Crossing the Rockies

On Tuesday, the 8th of January we started our trip from Calgary to Vancouver. Over 1300 km of adventurous driving were ahead of us.

The weather forecast for the next few days wasn't encouraging at all. Tons of snow were expected in the Rocky Mountains.That's winter in Canada.

First stop in Golden, after about 250 km. If you are not a skier, there's not much to do in Golden in winter. Even the receptionist at our hotel was bored of this town. She couldn't recommend anything.

Next morning the first look out of our window: A beautiful surprise!

But:
A check at the weather forecast on the Internet showed us that the heavy snow of last night caused highway closures and avalanche warnings. Rogers Pass on our route was closed until 10am. We had to wait for another update about the driving conditions on our route.

Returning back to Calgary was not an option because the highways were closed too.  So we were stuck.

At the gas station nearby we wanted to buy snow chains, but we were not lucky. Equiped with just all-season tires and no snow chains, we decided to take our chances over the Rogers Pass without waiting for the update.

Let's go! Our driving adventure started.

First of all: Who is going to dig out the car?

Good job Angelika!

Good job Agnes!

First warning

Compact snow covered Highway 1 and the road condition was slippery.
Kilometer after kilometer we struggled at 60 km/h to reach our next destination Kamloops (360km).

Have a look from the driver's perspective.

And here the less stressful co-driver's perspective with stunning scenery.

Lunch stop ......and still lots of snow

With this amount of snow falling, we had a feeling that we won't make it to our originally planned destination. But still we had to move on. So we tried to drive at least to the next bigger city before sunset. We made it to Salmon Arm.

Sunset and for the first time today: No snow on the road!

Day 3 was the last day of the trip and we still had to conquer the Coquihalla Highway, which also had slippery and icy sections.

We took it very slow and managed the steep and curvy road securely.
The breathtaking scenery took away our tension during driving.

We left the snow behind and the surroundings got greener with every kilometer.

 

And in Hope the snow was gone entirely.

 In the afternoon we reached Hope and were relieved. We made it over the Rocky Mountains safely. 

We arrived on time in Vancouver to catch the sunset.

We made it to the Pacific.