Driving To Steamboat- What To Expect
 

Hello Everyone,

Greetings from Baton Rouge, Louisiana! I have a group of 15 or so people who are looking to make a trip up to steamboat springs for a ski trip December 15th-22nd. We will be taking a 2011 4x4 GMC sierra 1500, a 2012 4x4 F150, and a 2010 4x4 Ford Escape. Four of us have had snow driving experience (two drove to breckenridge last year) and all of us have lots of Interstate driving.

What should we expect on the drive up to Steamboat Springs? Flying for us is way more expensive than driving up there- otherwise we would definitely fly.
We want to know how we should prepare and what we should expect to do in terms of changing our driving habits.
Are the roads kept clear?
What's the weather like that time of year in how it affects driving?
I hear it's mostly interstate driving, is that true?

Any information I can get is much appreciated.

Thanks!

No problem, on any given day. If you can't get on the interstates with those, you need to park anyway!! Front wheel drive is really OK for the most part.
The important thing to remember that 4 wheel drive does NOT help you on ice/stopping. But a LOT of Colorado license plates drive like it does!! LOL

"What's the weather like that time of year in how it affects driving?
I hear it's mostly interstate driving, is that true?"

you haven't mapquested it?

"Are the roads kept clear?"

love your sense of humor.

carry some basic equipment like a snow shovel, sand, flasher lights, triple A coverage, blankets and maybe some of those hand heater things. watch the weather and if it starts snowing hard duck into a motel till the blows get things opened back up. remember 4x4's are just about useless on packed snow or ice, slow and steady wins the day. there will be fewer gators on the highway as you go north.

What Gretchen says. Most people drive 4WD and AWD vehicles way too fast, assuming that what can go can also stop. Not true, from my own sad experience.

You can prove this to yourselves if you get a rare cold morning in Baton Rouge and can throw a little water on a parking lot somewhere and use it for a skid pad. The dangerous times are when black ice forms around sunset and before it melts in the morning.

Because of the weight distribution of the pickup, it is the one likeliest to get backwards or sideways when you hit the brakes. Pickups have good ground clearance in deep snow but have few virtues on packed snow or ice. None of these guys is going to be improved by mud tires or other big off road tires.

When I lived in Northern Mississippi, I used to watch the local guys spinning the wheels on unplowed surfaces when we had rare snow, the theory being that you would eventually melt down to pavement and blast off. It doesn't work that way and is a spectacular way to blow a tire.

The right way is to drive as if there was an egg between your foot and the accelerator. Ditto the brake.

oops, meant plows not blows

Oh, Ack, you are my hero. And yes, I learned it the hard way also!!
4WD is GREAT for going forward in snow, slush, rain, etc. On ice, we are all on the same rink!! LOL
But just keep up with the weather channel and your map.

Once you get to Steamboat, the streets are well plowed. Most out of towners drive front wheel drive and that works well. All the advice you've been given here is right on.

EXPECTATION: Should only be goal, else nothing and do keep all these information with you too. :)