I'm glad everyone made it.

A big issue is that such events tend to have a point-of-no-return followed by a long lead up to the comeuppance and then a tragic end. After the first stop there were fewer and fewer points where you could change your tactics, stop, or turn around. Off ramps were closed. Places to stop nonexistent. You ended up in a line of cars and trucks getting deeper into it with every passing minute and no way to take a break or reconsider. The highway to hell has many on-ramps but few off-ramps.

I suspect that the people taking risks to get to the head of the line were just this side of panic. Even as they would all likely tell you they were perfectly calm. They see themselves moving too slow to beat the snow and see themselves getting trapped. The 'need' to go faster takes priority. Even as getting to the head of the line does no good. But they feel the need to 'do something'. What they are missing is that they are one blown tire, or unseen road hazard away from triggering a pileup.

A multi-car, flaming pileup on a highway in a blizzard is not how I want to go. The crashing, the fire, the mangled bodies, then the cold, and silent punctuated by crying because nobody is on their way any time soon. After a while, silence.

I'm always a bit skittish about situations where I have to repeatedly double-down to make it. In this case it worked out.