Skiing, snow and driving

There has been quite a bit of snow over the last few days. We went up skiing yesterday, the snow was very nice and fluffy, but the visibility wasn't great. Sometimes you couldn't tell up from down as everything in all directions was white. It was pretty darn cold too at -8°C in the car park and still snowing quite heavily.

The drive down was quite exciting. First we came round a corner to find a snow plough doing both sides of the road with a double plough speeding at us at about 2000 mph, and when I applied the brake to slow down and pull in to the side we just slid. Fortunately not far and the snow plough swerved back on to the other side of the road just in time. I guess they are expert at not plowing people off the road. It would give them a bit of a bad name.
We didn't drive very fast and it was generally fine, but there was a nerve wracking moment when we came round a corner to find a number of stationary cars and the road blocked by a car that had spun across it. When I braked (broke?) the car just slide with the ABS desperately trying to keep grip and failing (we were in 4wd). I managed to steer on to the wrong side of the road to avoid the stopped car and slid past them on the wrong side of the road. They got very het up and were gesturing that we should stay behind them and that they were before us in the queue! I ignored them and went back to trying to stop the car. Having dropped in to 1st we were slowing down, I considered for a moment swerving in to a garden at the side of the road with a big bank of soft looking snow, but decided we were going to stop in time. We did stop, and looked around, Mr Irate French Man was still gesturing angrily. Perhaps he didn't realise how nearly we rammed in to the back of him!

What to do when car is out of control - close your eyes!