[fingpilot]

I moved to an altitude of 2500 foot-ish. Shortest route to the best town for everything is over a 2-lane 3800 foot pass that is 4 miles up the road. 27 miles distant to town. Unplowed.

The other option is 31 miles, all downhill from here, 2-lane also unplowed. But all lower elevation than house.

We discussed 'gearing up' for snow driving (4WD truck; 2WD now, chains/studded tires for the Prius), but decided that if the hill was bad enough to need these, it was too dangerous to drive anyway. It is, switchbacks and no guard rail cliffs, wrong camber, and drunks needing beer at the top of the hill.

We also found out how bad the Prius is in snow anyway. The traction control stops any power delivery as soon as traction is lost anyway. Has actually got us into trouble more than not.

So we stock up, or go downhill to get anything in the snow. We get less than 14 inches at any time, and it lasts only a month or two.