Canadian winter driving....

[blackhonda]

Need some advice from my fellow Commonwealth and UCP colleagues re driving in Canada in winter. The scenario is this: We would be arriving in Vancouver on about 19th December. We are driving from Vancouver to Bigwhite via Kelowna, first time driving in a northern hemisphere winter. So what I would like to know is;
How much time should I budget for the trip, ex-Vancouver Airport, given what would be considered normal winter conditions.
What sort of hire car should I be looking at for 4 adults (ie is a four-wheel drive the only thing I should consider?)
The road to Kelowna, is it a dual lane highway, one lane each way? What sort of things do you think a tourist should know driving in your part of the world at that time of the year, any serious advice would be appreciated. By the way I should add that as an Australian I have the added disadvantage of never having driven left-hand drive cars....
Additionally taking the bus or flying are not options..

[lightweight]

Driving a LHD car is not a problem. It will take 5 minutes to get used to it. But watch out, because the first time that you will attempt to change a gear, you will accidentally move your left hand and open the window :-)

[clutch-monkey]

i'd have to say your main problem will be ice, i found it scary in a gutless ford transit van in NZ lol, first and last time i ever drove on ice

[mclaren_crazy]

its funny hearing the ice and snow warnings from the autstrailians, in Vancouver it doesn't snow often, let alone ice, when you get a bit more north you should be careful, but driving on ice or snow which I doubt you will encounter is not that hard, you just have to be careful with the throttle and brakes, throttle too much and you will slide around, and brake too hard and you will skid out of control. If your not 100% sure about the LHD in possible snow, get an automatic so you dont have to worry about shifting. The one thing that I have to keep saying though, is Vancouver sees snow only a few times each year, and it doesn't stay down, so in mid-Decenber it probably wont even be a problem. Good Luck

[KonaGreen]

If it does snow in Vancouver, watch out for about 90% of the other drivers. They loose thier collective minds and totally forget everything abou driving in snow.
Other than that, it does rain alot during winter, so keep your distance from anything in front of you, be aware for any black ice on clear days. Listen to CKNW 1130 on the AM radio for traffic and weather. Keep your eyes peeled, and be prepared to drive defensively, and occasionally offensively.

[KonaGreen]

Need some advice from my fellow Commonwealth and UCP colleagues re driving in Canada in winter. The scenario is this: We would be arriving in Vancouver on about 19th December. We are driving from Vancouver to Bigwhite via Kelowna, first time driving in a northern hemisphere winter. So what I would like to know is;
How much time should I budget for the trip, ex-Vancouver Airport, given what would be considered normal winter conditions.
What sort of hire car should I be looking at for 4 adults (ie is a four-wheel drive the only thing I should consider?)
The road to Kelowna, is it a dual lane highway, one lane each way? What sort of things do you think a tourist should know driving in your part of the world at that time of the year, any serious advice would be appreciated. By the way I should add that as an Australian I have the added disadvantage of never having driven left-hand drive cars....
Additionally taking the bus or flying are not options..

If you can get a AWD that would be just fine. The main highways thru BC are 2 lanes each way, sometimes 3. I just looked at the trip in Google Maps, and like I said above make sure you listen to weather and traffic reports. If you are starting the trip from YVR (the airport) directly to Bigwhite then you may need 5 to 6 hours of driving. I am guessing though, as I've never driven that far. It can snow up there, so make sure that you do rent a car that is equipped appropriately.
http://www.drivebc.ca/
That website could be of some help to you.

[zeppelin]

Driving in the Canadian winter is all about finding a nice open parking lot, some twisty roads, and having a well-functioning e-brake.

Have fun.

[mclaren_crazy]

Driving in the Canadian winter is all about finding a nice open parking lot, some twisty roads, and having a well-functioning e-brake.

Have fun.

First time I did that was the first month I had my licence, I ended up parallel parked in a driveway facing the wrong direction

[Zytek_Fan]

Hitting black ice sucks

[twinspark]

I don't know how much difference there is between Canadian winter and Scandinavian winter, but I wouldn't consider 4WD necessary. Surely it allows for faster takeoffs but an FWD is almost as good for daily driving, getting from A to B that is.

