Buying at spot.

[Gordy]

47 minutes ago, dicker said:

Just outside my village is a sharp “s”bend with ditches on either side.

Every winter it collects a few cars, and notably a few 4x4’s.  An extremely small number of 4x4 drivers understand the capabilities of their vehicles and drive them significantly too fast in hazardous conditions.

Off road, many cheap old 4x4’s with thin knobbly tyres are significantly better than a £100k Range Rover.  I shoot a fair bit and see this pretty much every year when someone turns up with the latest Range Rover and gets stuck in the glue like East Anglian mud.  Lots of it is down to the tyres and a misplaced understanding of how to drive off road.  

My troop Sgt once wanted a new Landrover so he thought the best way was to knack his short wheel based one so they cant fix it, didnt work!! no matter how hard he tried it kept going, eventually though it did do a 'circus clown car' and fell to bits!!! 😂

[dicker]

41 minutes ago, LawrenceChard said:

not driving up without chains???

😎

Thank you for your correction.  🙂

[Ukbullionfan]

Thanks for the replies guys. I suppose I better try build my rep up on here.

[Bigmarc]

17 hours ago, LawrenceChard said:

You are renowned for being hardy up there, or is it foolhardy?

We don't often need winter tyres in Blackpool, but I did take a car to the French Alps on my extended ski holiday.

Many years ago my mates and I drove to avoriaz in the French Alps in a old seat Alhambra with no preparations. We were doing ok until the police blocked the road and said chains were required to go any further. After explaining we were British youth and had no chains, the police officer pointed to a little shed with a old French guys with thousands of chains. 120 euros they cost us, the same pair on internet for 20 quid, also we didn't know how to put them on so cost us a couple of beers to get a local to do it for us. We should have done our research as they were definitely needed.

[LawrenceChard]

4 hours ago, Bigmarc said:

Many years ago my mates and I drove to avoriaz in the French Alps in a old seat Alhambra with no preparations. We were doing ok until the police blocked the road and said chains were required to go any further. After explaining we were British youth and had no chains, the police officer pointed to a little shed with a old French guys with thousands of chains. 120 euros they cost us, the same pair on internet for 20 quid, also we didn't know how to put them on so cost us a couple of beers to get a local to do it for us. We should have done our research as they were definitely needed.

You are right that doing the research in advance would have helped, but hey you learnt something, even if it was the harder way.

There is an English person I know, a skier and snowboarder, who lives in Bourg St. Maurice. He once told me he had a sets of old chains in the boot of his car, which probably were the wrong size; he had never used them in about 20 years, but he would simply show them to the police if and when stopped!

BTW, did you ski the infamous Swiss Wall, also known as "le Mur Suisse" or "Le Pas de Chavanette"?
Average gradient 33%
Gradient at the top reaches 55%

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Chavanette

I first skied it over 30 years ago, and it was tough. Shoulder high moguls at the top, fortunately with some fresh snow to soften things, then a long sustained "easy" section, on which I fell, and slid a few hundred metres.

Hot chocolate at the top was 10 Francs, and only about 5 Francs at the bottom.  Problem was that you were in France at the top, so 10 FF was about £1, whereas you were in Switzerland at the bottom, so 5 CHF was about £3.

I did it again twice, about 10 years ago, and it seemed almost easy.

😎

 

[Bigmarc]

13 minutes ago, LawrenceChard said:

did you ski the infamous Swiss Wall,

Yes, I didn't find out it was actually called that until a conversation in a burger bar that evening then the penny dropped. I was on a snowboard and wasn't much fun. Repeated it a few times tho. 

We had driven a few resorts before and they were generally at low level. This resort was right up there and the chains were definitely needed. Quiet a good place tho. It was nice to leave your hotel and ski downwards.