A Cautionary Tale About Snow Chains
8th January 2024
Last modified on January 11th, 2024
We have just driven up to Andorra from France in some ferocious weather conditions. Preparation, practice and patience with snow chains is what it is all about. It reminded us of an earlier experience this winter. UPDATED
PlanetSKI has related the Andorran experience this week in our current rolling blog:
Heading to Andorra. Image © PlanetSKI
Heading to Andorra. Image © PlanetSKI
Heading to Andorra. Image © PlanetSKI
Heading to Andorra. Image © PlanetSKI
Snow chains are a legal requirement and an absolute essential.
Putting them on and driving with them is nowhere near as daunting as some people think.
Several readers have messaged us, thanking us for the advice on what can be a daunting prospect.
We have some other advice from an experience back in early December in Austria.
We booked a hire car with Sixt from Innsbruck airport.
Heavy snow was forecast so we ordered chains and duly collected them at the time of hiring the car and put them in the boot.
I have a policy of always checking chains before heading up the mountain, and having a quick practice.
It was lucky I did before we set off to Kuhtai at over 2,000m.
Sixt had given us chains for ‘caravans, trucks and motorhomes’, rather than the small Volkswagen we had.
There was not a snowflake’s chance in hell they would fit.
We returned to the hire point at Innsbruck airport (missing out on valuable ski time) and tried them just to see.
The wheel would likely have made a couple of revolutions before the chains came off, getting totally tangled.
They certainly wouldn’t have done the job required of them.
Snow chains. Image © PlanetSKI
Sixt gave us another set.
Along with profuse apologies
Once again I checked before heading up the mountain.
Once again Sixt had given us the wrong ones.
Snow chains. Image © PlanetSKI
One mistake is perhaps forgivable, or maybe not as lives can depend on snow chains.
But twice?
We exchanged the wrong ones in the yellow box, for the right ones in the red box.
Snow chains. Image © PlanetSKI
Finally the chains fitted correctly.
Snow chains. Image © PlanetSKI
Third time lucky.
The manager was unavailable as it was a weekend, so I asked if the person could contact me on my return to the UK first thing on Monday.
I was more concerned about other people being given the wrong chains than my personal experience.
No-one ever did call/message me back.
I wonder if the incident was ever mentioned so procedures could be looked at.
And the moral of the story?
Always check your snow chains before you go up the mountain.
