Have you ever been stranded in snow?

[sparrowhawkhere]

Have you ever been stranded in bad weather in your car? I’ve always wondered what would happen if you were snowed in and stuck in your car.

I always used to keep a bottle of water and sleeping bag in the car when I lived in an area that got a lot of snow. Never needed it, but wouldn't have wanted to be without it.

Yes, last year. And the most bizarre thing is that I live in a hot country and it was just a freak weather system that hit. We do not usually get much snow.

There had been an accident up ahead and the vehicles were all queued while the accident was being cleared. Then this snow storm hit. And no one had anywhere to go. And we are not geared up for such events here. People were walking to try get supplies at the service station which was a few km away. In shorts!

We managed to move after 6 hours, but some were stranded overnight. School buses with kids as well.

The worse was, is that snow is quite an attraction here. So people then decided they'd like to travel to go see the snow, which caused even more of a gridlock. It was a complete shit show.

No, but the day after I got my driving license (at the time, that was 16, so I was 16 and 1 day!), I had to drive my mum to collect my grandfather’s car so she could drive it back to our house to keep him from driving as it was getting dangerous for him. We left in the morning and it was like sunny and 15c. By evening it was about 3c and snowing. I’d never driven in snow before! I’d never really driven alone without a parent in the passenger seat. There was about 10cm of snow on the road and I drove myself home, about 1.5 hours, probably even 2 hours in blowing snow.

I’m quite good at driving in snow and ice, and I always say this is why. In retrospect, as a parent with a teen who will be driving In a few years, like hell I’d let my child do this. 😳 I’m lucky I didn’t end up stuck in a hedge somewhere. This probably says something about the quality of the parenting I received. 😂🙈

I’m very cautious now. Had to take dd to sports training this afternoon in the snow and I packed all our coats and boots and the power bank and a flask of hot water with milk and tea bags. At least if we got stranded we’d have emergency tea!

Yes, in London about 16 years ago. DH and I were on a rare car journey and had to abandon our car and get a bus because the car was just sliding around on the road. There wasn’t even that much snow.

Yes, for about 5 hours. Lorries had jack knifed in the snow on a hill and no one could get past. I had packed my car with a sleeping bag, flask of boiling water (and coffee and hot choc sachets), power banks, snacks, self heating hand warmers based on the forecast as well as my standard winter box of boots, socks, hat, mittens, down coat, emergency blankets, torch, she wee, glo sticks etc etc.
So I was quite happy in the car reading my Kindle and drinking coffee until it was cleared enough to get past.
In discussions about what you keep in your car, people laugh at me, but I used to drive all over the country by myself for work and theres been occasions I have been massively grateful to be prepared. The rest of the time all that stuff just sits there with no impact on me

No. My parents had to abandon their car in High Wycombe once and walk home.

Same year some people got stranded in the John Lewis there and stayed overnight. I thought that sounded brilliant!

When DS was a baby we decided to drive out on the ice road on the lake, but there was quite a bit of snow on the road and our car was a very low type so we got stuck, out on the lake, with a tiny baby. Not our brightest idea. Luckily we saw someone with a truck after a while, and they towed us out, so we weren't stuck long but I was panicking the whole time that the ice would suddenly and inexplicably break and we'd all sink down and drown.

Apart from that, never been stuck, even last winter when I had to drive on the unploughed road where the snow was very deep, I managed to keep going, terrified and clutching the steering wheel tightly the whole time, occasionally swerving a bit out of the tracks left by the car before me and feeling the car being pulled sideways by the snow but managing to yank it back into the tracks.

I left fir the school run at 8.15. Few flakes of snow.
Dropped kids off, headed to Asda (9am) bit more snow.
Came out of Asda 45mins later into absolute bedlam.
At 11am I gave up trying to get home and went to pick up kids instead. Got their at 11.45.

At 12.30, made it to the first road block... gave my address as was allowed to continue. At tge 2nd road block... they said I could continue for half a mile then park up and have to walk it from there and they weren't allowing vehicles onto the hill as it had turned to sheet ice.

So we had to walk the last 3/4 of a mile. With my 7 &9yos in their school shoes through the ankle deep snow

The crazy bit? This was all within 3 miles of our home. And there was no snow in the town centre.

We got caught in that but not at John Lewis. We had driven to town in normal weather, came out and a dump of snow came. It took us 6 hours to do the 3 miles home. My DH was driving my little car and managed to get it up the hill to our village which we didnt leave for about 3 days as we couldn't get off the hill.

I would say since then I've always made sure we've had boots and decent coats in the car even for a local trip.

If the forecast is for snow you make sure you have items in the car to be able to deal with this scenario....

...that's why they issue warnings.

The time we got stuck the issue was there was none forecast so the roads weren't gritted. (And the bin lorries were amongst those stranded... with the gritter drivers!)

Not quite, but very nearly in the Scottish Highlands when we were en route to my DD's just before Christmas a few years ago. We'd already changed our route as the road we usually go down was blocked but the alternative which was reported as clear when we set off was getting pretty bad too. We passed through a village which had opened it's village hall for people who were stuck and a lot of people in smaller cars were pulling in there or at a pubs and hotels. We were in a big 4x4 and had tgermal clothes, sleeping bags, food and drink etc in the car so we pressed on but were just about to give up when we reached a junction and saw a snowplough coming down the road. Fortunately we were then able to follow it all the way to our destination. There were lots of abandoned cars on the road though, and some tree branches had come down under the weight of snow so it was still a tricky drive. I'm confident we would have been ok if we'd had to stop but I don't mind admitting that I was very relieved to see the snow plough and I've got a lot o respect for the workforce who keep the roads open in adverse weather.

