Winter Schooled

By Larry Walton, Editorial Services, West

For those listeners who didn’t grow up in the Snow Belt, driving in winter conditions can be a dreaded experience.  Even drivers who see ice and snow every year have a certain amount of anxiety drift into their minds when the white stuff blankets the roads. 

Such anxieties are usually the result of not knowing how to cope with such driving conditions. That’s how I ended up enrolling at the Bridgestone Winter Driving School in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

 After years of driving over snow covered passes on hunting trips and into the mountains for skiing, I knew that my winter driving skills could use some help. 

Steamboat Springs is a haven for snow sports. But it is also the home of the most unique driving school in the world; a school where everyday drivers of all ages can learn the basics of car control in the worst road conditions.

The Bridgestone Winter Driving School is taught by non other than world-renowned snow rally driver Mark Cox and an elite group of professionals who know snow and ice driving better than anyone.

As Cox says, “This isn’t a racing school. We’re about car control and safety, not speed. This is a winter driving school for the everyday driver, and we take great care to accommodate all skill levels and ages.”

And, dollar-for-dollar it’s the best value one will ever find in a driving school—of any type.

What makes the school so cool, so to speak, is you can learn more about safe winter driving skills in their half-day class than in a lifetime of driving in the North Country.

Cox and his instructors use a simple mix of classroom instruction time to teach vehicle dynamics and a lot of ice and snow track time in a mixture of Toyota cars and SUVs to help you hone your slippery road driving skills.

What is even nicer is they do it in such as way that no student is the least bit intimidated.

To that end they offer several different levels of instruction from the half-day “First Gear” class that helps you work on the fundamentals of winter driving to the two-day “Fifth Gear” performance driving class.

The one-day-long “Second Gear” class ($400) fit me perfectly.  What did I learn during my class session driving around a snow-covered road course literally under the shadow of some of the country’s best ski slopes?: Fear of driving over ice and snow can be greatly reduced when you know what to expect and how to react when traction and control are suddenly are replaced by slip and slide.

Here are some basics from the full-day “Second Gear” course  that helped me to be a much better winter driver:

• Prepare your vehicle
• Equip with snow tires
• clear all windows and the roof of snow and ice
• warm up the vehicle
• turn on lights
• adjust seat for maximum control
• buckle your seat belt
• Anticipate change and adjust your speed to maintain grip, which usually means slow down. 
• Factor in the type of vehicle you are driving, tires, road condition and driving experience.
• Pump the brakes rapidly to stop quickly, releasing after each lock-up.  Remember, control is more important than stopping because you can still steer around an obstacle.
• To correct an under-steer (when the vehicle is not responding to steering input) lift off the brake and turn back toward center until steering grip is restored.
• To correct over-steer (when the back end is coming around), steer into the skid (look where you want to go and steer toward it) while smoothly accelerating.

For more information about the Bridgestone Winter Driving School, call 800.949.7543, or click here for all the inside details:  www.winterdrive.com.