Snow chains, or snow sock in France

[fredgroves]

Socks and winter tyres will only get you some places.... for proper ski resort amounts of snow, you need chains (or spiked tyres if legal).

Personally, I'd just fly and use public transport, but each to their own.

A different matter when it comes to UK amounts of surprise snow!

[Daz Auto]

Socks and winter tyres will only get you some places.... for proper ski resort amounts of snow, you need chains (or spiked tyres if legal).

They clear the roads with snow ploughs. I seriously doubt if modern winter tyres would have any issues.

I was skiing in New Zealand this summer (their winter). I had snow chains in the boot of the hire car.

The roads to the ski resort were very icy, but no snow. Certainly not suitable for snow chains or spiked Nordic winter tyres. Several cars had to be pulled out of the ditches that had hit black ice. We only saw snow when we started up the volcano Mt. Ruapehu. Though the roads were fine up to a certain altitude. Never needed the chains.

They only allowed 4x4s past a certain point. Though I think that was just so they didn't get stuck when they parked all day. After all, grip is provided by your tyres not your drive system.

We have been using winter tyres now for 6 years in the UK - Dunlop UltraGrip 7 on my old car and Continental WinterContact TS850 on her A3. Even when my old car was ploughing snow in front of it up a mountain my wheels never spun. Modern winter tyres are amazing. I regretted not fitting a set to my GTI last winter. The car had a few scary slides. Our A3 had winter tyres and no problems at all.

[GTI2016]

Hi,

I spent 1 month with my GTi in the Alps a couple of years ago in conditions ranging from full ice to 40 cm of new snow with Summer Tyres and Snow Chains. It was a NIGHTMARE.

I had the super expensive Weissenfells Clack and Go Quattro snow chains that fit 19inch alloys. They fit on the tyre differently to normal snow chains, without requiring the chains to be clipped round the back of the tyres, and were 'easier' to put on and didn't scratch the face of the wheel at all but ... in reality snow chains are only really good for short journeys in deep snow.

I ended up on multiple occasions putting the chains on in freezing blizzards, searching for one snow chain that had fallen off that I only discovered once I'd got to the bottom of a valley and almost didn't make it back up the other side, getting very close to skidding off the side of a 500m cliff and driving through variable conditions ranging from 40 cm of snow then in to tunnels with no snow etc etc. All the while every other 2WD car cruised by with snow tyres on as if there was no snow at all.

My advice would be to fit snow tyres and then have a back up pair of snow chains (the expensive ones if they're within budget). I also drove a van in a ski resort for 5 months with snow tyres and I only had to put chains on twice, both times to get out of a snow drift. The rest of the time snow tyres were fine.

[Jim_mk7.5]

I think the main point here is.

If you are planning on an Alps trip, trying to drive there on summer tyres would be a big mistake.

If the local law states you need snow socks or chains, these would only be used in deep snow and pretty slow speeds.

And driving for a ski trip will probably never work out cheaper than flying.. Let alone how much longer it takes!