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BC, Canada - Do I Need Snow Tyres?

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
We've got Calgary flights booked for early Feb 2016. The plan is a road trip of resorts plus some some daily catskiing near Fernie. This will entail driving a big anti-clockwise loop into British Columbia and back - via Canmore/Banff; Kimberley; Fernie; Sparwood; and Pincher Creek.

I have never knowingly had snow tyres on cars out of Calgary but have just come across something online saying that BC requires them by law on some roads between October and April.

A quick search on the Avis website (I've had snow tyres on an Avis car out of Kelowna) draws a blank - snow tyres are seemingly not an option with them.

So the Q is, will snow tyres be required by law for the above route? If so, does any Calgary rental company provide them?
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Yes, I think you will need winter tyres. According to this website this is the requirement for most highways in BC:
http://tranbc.ca/2014/10/01/shift-into-winter-the-inside-scoop-on-winter-tires/#sthash.2w8cJVMf.nqwW2029.dpbs
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
M+S or all season tires available on Canadian rentals are not real snow/winter tires but are legal to drive.
We have done Calgary - Banff - Lake Louise - Kicking Horse - Panorama - Kimberly - Fernie - Calgary on Enterprise rental safely, It was not snowing though.
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Thanks void - but do Calgary rentals come with M&S tyres?Have so far trawled through Hertz, Alamo and Budget sites for a rental from there but no reference at all to tyres of any sort.....
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
mountainaddict, Have fun on the trip Smile

We hired at Calgary and did Golden, Revelstoke, Vernon, Kelowna, Rossland, Nelson, Fernie and Pincher Creek without a problem. Conditions excellent for skiing wink

We did hire a 4x4 and wouldn't have anything less. I thought we would be legal and would have at least m+s tyres on. Truck handles fine in all conditions so would think the tyres were ok. Fill up in Alberta too, sales tax much less than BC IIRC.

Where you staying in Pincher Creek btw ? B+B or hotel ? as we found a great B+B outside of there - driving across snow fields though by mistake was fun Toofy Grin
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You'll need to Register first of course.
Cheers Bones
Quote:
I thought we would be legal and would have at least m+s tyres on
Yeah but did they have the M&S tyres? Can we assume that? As they are not required in Alberta - only BC...

Anyway, all we have booked/paid for so far is flights and deposits on three days' catskiing. This is because after booking those in September I found out it was going to be a Super El Nino winter Shocked. After ascertaining that that could adversely affect BC, I am hanging fire on accommodation until nearer the time...So nothing booked for Pincher Creek yet. Have stayed there before though - at the Super 8, which was fine. Will have a look at your recommended B&B though if you give me the details.

Pleased to see that it's looking good so far for Alberta and BC snow - so, all being well, we'll be aiming to ski on arrival afternoon for an hour or two at Calgary Olympic Park (great facility - very novel - been before Very Happy), followed by Kimberley, Fernie, the catskiing, Castle Mountain and then Nakiska on the morning before we fly home.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
mountainaddict, we were planning another roadtrip through BC and Alberta this season, refining our last. Until I saw the El Nino forecast last May. Plans are now for it next season and heading back to Utah instead to take advantage of El Nino there. A bad year in Utah is still good compared to other places.

All our accommodation apart from the first and last days, wasn't pre booked until there, often we just turned up that day Madeye-Smiley

B+B we used near Pincher Creek was the Aspen Grove in Beaver Mines - John and Helen were great hosts Smile we were the only folks there.

Stayed in a log cabin at Fernie Toofy Grin
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@mountainaddict, @Bones, How long will/did your respective trips take? I'm hoping to do something similar in the next couple of years (have skied Whistler and Banff before).
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Tom Doc, Ours was a 2 week trip first time around, 8 mountains and around 1600 miles approx. of driving.

Next season, all being well will be looking at 17 - 18 days trip, ski areas to be considered are in the planning stage. We basically bypass Banff as we did a trip there year before the road trip - this gave us the idea, and don't need to repeat Banff.
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
@mountainaddict, I have rented 4x4s from Calgary on several occasions and always had tyres I assume were at least M+S as they worked perfectly well in both light and deep snow. Much of rural Alberta has near-permanent winter snow cover, and I doubt the rental companies would want their cars spinning off road because they'd skimped on tyres.

