Last night we did the (normally 3-4 hour drive) into the highest mountains in W.Va (the east coast snow belt) into the largest storm of the season so far....overall dump was well over 20" in the mountains. Some pics....

I will note that the trip took us about 6 hours, most of the time it was snowing as hard as 5inches/hour (according to the weather service)...visibility was poor, but the Blizzak LM-22's were awesome....truthfully, we had NO "close calls" at all, and never came close to getting stuck anywhere.

Also funny, that in the entire 6 hours, we were not caught up to or passed by ANY other car (4x4's included), and we arrived an hour sooner than our friends' WRX and Grand cherokee that left 10 minutes behind us (with A/S tires, but AWD)

A few photos and stories.

Early in the trip, with about 5" on the roads, we stopped to help a BMW 3-series out of a ditch..his front right wheel was hanging over a 20-foot drop..this pic was after we helped a local pickup truck pull him out. Funny part was, the driver didn't know there was an eye-hook in his trunk emergency kit that screwed into his rear bumper. He was very embarassed when i told him that he did



Here you can see about midway through the trip, where the snow on the roads was well over 8" deep......it was soft and fluffy, but at some points we had no idea where the roads were - keep in mind, these are twisty mountain roads, not highways - so it's good to know where they are! You can see that we were "plowing" through at about 30-40mph most of the way. At some parts the drifts we pushed through were deep enough to spray snow up over the front of the hood



Here is an outside shot as we neared the resort..this is not plowed snow, it's freshly-fallen!! No, we're not stuck at all, we started up fine....but you can see that the snow was pretty deep



This morning, at the top of Snowshoe mountain, the snow was piled in a drift up to the windows of the car....by afternoon when we left, the wind had shifted and blown all the snow away...craziness. Winds were 60mph at the peak with a temp of 8 degrees....brr.

 

a few skiing/boarding shots:

me, hanging with some of my friends who are industry reps....it was wicked cold up there.



my boy Scott pulling some air over the wall



It was colder than it looks, even....

 

Those are some awesome pics josh. I had no idea the maxima could do that so well. Ive driven through snow storms before, but not that deep snow.... good work

 

yeah, you guys don't get any good snow in Utah

the snow tires make all the difference....I had my doubts about how effective they'd be, but I was downright amazed at how grippy and stable the car was for 6-7 hours of driving in this stuff.

 

i should be up there for new years. my nittos didnt like the snow last year and with even less tread i think i will leave it home. i have a few places in allegheny springs and did not even get a chance to go last year. that will not be the case this season.

 

I guess thats why we have "best snow on earth" on our licence plates....... I dont use the snow anyway, I live for the summers at Lake Powell. The only thing snow is good for is drifting in the BMWs at work

I was very suprised at the difference snow tires make too, Im very glad I bought them.

 

one more car shot I like....coming out of the mountaintop bar at 2am last night.....car was parked along a ravine, with winds coming up I'd say 60-70 mph and temps in single digits. My buddy Jeremy hiding behind the car out of the wind...,...

love the wind-blown snowcoating on the back....

 

Irish, have you driven with the Proxes 4 in the snow? I am wondering how they perform.

 

I have brand new Proxes 4's on my maxima and they do pretty well IMO. I am used to driving a locked up toyota truck though, so im a little biased. but overall i like the way they perform, mine are also siped.

 

Nice pics

Especially this one :

 

Those roads up to snowshoe are not high priorities when it comes to plowing, I did the drive up rt 219 in a storm last year. With worn allseason's it was interesting to say the least. I'm trying to make a trip up there sometime in mid january when I get back from NY.

 

I used them for one snowstorm last year....they did "ok" - by that meaning, they did as well in the snow as any other A/S high-performance tire I've used....."touring" A/S tires tend to be better in snow than UHP A/S tires, though....

 

Nice pics... glad ya got there and back safe... looks like ya got some good snow for the skiing as well.



Attention *****...

 

Josh - Master of the Elements

 

Great story/pics and thanks for sharing! I bought a set of Dunlop Wintersports last year, and too was amazed how stable the Max was with them on. FWD truly sucks, but FWD with snow tires is a great combo for the winter. Gee I must be getting old. Choosing practicality over performance....

 

To whoever it was asking about what tires I was using...sorry I accidentally deleted your PM before I could respond. They are Bridgestone Blizzak LM-22.

 

the BMW mentioned above had SSR 18's on it with BFGoodrich T/As.....I don't think he was liking his "performance" when he couldn't make it up the snow-covered hill and had to stop at the hotel across the street instead of going 100 miles farther to the ski resort that he was headed to. Meanwhile, we trucked another 180 miles through the snow that night without incident.

performance is all situation-dependent

 

Damn Josh....must be nice to actually get some snow to drive in. All we get here in the South is ice.

