I sure hope that what we found today was that which the Westy was warning us about. The tourist office in Chama told us that the passes were very dangerous; people were turning around, there was ice and snowpack (but strangely enough, the pass was open with no warnings). They said that La Veda was open, dry and snowfree. We could get there by going back some 70 miles, just before Espanola and take 285 around the mountains. That would eliminate La Manga and Cumbres passes but add about 140 miles to our day. The forecast was for sun tomorrow, but the forecasts had been terribly wrong so far, and the heavy snowfall on top of Cumbres today was forecast as “sun” yesterday. We checked again in Antonito, after taking 285 all the way back to Colorado and after they checked 5 different numbers, agreed with Chama tourist information that La Veda was dry, clear and snow-free. We knew we were chasing time; it was 4pm when we left Antonito and the other side of La Veda (under 10K ft) was about 100 miles away. We didn’t want to cross La Veda in the dark or at night just in the event that snowfall could be possible. Just outside the pass, at Ft. Gardner, we tuned into the tourist information radio station which was very quiet. The pass was light and we could see the peaks of surrounding mountains. We never imagined it could be as awful as it turned out.
We headed up the pass with dry roads but watching the windshields of approaching cars, I noticed some had snow. I hoped that they had come from roads off the pass as the majority of cars were dry and didn’t even have dirt around the tire wells. Just before the summit, the road turned slushy. At the summit the road was pure ice. Everyone had dropped their speed to 5mph or less. Enormous trucks were inching down the pass. A fifth wheel pulling an additional trailer pulled off at the pass (into deep snow) and joined two other 5th wheels waiting there. I figured they’d all head down together but we never saw them again. I assume they are still up there, surrounded by white. After beginning down the pass, I saw a sign indicating the grade would last 4 miles and was hopeful but the icy road too soon turned to thick pure ice and I had no control over the vehicle. I had the Ford in 1st gear and was going less than 5mph but I almost lost all control when I saw the trailer inching into a jacknife. I had already hyperventilated by then and tried deep breathing and telling myself to “relax, calm down, breath deep” to keep from falling apart. We actually jacknifed but it was so slow that I was able to get straight again. I headed the the middle of the road where the slush was thicker and the ice seemed to be less. A sherrif’s car drove by and berated me, telling me I should pull off the road (WHERE?? and I had little to no control of the van+trailer) before zipping off to presumably berate someone else. I literally inched down the mountain. I’d let off the brakes; the wheel cranked to the right and move a tiny bit, then hit the brakes to eventually skid to a stop, inch again to the right or out of whatever skid I was in at the time, and slowly, quite literally inches at a time, made out way down. Jamie jumped out of the Westy and stood at the driver’s window with me, encouraging me on and getting splashed by oncoming snow spray. I took the middle of the road and eyed the oncoming lane, so wishing I could use it; it was dry and plowed and had neither ice nor snow nor slush. Finally, I got to the point where the oncoming uphill traffic had 2 snow, slush and ice free lanes (and our sole downhill lane was thick ice) and I took over one oncoming lane. It was terribly dangerous, but the oncoming traffic was slow. We hit a wall of fog and a Sherrif’s car drove by to berate me once again. I was in the oncoming lane but the downhill lane was thick ice. He told me I was holding up traffic (there was none behind me, but perhaps they had stopped it somewhere, waiting for me to crash) and to get off the road (again, WHERE?? no pullouts…). Finally, after what seemed like hours (we headed up the pass at 5:15 and got down at 8:30), I got to slush. Then the snow began to disappear. Then the hail turned to rain. I had control of the van and trailer but I was still to scared to trust it to more than 25mph. It was a leap of faith to go to 10mph, then 15, then 20, then 25. I kept testing my brakes and when I stopped skidding I increased my speed. Then I lost my trailer brakes. Luckilly, I was only on wet highway and the trailer brakes held all through the ice and snow.
I used the gearing as brakes and really didn’t even use the van brakes and here we are in Walsenburg, Co; it can snow and rain all we care; we’re off the damn mountain. Tomorrow we need to figure out why the trailer brakes kept going off and on; perhaps it is a rain or snow or ice issue, but for now, we’re eating, relaxing and enjoying the fact that we did not end up pulled down the moutain by the trailer; jacknifed and completely out of control. And send some warm thoughts for the poor bastards spending the night in their trailers at the top of the pass. There is bad weather coming from Chama and they might be there a while (another reason I wanted to get down).
Now I am going to get quite drunk and fall asleep. And it will be a VERY long time before I have any desire to see snow, slush or ice.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Dr Paul // Sep 23, 2006 at 5:47 pm
OMG!!!
love, dad
PS> Good drivin’ Kit-Cat!
