We closed today due to the bad weather forecast but plan to open tomorrow and hope to have the lifts open by 10:30am. Many of you will know what the road was like on sunday after the wind filled it in with blown snow and I believe that wind is forecast tomorrow though not as strong and from a more southerley direction. However please note that if conditions do deteriorate we may have to close early and is at the discretion of the tow operators.
Membership cards - due to the hundreds of applications we have had over the last few days there will be a little delay in getting them all posted out, especially as we have run out of cards, but it is in hand.
The Road I am not sure what the road is currently like but after Sundays debacle 4WD and chains will be essential again. At the end of this email I have copied an email from Peter Gledhill with a few comments about how to drive in snow and about chains - their uses and limitations. To some of you this may be preaching to the converted but to some driving on snow and using chains is a new experience so hopefully may be helpful. The only comment I would add is that you should always leave a decent gap between you and the car in front, never stop on a slope as you may not get going - momentum is essential, and any changes of speed, direction etc should be slow and gentle and if possible do not use your brakes and use the gears to slow you.
Ski Sunday - we featured yesterday on Ski Sunday - brief but nice to have our 30 seconds of fame - it can be seen on BBC iPlayer (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00pzp2d/Ski_Sunday_2010_10_01_2010/) and we feature at around the 34 minute mark! We also appeared in several papers including the Observer Escape Magazine, Newcastle Journal, Echo, Chronicle etc to mention just a few. Not surprisingly a few facts stated were wrong!
Ski Holiday Ann Clement has emailed to say that she has a place going on a ski holiday in Val d'Isere flying from Bristol on 24th Jan for 1 week, fully catered chalet - if interested phone Ann on 01388 819991.
Steve
Driving in snow
I got your snow report with the part about the stuck vehicles and the snow chains. The red VW's original 'snow chains' weren't even snow chains. I loaned 2 of my heavy duty (very expensive) 4wd chains to the driver and it even shredded one of those. That's because of the width of the tyres and the resistance to forward movement in the snow.
I've done a hell of a lot of driving in the snow in Scotland and in the Alps and there is a clear lesson that takes us right back to fundamentals. The key thing for driving a 2wd in snow are narrow tyres, snow chains and ideally, light weight. If any of those golden rules is broken, 1 inch of snow and a gradient will stop you. I've got stuck twice this season in ditches at the side of the road and needed towing out. Both times were because somebody was coming the other way and there were no passing places. Shuttling people up the hill does not work for this reason in my opinion.
Snow chains are almost useless once you are stuck, to fit them, you really need to lay them flat before you get to the snow and drive onto them otherwise you will never get the tension even. Fitting them around the wheel on snow is not the best idea. Also, most chains need to be re-tensioned after driving an initial 100 metres or so. If you get stuck, you will throw a chain by giving the car lots of power. The technique is to shovel the snow away from ahead and behind each tyre and rock the vehicle backwards and forwards if possible to flatten more and more snow until you can build up enough momentum to clear the obstacle in front. Once you get going, keep going and go as fast as is safe. Momentum is the key.
Another point for people with 4wd is that unless you have manual differential locks, once you are stuck, you are really stuck. If you have a 'computerised' system such as I have, unless the computer can sense that the wheels are turning, it does not send power to the correct wheels and for example, Kia, Nissan, some Audi (not an exhaustive list), it simply powers one axle. The secret is to clear a space ahead and behind each wheel so that the vehicle can 'rock' by about one eighth of a wheel turn and the computer will then lock the appropriate diffs. However, if you are really stuck, you will need a tow. Any vehicle will do and it is best to tug sharply on the rope because it is the initial jerk that gets the 4wd computer thinking that all the wheels are now moving. Also, there is no substitute for shovelling. The whole underside of the car needs clearing usually because most 4wd vehicles are designed to plug through anything less than axle height.
I suspect you and the committee know all this already so I hope I don't sound patronizing, you may or may not want to put it on the web site or in your email sometime, it might prevent the same thing happening as yesterday. The farmer was magnificent and there was another car not related to the skiing (sightseeing!!) stuck in a 4 foot drift, but I still think the whole episode might have been avoided. It was a potentially very dangerous situation through no fault of most people there.
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