[mobike008]

Heaviest, Craziest and Most Dangerous Snow Drive Experience of my life. (February 2nd, 2025)

This story of a day trip from February this year, I was heading to India on a work trip for 3-weeks the next day and I wanted to hit the road as I will not be driving for 3-weeks (you know the typical car guy thing..Haha!).

I would normally drive with my pals but, one was in India and other was in Poland so both were out of the country so I decided to do this drive all alone as I too was home-alone due to family being in India.

Artist Point in North Cascades Mountains National Park is roughly 110 miles from home or about 2-hours drive one way. We normally visit this place at least 2 times in a year if not more as this place is the best skiing location in Washington.

Sunday, the day I was planing to drive to Artist Point, I got up leisurely and checked the weather and there was severe winter storm warnings on the WSDOT app and I was in two minds but, then being the thrill and adventure seeker, that weather report didn’t deter me so decided to head out on this adventure and left home around 10:00am.

This route is driving north and goes via. the main interstate which is I-5 North (Highway from San Diego to Vancouver and one of the longest Interstates in America). I got on this freeway and drove for about 60 miles which is less than an hour and then got off the freeway and on to the backroads to drive towards east.

All was fine until the freeway. But, as soon as I got on backroads things changed dramatically as there was too much snow all around and for about 15 odd miles I was unsure of continuing as I kept progressing towards my destination, the snow kept increasing and as these were back roads, it was narrow, twisty and snow on the ground which means I need to be really careful. My tires were good and new but, were all seasons and not winter tires.

And, in my usual style, I was driving fast on these backroads and the car would slide a bit and this is first time I experienced this in a BMW as the AWD system is so amazing that unless deliberate, it will not really give you heart-in-the-mouth moments. As the snow kept increasing and car increasingly slide sideways, I thought of making a U-Turn and heading back home as situation was getting worse every mile with heavy snow (It was snowing continuously).

Crazy Mishap Story

I still have ~ 30-miles to the destination and for first time in my life a crazy mishap happened.

Was driving on these backroads and there was a right curve which was approaching and there was another car (Subaru Forester) coming from the opposite direction and he was too fast and he crossed the middle yellow line and came on to me (We both were around 35-40 miles an hour which is plenty fast in these conditions) and when I saw the car approaching me, I froze for a moment like a deer with headlights in its eyes. Then I immediately reacted and turned steering towards right to avoid him, BMW skid, slid and I don’t know what I did but, I was able to control the car and stopped it in a perpendicular angle…Whew…that was super close and I was glad nothing happened to me nor the car.

The forester was not so fortunate, he too did exactly the same, he steered right to avoid me and skidded badly and went into the ditch on the side (not too deep-Maybe 2-3 feet below) which means he would need a tow to get out.

I stopped for a few minutes and wanted to check on him and saw that he was alright.

There was constant traffic on the road from both sides (Folks in Washington are crazy, nobody in their right mind would step out of their homes in these weather conditions but, this route was packed with vehicles) so I continued and found a shoulder to park and pondered what to do next.

My mind told me to make a U-Turn and head back home but, my alter ego said, I’m so close to the destination why would I do a stupid thing like that? I was now about 25 miles to the destination and it felt like the longest distance that I ever have to drive.

My alter ego won and I decided to continue with oncoming traffic dangerously close to the yellow line and I never felt so unsafe as I was imagining the same incident repeating. Many folks were slipping and sliding as they take the corners and many came close. My knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel hard (I normally don’t even use both hands all the time even in backroads in good conditions) and trying to stay below 35 miles an hour.

As I was reaching destination, the weather kept becoming worse as it kept snowing heavily and it was around 1:00pm and I saw so many cars going back (normally people go early AM for skiing) but, the condition were so surreal that my eyes could not believe what I am seeing. I have never seen so much snow in my entire life as much as on this day. Trust me, I have seen a lot of snow in my life and to me this was unbelievable amounts.

When I reached Artist Point, it was unrecognizable as we were there just around September, 2024 and it was sunny and nice. Now it was so much snow that people were skiing on main road where car’s are supposed to drive. Can you beat that? LOL!!