No but along with my OH, we have rescued several people who have (and also in flood water).

My OH has owned Land Rovers for almost 40yrs, they are properly kitted out and he knows how to drive them properly (knowledge is as important as having "all the gear"). A member of the local (voluntary) emergency assistance group, they would patrol the lanes around our village helping people who were stranded (sometimes they just needed a small push or tug to see them on their way).
The group would also be on call to take emergency service workers to work or home visits when they were unable to get there themselves due to road conditions.

Had my own Land Rover (Freelander) but nothing like the driving experience of my OH. The best advice he gave was to "stop & turnaround" if I was uncertain of the road ahead. A great vehicle in the snow though.
One winter (2009 I think?) when all the major routes were blocked with stranded vehicles, we both set out along the B & unclassified roads to reach his parents house (50-miles away) so we could take them to doctors appointments. Most roads were virgin snow and we saw practically no other vehicles. A very successful and worthy trip.

Yes, twice. Once on motorway (Beast from the East) and once in highlands in middle of nowhere.

Left work on NYE as weather was awful. A trip home should have been 30 mins but took me 2.5hrs

about 2 miles from home I got stuck as the person in front tried to take a hill too slow and I couldn’t get past
walked the rest of the way home. Got in just as the clock hit midnight and remember saying “happy fucking NY”

We were on the A82 between Crianlarich and Fort William and it was snowing. We had pulled over as we were unsure whether to continue. The police pulled up alongside and told us to go back to Crianlarich. We were the last people out before they closed the snow gates.
My grandparents village in rural Kent near the North Downs got snowed in during the snowstorms of 1982. They had supplies dropped in by helicopter.

Yes, in Scotland. My boss told me to leave work a bit early as it had already started snowing. I got onto the main road about 5 miles from home and it wasn’t moving due to heavy snow.
Was stuck in my car for several hours. No food or water, only an everyday coat. I had to wee in the car.
Eventually after dark, a snow plough reached us and cleared our section of the road. I had a treacherous few miles drive home, skidding through heavy snow. Eventually made it: we were snowed in for several days.
it remains one of the most frightening experiences of my life.
Afterwards, I never left home in poor weather without a snow shovel, blanket, food and water, wellies and a change of clothes packed in the boot.

Today 😳
Stuck as in couldn’t proceed due to an abandoned car blocking the pass. We had to reverse down a steep narrow road with a sheer drop my (passenger) side. I’m still shaking. Stock photo.

I wasn’t stranded in my car but I once got stranded in snow in London when my tube home was cancelled. My options were to walk (4 miles in the dark and ice) or get a tube back into the city and hope I could find a hotel. Only hotel I could find was £200 and as a charity worker on a limited income, that wasn’t an option. I ended up going back to my office and as I had a key, let myself in and (no joke) made a bed on the floor out of coats which had been donated by staff and were due to be dropped for a homeless charity. Never been so cold in all my life and it obviously made me think about what it must be like to be on the streets.

I didn’t sleep much and clock watched until about 6am when the tube started again and I was able to make it to a friend’s house. I’d caught quite a bad chill and ended up staying at her house for 5 days with flu.

Yes it was very stressful. I left work cos it had started to come down quite heavily and I needed to collect dc from nursery. As I was driving it just got steadily heavier and heavier. Soon all cars were crawling along with spinning tyres and pedestrians having to give cars a push.

Nursery was at the top of a very hilly area. I tried various routes and was sweating buckets from the stress. Eventually it just got too terrifying with idiots walking across the road, thinking the slow cars meant they'd be fine, and cars veering all over the place. I pulled into a verge and continued on foot.

I had to walk to nursery, collect toddler then try to walk home with small child. It was so awful. He wanted to be carried and was so heavy, plus slipping down me due to our winter coat material. I puked when I got home.

Collected car a couple of days later and got an invoice from the nursery for late collection.

The snow was unexpected and I'm not sure what I could have done differently. I had to get dc somehow.

In a similar scenario a friend was stuck I her car for 8 hours cos of an accident. She says the hunger was manageable but the thirst was so bad, she was worried she was going to be unable to drive.

Since then I've got all sorts in my car - foil blankets, wee pouch things, bottled water, biscuits, torch, Hi viz vest

Back in the 90s (before the days of mobile phones etc) DH went to a school many miles away

Ultimately his bus was getting stuck and made it to a bus depot several miles away.

Somehow (via land lines) his Mum got a message and remembered a friend who happened to live near this bus depot who walked to collect (primary age) DH from there and he slept over at their house. (there was simply no way, that even with their landrover that they could have driven, the snow here was worse than where he had made it!)

Its never been forgotten!

I've never actually been stuck in my car (living high in yorkshire countryside its a real possibility). I have had some awful journeys back from school to home (5 miles) where i have wondered if i would get home without crashing or being hit.
In the winter I keep hats / scarf / fleece blanket and wellys (for me and my DC) in the boot of my car at all times.

I live high on the top of a hill and have numerous times left the car in the next village and walked the rest of the way home. (yes i have a 4wd car)

I couldn’t get the car out of our road to get to the hospital at 9 months pregnant. So I walked, in blizzard conditions, for 30 minutes to get there. I had my phone and a cash card, nothing else. I’m pretty sure that it was walk that kicked off labour and a few hours later I had DD!

Not me but my late grandmother got stuck in 4ft of snow and had to be pulled out of her car through the sunroof by a helicopter

Blankets, water are a feature in my car. If it was really cold thermos of coffee hot water bottles + foo