I'm used to 8-9 feet tall poles along most exposed roads... usually with reflectors. Those poles really helps when plowing or driving in limited visibility. Of course, a differential GPS would be a great asset as well... but if it is THAT bad, the road should probably be closed anyway.




If it is below freezing, fresh snow will be of the dry, powdery kind. It takes only a fresh breeze (19-24 mph, level 5 on the Beaufort scale) to set that snow in motion to the point that it will seriously impart visibility. In a tree-less snow covered world, even being able to see as far as 200 yards will leave you in a all white bubble with no visual clues what so ever - and whatever you do see (small bush, exposed rock) will be severely blown out of proportions. In the woods, the trees are a tremendous help to provide a reliable, familiar visual reference. Also, the trees will shelter you from the wind.

Of course, when the wind picks up it only gets worse... I've been riding a snow mobile in conditions where we had to ride two on a machine because I knew that at the worst spot, my friend would have to walk in front of me so I had a visual reference - otherwise I would tip over in the next snow drift pile. At a distance of 20 feet, I could not see him in the worst wind gusts. And he could not see me: A big, fat dark target against a white background; smack in the middle of the dark blob there is a 60 watt halogen headlamp which you can't see at 20 feet.... We would stop at each wind gust and wait for it to subside, then continue. Snow blows along the ground, so I could still navigate by small glimpses of the rock face of the mountain to my left. It was a really weird experience, I knew all the time EXACTLY where we were and there were no real dangers (no cliffs or anything), but I could not see the 3 feet high snow drift piles right in front of me. That's what friends are for, right?


Conditions will vary tremendously with local terrain and wind conditions. In the story above with visibility down to about 2-3 feet, we had only to go about half a mile to enter into the next valley and there was hardly any wind, hardly any snow drift, we could see for miles... just a nice, overcast day. That was rather special, and shows just how much conditions can vary locally.