Went for my morning walk at 7.40am in 5cms of snow which had fallen overnight, partially melted and then frozen hard. Lovely crunchy slippery surface on pavements. Main roads were fine : they had been gritted but - as normal - the country roads had not but had been plowed this morning.
Near the top of the Moor about two miles from home is a short 300 meter section which winds uphill from a small bridge with a right angle bend.. so a car ascending has no chance of gaining any speed. The hill is about 1 in 4, is single track, is partially covered in water from a drainage pipe from the local fields. Covered in hard frozen snow in the centre about 5cms deep and rutted from the snowplow with ice in the tracks.
I was about half way up, when a (c 2006) Micra came up the hill and stopped with wheels spinning. Driver got out and the lady beside him took over the driving. I helped and we pushed. Utter failure.. more wheelspin. Sacks out of boot and shovel. Sacks under front wheels , ice and snow dug away and try again.. We made about 2 meters and then wheelspin.
Moved sacks, moved two meters and more wheelspin. #
Repeated - another two meters. Repeated. And repeated.
We were now about 260 meters up the hill and only 50 to go. Both pushers were very hot and sweating hard...(no wind, dry but about 1C).
We were just about to start again when a Toyota Land Cruiser came up behind us and stopped 40 meters away. Great we thought: more help which we badly needed. The driver (a male in his early 50s?) got out and shouted..
" if you reverse down into the entrance in front of me, we'll be able to pass you" (!)
Said entrance was virgin snow and sloped down off the road, and once the Micra had got into it, we would never have got it back up..
Needles to say, we did not reply.. (IF I had it would have been very rude)...
We just kept on with our push and move attempts and after two more, the Micra managed to reach the brow of the hill under its own power..
The Landcruiser drove past me and the car owner at teh side of the road without a wrod.
What a rude miserable unhelpful... words fail me.
Fortunately people as selfish as that are few and far between.. What a plonker..
Rant over
# the front passenger wheel without any driver weight.. The driver side wheel gripped and did not spin.. ,No traction control.
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