Oh Sh*t

(This type of snow isn’t too hard to drive in. When the road is completely covered with a white layer and frozen and severely sloped. With regular tires and 2WD, you’re in trouble…
Is the song (by Pharcyde) that comes to mind when I think back on yesterday’s driving experience. I was once again surprised to find 4 inches of new snow covering everything, and the roads were once again whitened. I tried driving up the hill next to my house, and despite a constant pressure applied to the accelerator, my car slowly came to a stop. No matter how hard I could have floored it with my front tires spinning (like a car in a cartoon, just before it zooms off into a chase) , or if I tried to rock my car out of this unstable position I could not have made it up any further. I put on the hazards, and shifted into reverse. Slowly I started down the ice covered hill, and when I began to slip, I engaged into 2nd gear and gently drifted to the side of the road so that my left tires bumped into the curb. Using the curb as a rail, I made my way back to my house in reverse. If the road had been banked towards the other side of the road, I would have been in trouble.
So yes, I will buy chains this weekend when I go to the city (broke the last pair). I have to admit, the folks in Ubuyama are skilled at driving in snow-covered narrow roads. Some people drive over 40km (20 is what I drive) on the slippery roads in little pickup trucks with no problems, although they have 4WD and snowtires to help them out. If I end up living in a snowy area, then I will be driving a car with AWD and at the very least I will have some chains.