If in doubt, I would dirextly call the relevant rental desk at Calgary airport.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
@Bones, @mountainaddict, WE too have stayed at Aspen Grove. It was great.

I would call about rental tyres. I wouldn't be happy driving without tyres that cope well with low temps
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
@Bones, thanks. I was thinking around 2 wks, but probably less mountains - I'd like to be able to spend a 2 or 3 days at each. I think!
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Tom Doc Due to other ski trips and a long Australia trip last summer I am low on annual leave. So, although we would have liked a longer trip, we are doing 10 nights in Canada, with 10 days'skiing if all goes to plan.

Some bargain digs coming up with the strength of the £ vs the $CAD. As the catskiing is expensive, we're looking at using motels, which has always worked out fine in the past. (Rooms from £40 in some sleepy towns on our route!)

It'll be a fair bit of driving - but broken down into stages and with 5 nights in Fernie in the middle (for 3 days' catskiing and two days on piste).

Not a problem though - we usually do single weeks for skiing so 10 nights will feel like a long trip. And we once went to Banff for a week in Feb half term, which was well worth it.

Think I will start ringing the Calgary car hire desks to check about the tyres - better safe than sorry wink.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
mountainaddict wrote:

Think I will start ringing the Calgary car hire desks to check about the tyres - better safe than sorry wink.

Doesn't hurt to try. But don't hold your breath about it (nor the rental company).

Typical rental "chain" move their cars around randomly as their customers crisscross the country. So they have little control of which car will be at the lot the day you arrives.

For such a long hire period and long distance, 4x4 is probably a good idea. And it's relatively rare 4x4 don't have M+S tyres. Just check it when you pick up the car. If it doesn't have the right tyre, or for that matter the tyre look too worn out, DEMAND a different car with proper tyres. That's it.

You're hiring in the snow belt in the winter, they won't purposely give you a car that's not suitable for the condition. But they just may not be looking as closely as you would have like if they happened to turn around a truck a customer drove in from Arizona. Toofy Grin
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Good luck with that. The last time I tried their help desks were all in India, and by the sounds of it it was a part of that place where snow isn't frequent. So I was soft-soaped with garbage.

In BC something changed last year and I was rented, for the first ever time, a car with snow tyres. Previously I'd struggled with this. I think the law means that (like Quebec) they can't rent you illegal cars any more. There was a time when they're rent you a car in Vancouver to drive to Whistler, and give you a map to tell you how to get there. The car had no snow tyres, and you could not fit chains (see rental agreement), so it was in fact probably illegal to drive there, depending on precisely how you look at it.

I think it's not a problem now, but talking to an offshore call centre won't help, you need to talk to a local. You don't need a 4wd, they have ploughs and stuff, I've been perfectly happy in rwd or fwd cars for years. Sure, a 4wd will drive you more stupid places, if you're up for it.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
If you look on the web you can find the phone number for the rental desks at kelowna airport. We use discount number to ring Canada.
try and get a 4x4 so much safer on the winter roads. The staff try to help one year we rejected 4 cars before we drove away. Check the windscreen for chips and cracks before you drive off we got charged for a screen one year when an existing chip became a crack.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
^+1
Also requested a car with snow tyres at Kelowna Airport and had to wait quite a while. Was actually discussing that same issue with a colleague here yesterday and noting how it is hard to get far from Kelowna without going on a mountain highway which then means you need winter tyres (or M+S since recently).
Also second the stonechip thing, though there is so much gravel on the roads in places you can't see the markings, so I was amazed/relieved that I managed to bring the car back without a stonechip!
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Calling into BC sounds like a great idea. Skype out also is very cheap for that.

Kelowna Airport = the real world. Kamloops is similar - good places.
Never had any stonechip issues, but I always photograph my hire cars (I don't pay the waiver fees).
When you return the car it will be covered in dirt.
They usually try to upgrade you, but especially in the wilds there they seldom actually have any actual small cars.
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