the two hour sightseeing tour was a decent blister that wouldn’t go away for the entire time we were in Finland.

So when I got back to the car I took one look at Handalm across the road and went for it. I just left most of the stuff in the car…water, food, camera, shovel. Everything. It’s so short I didn’t even consider it beforehand. But after the depressing stroll I really needed a boost of a steep powder run, no matter how short. I fought the deep powder upwards for 30 minutes and skied down in about 30 seconds. But that was all I needed to save the day.

I just wished I’d done 10 laps of that in the first place…

My head is totally wrapped in everything to do with snow avalanches as I’m trying to sort out some prototype web based bulletins. So much so that I need a break now and then. Guess these videos are a reminder of why I’m doing it in the first place.

TV Mountain – Avalanche au Sautet (embedding not allowed)