At Artist point, it was a dangerous situation with snow pelting relentlessly and, I was totally unprepared from a clothing, footwear and car gear perspective as it was just a nice drive for me and no other activity planned. I realized I can’t stay for more than 30 mins and If I stay beyond that, the whole car will be buried in snow as it was snowing so heavily up there.

I stepped out and walked around a bit to enjoy the surreal atmosphere.

Pls check the pictures of exact same place in different times (shared in separate posts). I used the rest room and then got back in the car and enjoyed my home packed lunch in the car watching the snow pelting outside. Once lunch was finished, I decided to immediately drive back as the car was fast getting covered with snow and tires where dunked in almost 2 feet snow.

Keeping my head intact, I carefully drove back and not trying any heroics that usually a BMW driver is associated with (lol!) and drove with speeds at 40mph or below till I reached normal conditions which was the freeway. From there on, I belted the B58 back home to get to a boring chore of packing for my trip to India.

It was the most dangerous and surreal snow driving experience of my life which I will never ever forget.

Cheers to Snowfall, Adventure, and Unlimited Thrill !!

Enjoy the pictures and videos all taken from my iPhone 16 Promax.

This video will give you the conditions of the drive. Enjoy

https://youtu.be/Sh0K5_l299Q

Heavy bumper to bumper traffic even in mountains. Who would have thought?












Driving back towards home.











Entire backroads were like this. It was dangerous if an opposite vehicle loses control.











Skiers asking for lift just before reaching Artist Point.



Cannot see anything- Imagine driving in this condition. Enjoyed it thoroughly.

[mobike008]

More pictures of the route to Artist Point and scenic and dangerous situation that I encountered throug out this 30-40 miles of drive to this destination.

You can click the pictures to see the full size and like a photo album, hopefully it will give you an idea of the conditions on that day.

Whereever you see unreal amount of snow that is very close to the destination point- Artist Point in North Cascade Mountain National Park. Rest of the pictures where you see a little bit of black tarmac must be little away from the destination point (10-15 miles before).

At Artist point, it was PURE WHITE as there was no road visible, no shoulder visible, no yellow line in middle of road visible, it was unreal.

P.S : I did not label or title the pictures as there is nothing really much to say except that these pictures will give you a glimpse of the sheer beauty and danger clubbed together.

Onward Journey- This video has route of when the backroads started. This is better part of the drive. As I continued, it got worse, much worse.

https://youtu.be/qbOM4mZKWH0

Check this video- This is while approaching Artist Point. I must be around 10 miles to destination. The oncoming cars were so close, if someone slips they would come straight on to me.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=PKlZivuuly0

[mobike008]

A few pictures of my beast in it's natural habitat

Well, it would have been a natural habitat if the BMW was shod with winter tires as these conditions were brutal and even a good AWD system like BMW could not handle the loss of traction due to it's potent power as I had to really baby the throttle and clubbed with conditions like snow, ice and black sleet on the ground.

Here is a video of Blau Rakete basking in the glory of making it to Artist Point in these conditions on normal tires and no chains.

As you can see in this video, people are skiing on roads meant for cars...lol

https://youtu.be/8ta7EVg6Uiw

Artist Point, Look at the snow formation within a few minutes of me stopping in that location.



Artist Point- All cars parked there who must have come for skiing were half covered in snow. By evening, they would be fully covered.



Break for a quick couple of pictures of the beast.







Going back...



Approaching Artist Point- Felt like I was arriving in Antartica..LOL!







Most of the last 15 miles was "Pure White" to the eyes.







Enjoying a THUMBS UP in this cold weather is really fun.

[mobike008]

Here are pictures of the " Exact Same Location" in different times

These pictures are from a visit in September 2024. See how different it looks during late summer/early fall.





















These pictures are from a Team-BHP drive that we did in early 2024 to the exact same location. It was a snowy hike for the BHPians but, the amount of snow was not as heavy as I experienced in February 2025

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!