"The couple also ventured into the Siskiyou Mountains near the California border last year, but got lost. They were better prepared this time, bringing two maps, a cell phone equipped with GPS, three blankets and 24 bottles of water. They purposely drove their all-wheel-drive, but didn't take chains."

Pity they didn't take the chains, put them on, leave a map of where they were going, and pack some brains in a box to take along. These people aren't quick learners, are they?

"Jennifer Lee said she spent much of Tuesday and Wednesday praying while her husband worked to free the car."

What's wrong, honey, can't you help hubby and pray at the same time?

Sheesh!

Cynical Sue

"..where they were lost last year for 4 hours"

I sense a pattern here somewhere, not sure where.

I suppose there is a pattern; but education happens in stages. They got stuck, but got out on their own too. They packed maps, blankets, and water. Next thing, who knows, they may turn up here.

Three things I know:

1. Given some of the stunts I've pulled and survived, I'm not inclined to throw stones.

2. Four-wheel drive gets more people into trouble than out of it.

3. Being "stranded" with a girl on a seldom-travelled road is not necessarily a bad thing.

I'm glad to hear they made it.

Driving on unfamiliar and poorly maintained mountain roads in snow can be very risky. I've been told every year a couple of people drive off the mountains in Virginia because they misjudge where the road is under the snow and ice. Ice builds up on rock faces where the road is cut into the face of the mountain and also beside the road producing overhangs that make it look like the road is three or four feet farther out than it really is. If you get two wheels out on the overhang and it breaks off suddenly it often doesn't matter if you have a 4WD or not.

With slopes below roads often being vertical to forty-five degrees the vehicles slide or tumble down. If they slide into a snow bank or a snow bank falls after them the vehicle can be lost until spring thaw.

Good point. If you don't know the area, the risk factor goes way up. There are certainly areas I would avoid in winter, especially with a car, even though GPS would lead you right into them.

I take my Subaru on unpaved mountain roads all the time, but not in snow.

Snow is an equal opertunity traction removal device.

Yes, some tires improve your ability to get traction but when it comes to ice, if there are no studs or chains, your going to go down.

I have literaly slid off a crowned road completly stopped. I pulled to the sid of the road to let a car pass. While stopped the 4runner slid off the road and almost rolled over.


While there choice of cars is not totaly perfect, I will say Subaru is a good car for the area that they are in during non snow times of the year.

what concerns me more is the fact that they got lost last year and didn't seem to make any changes to there aproch and way of getting in to and out of the area they went in. even just having a second Subaru following them would have helped. Granted not great on the fule usage thing, but definatly safer.

They actually are not that great on mountan roads, at least the steep narrow twisty WV ones. When gas gets expensive everyone trades their f150's in on suburaus then finds out that they don't get any better gas mileage because they are running near the redline all the time to get enough power to get up the hills so they end up trading them back in on a truck after a while.

Seems like a load of BS to me or someone who's never owned a Subaru opinion. MY wife travels 1hr one way to work down the mountain and back up in the evening... she went from 15mpg in a Jeep Wrangler to over 25mpg in our Subaru. Not even comparable to my 13mpg I get in my Ford F250.

After seeing Navajo drivers guide conventional passenger cars through the bottomless sands of Canyon de Chelly, indisputably 4WD territory, I concluded that the nut holding the wheel was an extremely significant factor is determining any vehicles performance.