[Ennoch]

With the mountains being pretty much devoid of snow this winter I've not had much opportunity to get out climbing, but with some proper winter weather returning from the tail end of last week I decided to get out yesterday in the hills (it would have been buried for climbing) for a long hillwalk. We only went about 30km (well, only, it was only about 800m ascent). We had aimed to do a few hills but with the wind hitting close to 50mph before the half way height point we decided to bail and go for something lower level. Even getting up to the parking spot was fun as it's several miles of single track road with quite a few 1/3 sections. As we were going up (the road only had a few inches of snow in it) a guy in a Velar was coming down looking utterly terrified. The farmer at the top also looked quite surprised to see us as at this point the snow was 6-8" deep.

Anyway, it was nice to have a day out in the snow but of course, with very light powder snow coming down all day on a strong wind the road was even more blown in on the way back, which just made for some fun to get back to the main road. Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the drifts I was pushing through that were the same height as the bonnet (funnily enough I was focusing on trying to stay out the invisible ditches with the force), but here are a few I took when I was scraping the snow off the headlights to see after it calmed down, and after unplugging the radiator and brake ducts with rock hard snow that had been pushed in. Who says you don't need winters and AWD in the UK?

[goram]

Lovely stuff! No such fun down here in the Royal county!

[JustChris]

Snow!?

[GOF_430d]

Londoner here. So that's what a lot of snow looks like.

[Chrolm]

Awesome shots - and it looks like great fun. I kinda miss drive in fresh snow - not much of the stuff down south.

[DaveA]

Snow over both the A66 and the M74 for me on my trip to Glasgow over the weekend... Nothing quite as thick as you have had, there, but it was interesting enough...

I don't bother with winter tyres as where I am on the coast, and with my driving profile these days, it hardly ever gets where I need them, really... So faced with that over the weekend I was pretty impressed with how the Michelin PS4's handled the wet and cold... Only the settling snow on the carriageway caused them the (expected) grief... They were still good down to 0 degrees, though, in the wet...

[TouringPleb]

What is this white stuff you talk of?

[Ennoch]

Originally Posted by TouringPleb

What is this white stuff you talk of?

Not the same stuff you arrest people for! It was the sort that when mixed with the 50mph winds on the hillside acted like an industrial exfoliant! Sadly the mate I was with was of the male variety which meant I had to wait until I got home for the moisturiser. Yes, that is a definite upside of going climbing with girls a lot

Originally Posted by DaveA

Snow over both the A66 and the M74 for me on my trip to Glasgow over the weekend... Nothing quite as thick as you have had, there, but it was interesting enough...

I don't bother with winter tyres as where I am on the coast, and with my driving profile these days, it hardly ever gets where I need them, really... So faced with that over the weekend I was pretty impressed with how the Michelin PS4's handled the wet and cold... Only the settling snow on the carriageway caused them the (expected) grief... They were still good down to 0 degrees, though, in the wet...

The tyre comment was slightly tongue in cheek. I have actually found decent performance tyres are actually pretty good in the cold and wet, it's the Japanese stuff I've always found to struggle when it gets cold. Then again you'd have been humped in this stuff! RWD with winters would probably have been okay but would have needed more momentum, which when you are using the force for the road edges leaves decidedly less margin for buggering it up!

Originally Posted by Chrolm

Awesome shots - and it looks like great fun. I kinda miss drive in fresh snow - not much of the stuff down south.

I love driving in the snow, particularly when it's deep and untracked and comes with a little bit of jeopardy. Like having the fun of driving quickly but with much lower speed accidents! My mate was bricking it in the passenger seat while I was just enjoying myself. Hopefully there's a lot more of this to come. I've got Friday off to get out climbing and then my plan is to get out with some planks of wood on my feet on Sunday. I'm hoping there's some white stuff on the tarmac on the way there!

[DaveA]

Originally Posted by Ennoch

The tyre comment was slightly tongue in cheek. I have actually found decent performance tyres are actually pretty good in the cold and wet, it's the Japanese stuff I've always found to struggle when it gets cold. Then again you'd have been humped in this stuff! RWD with winters would probably have been okay but would have needed more momentum, which when you are using the force for the road edges leaves decidedly less margin for buggering it up!

For sure I would have been humped in the snow you had... and I am all for staying on the road, not sledging down off the edges...

I agree about the Bridgestones that I used to have on the BMWs, they would seem far too hard in the cold, whereas the Michelins I have on now still seem compliant... Enough not to feel bad in the "winter" we are having here on the NE coast... Plus I have the xDrive...

I think if I lived higher up in the Moors or the Dales, or if I did more driving in the colder parts of the day, I would go for a winter set up to be on the safe side...

[Blacktemplar]

That's kind of my dilemma - too little snow/ice in the Central Belt most winters to bother splashing out on a full winter setup, but the Bridgestone Alenza's are not great when the temperature drops. Not awful, as most of my driving is in the city/suburbs, but I have noticed they occasionally get a bit squirmy on damp surfaces below 5C or so.

I'll probably need to renew the original tyres this year - I've just passed 10K miles and the Alenzas don't seem to get a good rep for durability.

Problem for me in getting a good setup is having the same manufacturer on both axles. I'm 245/40/21 front and 275/35/21 rear, and choices are pretty limited. Some of the US guys are running the X3M setup of 265/40/21 & 295/35/21 as the M uses the same wheels, though I've never been that comfortable with moving away from OEM sizing, particularly with Xdrive. Seems that the availability of sizes is much better EU/US than UK. Quelle surprise....