At Mirage Landscaping, your full-service landscaping design, maintenance and snow removal company, even with over three generations of service to our Calgary clients, we haven’t seen many winters kick off like this one. December brought record snowfall amounts and biting cold arctic temperatures we just don’t get every winter. In fact, isolated parts of the city are still crippled by snow accumulations weeks after the worst of the recent storms have passed.
If you are still dealing with the effects of the last snowstorm, or want to be better prepared for the next one, we offer our readers some tips for not getting stuck in the snow, as well as some further tips for if you do.
Drive Cautiously
This may seem too obvious to include, but hear us out. Here at Mirage Landscaping we not only drive in all weather all day long as part of our snow removal services, and have all the confidence in the world in out trucks. That said, we also know the dangers of complacency, and being overconfident is a deadly error. Four, or all-wheel drive, does afford more security in adverse weather, but it doesn’t enhance braking, nor will it bail you out every single situation.
Drive Prepared
We travel the winter streets of Calgary, performing snow removal for our clients, carrying shovels, de-icing materials, grit, and other materials that will usually serve to get our crews unstuck in the unlikely event that it happens. Truthfully, how prepared are you to self-rescue in snow and ice? If you are not carrying chains, traction pads, cat litter, a collapsible shovel, or even something as basic as winter gloves in your car, you are taking your chances in getting hopelessly stuck, even if all you do is drive within the confines of Calgary.
Let People Know Where You Went And When To Expect You
Tragedies during wintertime driving are often born out of this one oversight. If no one knows you are missing, no one knows when to begin looking for you. If nobody knows where you went, it of course follows that nobody will know where to begin looking for you. Cell phones have created a false sense of security. It’s always prudent to let someone know what you were up to, and where, even in this age of “connectedness,” which can vanish in a power failure affecting the nearest cellular towers.
So, Now You’re Stuck
Despite our best precautions, sometimes Mother Nature wins in the end. If you’ve done enough winter driving in Alberta, or Canada generally, chances are that the weather has beaten you a few times. What to do?
Before You Go, You Have to Know
We get it, we really do. Despite all of the caution in the world, you’ve been rut driven into a powdery and deep snow bank. Now what? It’s cold out there. Your feet will get wet. That said, you still owe it to yourself to get out and assess your true situation. If your front wheels are not straight, you will be sacrificing much needed potential traction to spinning your drive wheels in a direction that will not likely get you unstuck. You won’t know if your wheel wells have been clogged with snow and ice. You may not know that you have overrun one of those short concrete barriers in a parking lot or some other now hidden obstacle. Assess your situation.
Don’t Rock…Roll!
In addition to being bad for your transmission, gunning from reverse to forward to reverse is bad technique. Especially if you have front wheel drive, turn off the traction control system if you get stuck. Such systems deprive torque to a wheel that is slipping by applying the brakes, which could overheat or fail. You have to endeavor to apply traction to all drive wheels that have contact with the surface. Excessive wheel spin will not create traction, but it will create water, and then ice, which could make your situation worse. In extreme cases, where one tire has traction and the other doesn’t, you could overheat the free spinning tire, causing a catastrophic failure of its construction.
Give Us a Call
If expedition driving just to get out of your driveway is not your cup of tea, call us for a free snow removal quote.