2 TaTa // Sep 23, 2006 at 6:33 pm
OMG!!! I can’t believe what I read - how in the name of god you ever made it down, I don’t know, but am so very grateful you all are safely down and okay.
We look forward to hearing more. Please stay away from high hills and mountains!
Many warm hugs for everyone.
love,
tata
3 MB // Sep 23, 2006 at 10:07 pm
I opened this saying, OMG! and saw the two comments before me. We had quite a scare heading down out of the Colorado Rockies a few weeks back, but as I read this outloud to Eric, we both agree, you win, hands down!! Oh, we both felt for you every inch of your post. So glad you are all safe and sound. We, on the other hand, spent the day doodling around Carmel and Big Sur on Hwy 1 - sans snow, even fog.
4 Paul Jr // Sep 23, 2006 at 11:12 pm
If you were alone and did not have 4 innocent lives in your hands I would say you can put yourself in any dangerous situations you wished. But when the sheriff tells you twice to pull off the road you do it!!!! And you ask where? How about where the other 5th wheelers pulled off, or even on the side of the road even if there was no turnout. And if the side of the road was not a good spot then the sheriff would then be able to direct you to one. That is if you had the common sense to do it. If a police officer tells you to lay down and put your hands over your head are you going to say where? Or do you do what the officer tells you to do. And how about the lives of the other drivers that you put in harms way? What if you had killed some other driver? How would you handle that? How would your children?
5 jody // Sep 24, 2006 at 8:56 am
Holy shit! That is all I have to say.
The image of Jamie walking beside you getting splashed with slush made me want to squeeze him in the biggest bear hug imaginable! Tell him I love him!
I agree with your dad…good driving girl!!
On an aside, Bill and I did Wolf Creek pass in December during a blizzard and had a similiar experience, minus pulling a big-ass trailer. It was hair raising, and when we got down to Pagosa Springs, we got drunk on some very good Chianti. We were the last car off the mountain, and when we got to the base, they pulled a ROAD CLOSED sign behind us.
We were there to check out the possibility of a move to Colorado. After that evening, Bill said there is no way in hell he would live there.
Paul Jr…..when we hit Wolf Creek, the people at the base of the mountain were saying “It’s a little windy on the hill”. We are Texans(major snow driving handicap there), so 50 points off for that alone….we asked if it was safe to try the pass, and everyone said yes, no problem. When we got to the top of the pass, it was a white out. The cliff markers were COVERED in snow drift, so we couldn’t see where the road ended in a 1000 foot drop off. We could only see 5 feet in front of the car, and I had my face smashed up against the windshield telling my husband “left, left, left…NOW RIGHT, RIGHT, GO RIGHT NOWWWWW!!”. There was nowhere to pull over and we were in a tiny Mazda 626. I can only imagine trying to find a pull over for a rig with a total length of over 40 feet
I would imagine that if Kathy said there was nowhere to pull over, then there was literally nowhere to pull over.
Once you get up there, the only way off the damn thing is DOWN. They told her the roads were clear. I was wondering if you read that part of her post.
6 MB // Sep 24, 2006 at 10:22 am
Postscript - Talking about your experience again this morning, Eric and I agree this is why we opted for a 4WD tow vehicle. We’ve only really needed the 4WD once in snow, and that was last December when we crossed the Appalachians in West Virginia in near blizzard conditions, but were really glad we had it (especially since the Suburban has multiple levels of 4WD.) We originally only had the sand dunes at Cape Hatteras and Baja in mind when we picked out the vehicle - having lived with major snow (100+ inches per year average) most of my life, I never considered driving in it pulling a 10Klb trailer would make much of a difference. Silly me.
7 Mamahops // Sep 24, 2006 at 12:03 pm
From the junk emails you’re sending (that I will not approve), Paul, I can only say that I did the best I could do. I fault the Colorado Sherriff’s department for not stopping traffic from crossing the pass and the berating officer for refusing to tell us his name or badge number. Just because a Sherriff tells me to do something doesn’t necessarily make it a safe option. There was no shoulder. There were no turnouts. There was no place to pull over to. He was not interested in helping us.
Your emails are now on moderated status, Paul; not for the content of your comment but for the comments from junk emails you have attemped to post to this entry.
8 Jamie Hopcia // Sep 24, 2006 at 4:13 pm
Dear Paul,
I don’t know if you read the post but what the officer was telling us was impossible to do. He offered no help what so ever and his actions were totally inappropriate.All of your postings seem to imply that what we are doing with our family is inappropriate or dangerous.We are doing what we are so we can spend the most amount of time with our kids before they get older and no longer want to spend as much time with us.We are doing it because we feel it is the best for our family.It would be great to get a positive comment from you once in a while for I, for one, tire of your negativity.Maybe you should stop reading the blog if it causes you so much discomfort.
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