 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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They must've been reading War & Peace whilst in the WC....
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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?
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Before we had our covered parking space (they built the garage after all the rest) I had to take friends to Gva for a very early flight. It was snowy, and more snow forecast overnight. The night before I dug the car out as much as I could and put the chains on the front wheels. In the morning I went out at 4 am or similar and dug it out again, and sat and warmed up the engine, whilst eating my bowl of porridge oats. knowing that otherwise, going DOWN the hill, the engine wouldn't warm up and we'd frost up and have no heating. You're right about the snow setting like concrete - and until I did that job for the first time I'd not thought that as you can't dump the snow behind the car parked close beside you, every shovelfull had to be carried across the road where it could be tipped down the slope.
The covered parking space was well worth its cost. Even though sometimes the roadway round, which belonged to the co-pro not the commune, was not ploughed.
It's hard work having a place in the Alps!! I couldn't do it now, I'd probably drop dead.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Many years ago I’d driven to Courchevel 1550 for half term week. It snowed hard for almost the entire week, had to dig the car out every second day to stop it becoming an anonymous hump of snow. When we came to buy a place several years later, having a space in a covered garage was very high on the list of requirements. Using the remote control for the garage door more often than a snow shovel continues to be a joy… 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Quote: |
Using the remote control for the garage door more often than a snow shovel continues to be a joy
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ah yes. The turn into our garage was a 90 degree uphill turn. Sometimes you had to get the door open from a bit of a distance away (which meant sending passenger up, or getting out yourself) and then taking a run at it. Was a bit hairy....... but such a relief once you were in. On clear concrete.
It took the help of three other lovely snowheads, all with shovels, to dig my car out the first morning after I arrived in Arabba (over a closed Campolongo pass) that Snowmageddon year. Fortunately it had chains on, so once the worst of the snow was shifted, the car could add some power to the mix.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I bet its a bit dissapointing to realise you are digging out the wrong car.
It must happen.
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I bet its a bit dissapointing to realise you are digging out the wrong car.
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You dig to the number plate first. I've dug out the car from deeper than that several times. A big shovel helps. It is the hardpack formed by the snow plough that can be the real trouble, but if you can get your shovel under it it breaks away in big boulders that you can heave out of the way.
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From the chairlift which overflies the huge Avoriaz outdoor parking, at the end of a snowy week, it sometimes looks like a giant spotted dick, where multiple desperate drivers have dug out little clearings down to the roofs of multiple cars trying to find the right paint colour  !
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Origen wrote: |
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Using the remote control for the garage door more often than a snow shovel continues to be a joy
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ah yes. The turn into our garage was a 90 degree uphill turn. Sometimes you had to get the door open from a bit of a distance away (which meant sending passenger up, or getting out yourself) and then taking a run at it. Was a bit hairy....... but such a relief once you were in. On clear concrete. |
Ours is similar, although downhill rather than uphill. The final 20m section of the road is heated, so if cars are skidding down the relatively steep slope on snow, which occasionally happens, there’s some clear tarmac for them to regain control before the hit the garage door.
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That's very sophisticated, @rob@rar!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Holy cow, I don't think I am either strong enough or a good enough driver to cope with those kinds of capers!
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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.
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| shep wrote: |
| From the chairlift which overflies the huge Avoriaz outdoor parking, at the end of a snowy week, it sometimes looks like a giant spotted dick, where multiple desperate drivers have dug out little clearings down to the roofs of multiple cars trying to find the right paint colour ! |
A thought: if you do a what3words when you leave the car you shouldn't have a problem finding it later however much snow there's been.
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Good idea - I sometimes struggle to find my car even at Gatwick airport with no snow at all. Last time, I'd oriented myself with various buildings and trees, but got back in the pitch dark and pouring rain. I wandered round the right general area clicking my keys hoping nobody was watching. 
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You know it makes sense.
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Try doing it to a caravan, sometimes from the inside Although the worst was when we had to leave it unexpectedly on a site for a few weeks following a ski injury.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@CaravanSkier, you must have been tough, in your caravan!!
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Origen wrote: |
| Good idea - I sometimes struggle to find my car even at Gatwick airport with no snow at all. Last time, I'd oriented myself with various buildings and trees, but got back in the pitch dark and pouring rain. I wandered round the right general area clicking my keys hoping nobody was watching. |
I had to do that once in a massive field at Green Man festival.
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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?
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| Origen wrote: |
| @CaravanSkier, you must have been tough, in your caravan!! |
It did not feel like that at the time, but I would not want to go through that now
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I regularly drive to the French Alps and always book a space in a covered car park. Peace of mind more than anything else plus I want to enjoy the holiday and not be digging the car out every other day. OK so the car park costs a bit more but it is definitely worth it in my mind.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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When we arrived in Les Menuires a couple of days before last years EoSB it was in the wake of a storm that'd shut the resort. I was very grateful to whoever had dug their car out from the 2m deep drift at the side of the approach to our booked appartment. It must have taken them hours and saved me a lot of effort
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| 195062 wrote: |
| A thought: if you do a what3words when you leave the car you shouldn't have a problem finding it later however much snow there's been. |
Building on that @195962, shurley a GPS-tagged photo, preferably with a recognisable landmark & one's reg plate would also work ?
