marko
I admit I have a problem
ok, so I was in a software training lab today and didn't have a chance to respond. then when I returned home my girlfriend decided we had to have hand rolls and sake right away. so there it is.
a lot of snow is of course relative, but I was talking about 1.5+ feet of new snow over snowpacked roads. the sun shines over 300 days a year here, we're at altitude, and it's also windy in the mountains so the snowpack is often very thick with a glaze over the top. then add last night's snow. I'm also not talking about every day driving roads at around 5.43k ft over sea level. we're talking about maybe twice a week at 8.5k to start and above timberline - and for fun.
around town is far different, at least in around the front range. semi-arid climate equates to very little humidity, lots of sun, and periods of extreme weather, sometmes every day. eight feet of snow over forty-eight hours is the record where I live, but reality is that I drive quite a bit in moderate temps and dry roads and when I need it the immediacy is real. not that I commute when there's weather, but it's a 75 mph commute down the front range, which is beautiful and really hazardous (windy). any small front brings six or eight inches and twice that without a second thought.
so I hate saying this, but I can't honestly give you what I'd consider a current assessment of nokian / blizzak standards v. sipe / compound technology with michelin and dunlop on ice. my cars are different, and I'm not in the mountains as often, certainly not to the same extreme. but if you haven't tried the new stuff, I'll admit I laughed out loud the first time I tested the alpins on ice at about thirty mph. I slammed the brakes on ice and the car just stopped dead. flew forward in the seats, environment locked, the whole deal, and that was the first bad night out and I'd just avoided so many others out skating up and over the top of a fairly large hill in the countryside.
esp argument aside, the deal is that it ain't a $15 polish you're trying, it's your life at stake. tell you what... after sampling aplins and m3's (not a small investment any way you look at it), I'm not going back.
on the nordic front, I'll be in stockholm for a week and an hour south of copenhagen for several days in early december, so I'd be happy to report what happens in real extremes.
a lot of snow is of course relative, but I was talking about 1.5+ feet of new snow over snowpacked roads. the sun shines over 300 days a year here, we're at altitude, and it's also windy in the mountains so the snowpack is often very thick with a glaze over the top. then add last night's snow. I'm also not talking about every day driving roads at around 5.43k ft over sea level. we're talking about maybe twice a week at 8.5k to start and above timberline - and for fun.
around town is far different, at least in around the front range. semi-arid climate equates to very little humidity, lots of sun, and periods of extreme weather, sometmes every day. eight feet of snow over forty-eight hours is the record where I live, but reality is that I drive quite a bit in moderate temps and dry roads and when I need it the immediacy is real. not that I commute when there's weather, but it's a 75 mph commute down the front range, which is beautiful and really hazardous (windy). any small front brings six or eight inches and twice that without a second thought.
so I hate saying this, but I can't honestly give you what I'd consider a current assessment of nokian / blizzak standards v. sipe / compound technology with michelin and dunlop on ice. my cars are different, and I'm not in the mountains as often, certainly not to the same extreme. but if you haven't tried the new stuff, I'll admit I laughed out loud the first time I tested the alpins on ice at about thirty mph. I slammed the brakes on ice and the car just stopped dead. flew forward in the seats, environment locked, the whole deal, and that was the first bad night out and I'd just avoided so many others out skating up and over the top of a fairly large hill in the countryside.
esp argument aside, the deal is that it ain't a $15 polish you're trying, it's your life at stake. tell you what... after sampling aplins and m3's (not a small investment any way you look at it), I'm not going back.
on the nordic front, I'll be in stockholm for a week and an hour south of copenhagen for several days in early december, so I'd be happy to report what happens in real extremes.