Castle lake road was a little iffy because it was slippery. When you have not too much snow (not over 5 to 8 inches of new snow it can be a little dangerous if ice is underneath it all because there is not much to keep you from sliding over the edge of the road into trees or down cliffs.
I don't recommend necessarily what I do because you have to really be on top of it. But, what I do is to put my car at about 25 miles per hour uphill in cruse control. Why?
Because cruise control in my truck will keep a more constant power to each wheel in 4 wheel drive than I can by putting my foot on the gas pedal. Why is this good? Because I will tend to not slide out going uphill.
But, even for me there are some conditions when I wouldn't do this. When? When I need for safety to go slowly than 25 (because it won't work below that speed) or when I sense it isn't safe to do this for any reason.
I prefer to have at least myself and one other person in the car going into snowy wilderness conditions because you just never know what is going to happen and often two heads and two sets of arms are better than one in surviving whatever comes.
Going down I drove from CAstle lake very slowly today because of snow with ice underneath. I drove about 10 to 15 miles per hour after seeing a car at Bunny Flats that almost went over a cliff yesterday and falling to one knee just trying to walk on the road and snow.
The temperature at CAstle lake was about 26 degrees with blowing ice and snow at 20 to 30 miles per hour. Obviously, we didn't stay long. What was amazing for us (that I had never seen before) was the lake only half frozen and the back half with white caps like on the ocean beating against the lake side where cars park on the ice. It was hard to keep heat in ones body so we only stayed about 1/2 hour there with that much wind chill from wind and ice and snow blowing.
Later I drove to my friend's house. He wanted to do some work so his girlfriend and I went skiing at Bunny Flats going up the snow covered road from there towards Panther Meadows. It was nicer there even though the temperature in my truck said 23 degrees because the wind wasn't blowing so the wind chill wasn't bad so it seemed relatively warm after Castle lake conditions. However, the skiing wasn't that great but it was so beautiful it was worth the trip with light powder falling on everything. The problem was even the tracks we made up the snow covered road from Bunny were covered by a light layer of powder when we turned back an hour or so later towards my truck. So, I couldn't get my skis to slide more than 7 to 8 feet a step before they stopped from friction on the powder on the road. So, this was a lot of work to get back to my truck and not just a happy slide on skis down in one swoop instead.
We were on metal edged mountaineering skis so you can walk in them or ski in them and stay on top of whatever snow you are on like with snow shoes. But, because you are not on manicured snow you are at the mercy of nature as to the conditions you will face on any given day. So, you have to carefully see when you go out that you can survive the conditions wherever you plan to go which takes some thought often. For example, you don't want to ski into a tree and fall down into a tree well. Snowboarders are often found later in the year dead down a tree well 10 feet deep with no way out. Because of the dynamics of skis this is less likely to happen on skis but still might be possible.
My nephew years ago was about 4 to 6 and on a sled gung ho sledding out in the woods with us. I heard him call for help but couldn't find him. We finally tracked his cries to a 10 foot deep tree well beside a large tree. Both the sled and my young nephew had fallen down there. Luckily, he wasn't knocked unconscious by the fall and could call for help. So, I grabbed his brothers ankles and lowered his older brother by his feet to rescue his little brother and then I pulled them both out. Then one of the older kids went down and brought the sled back out too.
So, for snow fun for any age be aware of where the tree wells are if you are playing in deep snow over 5 feet deep where you are.
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