Winter Driving Skills

So far this winter, it has been relatively easy to drive around in snowy conditions. In Colorado, unlike California, chains are rarely required for cars. I bought a new set of chains in November and I have yet to use them. For the most part, my experience driving in slippery conditions is only from going out into snow covered parking lots and spinning donuts, doing e-brake slides and drifting. One of my buddies showed me this airstrip in town which is not used in the winter. It is basically a snow covered road that is about 100 feet wide and a few thousand feet long. A perfect place for messing around, I mean practicing winter driving skills that is. Today when I was driving back from Beaver Creek the road back to Breckenridge was very icy. I was driving in a straight line and accelerating slightly when the back end of my car stepped out and started to rotate. I instinctively corrected the slide without incident, although it was a little scary to begin to lose control of the car in an unexpected manner. This is the perfect example of how spinning donuts and messing around in icy parking lots pays off.