 

Josh, did you go to Snow Shoe?

 

that is too cold for me.

i'll chill at the warm 36 down here.

 

lucky guess, Tim....

 

I wish all those skiers and snow boaders would get the hint that utah has crappy snow.....

 

We got a few inches of snow today again and I was doing some work on a .org members 02 Maxima GLE with Turanza all season tires. The drive home from work in the snow in this car was pretty bad- tires spin at almost all throttle applications. When I dropped off the Max with its owner I got in mine with Blizzak WS50s and lemme tell ya, SNOW tires rock. I was able to take off eassier, corner better and stop better than those all seasons ever could. WS50s rock in the snow, I never have a problem getting out of ANY kind of snow with them on my stock suspension. Great pics Josh !

 

Damn, that is impressive. I also had no idea the Max could do so well through snow...I never would've believed it after having experienced snow storms only with my Conti Extreme Contacts (a/s) so far - those things suck in the snow.

I was going to start looking around for some good winter tires, but I think you've answered my question already. Funny thing is...tirerack is sold out of the LM22s. They do still have the WS50s though.

Does anybody think I'll be able to find the LM22s at a typical Bridgestone distributor? Thanks!

 

I just ordered the Blizzak WS-50's. No one will believe me how much I'm paying. $570 INSTALLED!

Tire rack is $136/tire + 36 shipping. == $580 + about 15-20/ea to get mounted/balanced.

The Blizzak WS-50 rates 9.4 in snow traction

 

Guys....the WS-50 actually has BETTER traction than the LM-22 in snow/ice.....The LM-22 is better on dry roads though and more "performance-oriented" winter tire, I guess you could say. I only actually drive in snow maybe 10-15 days a year, so the LM-22s are good for my purposes. If I lived where it snowed alot, I'd probably go witht he WS50's.

 

LM-22's also cost about $30 +/ea

I went with WS-50 because I have summer rims to use. Here around my house the plows seem to always forget about my development...the other day I have no idea how I made it up/down my hill

 

i have to drive my car in snow in a couple weeks (and i've never done it) and i've been worrying about it lately but i guess i shouldn't. but i've never driven in snow before.. i plan on getting new tires before i drive up but they probably won't be snow tires

 

I got the LM-22s off of a guy with a 350z...they are 225/50/17 front and 235/50/17 rear (a tight fit)....they go well on my 17x7.5/8 G35 wheels. The guy with the Z decided that even with snow tires, the Z sucked in the snow and sold them to me cheap with like 100 miles on em

 

+1 for Blizzak's. I got them on my winter set of 16" rims. We got about 3" here, and I was driving up a hill like no other, other ppl getting stuck for no reason. This is my first winter with a manual tranny car, and I was not sure if it's the tires that made for easy driving in the snow, or the fact that conrolling wheelspin is easier with a clutch. Anyway props to Blizzak's and Maxima.

 

hot, i just got back from killington but didnt take the max.. lol, took the chevy trailblazer instead.

 

I may see you there....some friends of mine have a place up there for the week over new years, so I may go up for a couple of days.

 

Wow thats impressive, but where I live I've got to have my lifted pathy with a manual. But still dang...

 

Great to see the Max in snow. Here's mine at Windham Mountain in the Catskills, with the family. This was with the original RE92 on the 2K2 wheel. Too many white knuckle events so I switched to Dunlop Winter Sport M3. Hope they fair well in the snow. So far so good. Nice to know that there are other skiers and riders on the max site. I also ski Killington..we should have a meet at a ski resort sometime....member since '99

 

nice shot! The M3's are highly-rated and should do well for you. I usually ski in WV since they get a TON of snow (more than Vermont, believe it or not) - and it's not usually quite as cold as the NE. I've skied up that way several times (mad river glen, Jay Peak, Mount Snow, etc)....but I truly miss living in europe and skiing the Swiss/italian alps

 

I'm up for it. We can organize one in the DC forums after the new year. WV would be great, but that drive might be a tad too far to be racing in a group of 8-10 maximas that all want to show off! Not the best idea in snow, not to mention those WV cops seeing a bunch of out-of-staters in fast cars!

 

I hope you don't consider your car fast. With all the millage you have, I'd be afraid to drive it lol

 

I wanted to take my Max out to Aspen Colorado the week after Xmas, but my woman said F-dat and I have to fly out.... going to be snowboarding for the 1st time in my life. I hope that I won't need to use my insurance afterwards. Eighter way stay safe out there in the snow, I know I have a blast speeding in the snow

 

My last trip to Snowshoe the wind chill tempatures were 40 below and the snow was piled up to the second floor of the lodge. It was so cold we had to take the battery out of the car and bring it in the hotel to get it warm enough to start the car. Talk about some awsome skiing. Looks like you had a good time....