Might even help if one lost one's marbles as well ;-?
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@altis, One of my favourite adverts ever
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In 2008, I learned the importance of rubbing a very light coating of silicone grease on all the door seals, for the winter in the Alps.
Golf GTD, minus -5 air temp but parked in a spot which had sun in the day and then shadow from 3pm.
Yep, returning to the car at 4pm, no snow on the car. So looked good. What could go wrong?
We could not open ANY of the doors. Welded shut. The sun had melted residual ice on the car, which had run into the door seals and frozen to boilerplate when the car passed into shade. Only warm water treatment for an age, in really freezing conditions, with the temp dropping fast, worked to get ONE door open. If we had been up a hill rather than near the bottom station we would have been in serious sh==t. (I know someone will come up with bladder-based emergency measures but you would have needed many many bladders to release that door....)
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Quote: |
I learned the importance of rubbing a very light coating of silicone grease on all the door seals, for the winter in the Alps.
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I do similarly to stop water effects there. The also shut nicely and don't generally creak through any weather when treated.
Windows another, with silicone oil in the felt tracks in prevention of water ingress. If frozen they can snap the window lift mechanism (loosely consisting of cross between a sash window and knicker elastic in a cross square formation) with significant plastic componentry that's more brittle when v-cold. Seen a few travelling home with duct tape and bin bag patch of shame to make the journey with glass "lost" down inside the door cavity.
When I first went skiing, remember often the French/local cars parked with wipers sticking out to avoid icing when snow fell.
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What's unusual, for people who live in the UK, is to go out to a parked car after a cold night and find no trace of ice on windows - the humidity is so low. My doors froze up even in Hampshire last week, though I didn't have to pee on them, fortunately. For an old lady on her own, that's a challenge!
One thing which caught me by surprise, years ago, was the terrible noises made as I drove through a busy street with what turned out (when I called into a garage on my way home) to be a handbrake cable embedded in hard-set snow and ice. I learned to leave the handbrake off, and engage an appropriate gear. That was after several years of being based for months in the Alps every winter - I suppose it was the particular combination of conditions. I guess most cars don't have handbrake cables, these days.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Handbrake always better left off, and car in gear, anyway if the car is going to be left for some time. This particularly at a time of year when the discs will rust enough to weld the brake pads to the discs.
Beware Highway Code 239 “ you MUST apply the handbrake before leaving the vehicle”. But handbrakes are pretty useless and can release themselves anyway.
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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.
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@Weathercam, thank you
Just dug my car out of 2+ feet of snow in Les Chosalets with greater ease than if left a day or two more
Travelling most places in Chamonix valley on the bus it would have been easy to ignore.
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Some real fidiots on the Lauteret this afternoon.
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You know it makes sense.
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This thread must have put off skiers who normally fly from driving*
(*For those who fly we've driven many times and parked outside often but have rarely had to dig out, fortunately, and that was at Feb HT for several years).
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@billb, we have only really needed to do it a couple of times in 20 years.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I didn't have to do it again once the builders had finished the garage! Digging cars out of snowdrifts is one of those things which only happens when there's lots of snow - which is usually a cause for some celebration, especially after weeks without. Parking at night along the main drag in Les Saisies was prohibited. The people who did, at times of heavy snow, found at why, when they returned to their cars in the morning to find a wall of concrete ploughed snow making it extremely difficult to even get in the car, let alone drive away.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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You gotta be a doosh to park there.
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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?
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Would love to have the finding - digging car out problem at the end of a week's skiing. As that would indeicate snow has been epic! My driving trips have always been pretty dry which has made for esay no-drama journeys, but the flip side being no Pow days either.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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We were staying in Alpe d’Huez a few years ago. At the end of the week they had to clear the car park to make way a music festival they have every year. There were lots of cars in the car park that had been there all season. I sat looking out of my window drinking a cup of coffee watching a man spend twenty minutes digging out his car. Eventually he dug it out sufficiently to realise it wasn’t his car and had to start again with the car parked next to it.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| James the Last wrote: |
Handbrake always better left off, and car in gear, anyway if the car is going to be left for some time. This particularly at a time of year when the discs will rust enough to weld the brake pads to the discs.
Beware Highway Code 239 “ you MUST apply the handbrake before leaving the vehicle”. But handbrakes are pretty useless and can release themselves anyway. |
If it is a MUST in the Highway code, then it is a legal requirement - of course only when parked on the road.
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