In Finland we actually have a slippery driving lesson as a part of the drivers license. It consists of slaloms and different brakings in straight and turn on either ice or oiled/soaped steel plates, depending on the time of year.

The instructions are quite simple, the main thing is indeed to keep a good distance to the car driving in front of you, also in slower speeds. If the car you're driving has no ABS, braking with full power on ice will do practically nothing, except lose the ability to steer and put the car in a slide. Obviously braking is much easier with ABS, but even with it it's easy to lose control when braking hard in a turn. Oh, and there's nothing wrong with driving below speed limits in slippery conditions, especially if you've never driven in them.

[DesmoRob]

You're headed in my direction! There are two routes you can take. The Coquihalla (double-lane) or the Hope/Princeton highway (single-lane with some double lane stretches to overtake (chances are you won't have to)). For winter, I would recommend the Hope/Princeton highway, as the weather there is not as extreme as the Coquihalla can be. The Coquihalla is at a higher elevation in different areas and the weather can be scary, I'm speaking from my own experiences. If you do end up taking the Coquihalla, you need to have chains on you and most likely settle for no faster than 50km/h (despite the 110km/h speed limit) the entire way, because mountain weather can go from peaceful to not so peaceful in a matter of minutes. I would definitely recommend an all-wheel drive vehicle (Ford Explorer sound good?), there are a lot of uphills and downhills on the Coquihalla that seem like they go on forever, whereas the Hope/Princeton route is a winding highway at a much lower elevation. There's always that chance that you'll have beautiful sunshine the entire way with little or no snow, but you never truly know until you get there, so its best to be prepared. As I said before, the Hope/Princeton route isn't nearly as gruelling in the winter time, but when it is snowing there, you will know that the Coquihalla's conditions are probably three times as bad. I've driven the Coquihalla in brutal winter conditions before, and my dad and I had to pull over every once in a while to switch drivers, becuase it is just so stressful, you constantly have to watch your speed, have both hands securely fastened to the wheel, and be fully alert of your distance between you and the guy in front of you at all times. The only part that was clear the entire way was the tracks that people had driven in, but in the middle and on the outside, the nearly foot-deep snow was just waiting to pull out any unsuspecting drivers. There are those cases when you're going downhill where its sometimes better to keep one side of your car in the snow, because you will have better traction and fewer chances of sliding. We had to learn all that as we went. The only bonus about the Coquihalla is that you end up just outside of westbank (30 minutes from Kelowna), that's the part where you feel suddenly relieved to be back on normal ground and out of the mountain blizzards. When you take the Hope/Princeton route, you will end up in Keremeos, which is roughly 45 minutes out of Penticton (where I live), and from Penticton its nearly another hour to Kelowna. When you're in Kelowna, the single-lane highway to BigWhite is just like the Hope/Princeton route. I forget how long it takes to get there, but it shouldn't be more than an hour from Kelowna. Good luck and all the best on your journey.

[KonaGreen]

Awesome RobPorsche, I was hoping that another BC resident would give some advice Hope/Princeton sounds like a really good route, I've only heard horror stories when the Coq is mentioned.

[Zytek_Fan]

If you hit some ice, jump out of the car

[DesmoRob]

If you hit some ice, jump out of the car

and die a cold lonesome death.

[blackhonda]

Gents, your help is much appreciated. The ice/wet/snow driving techniques were pretty much how I intended to approach the issue, I'll be the guy in the rent-a-car driving slowly sending all those behind mad with rage... , the LHD/driving on the right-hand side of the road is more an issue of which way to look first when approaching intersections...have to be very careful there, don't want to be blindsided RobPorsche the advice on which route to take and advice on possible driving conditions was very helpful....when I get back I'll post some pictures of the skiing...hopefully I won't have a broken leg or have done a Sonny Bono and slammed into a tree...