Stuck in snow with AWD & winter tyres or icy streets

[jeremy44]

Just got stuck in the snow, I have Conti- Barum Polaris 3 and AWD and it got stuck.
It rained a few days ago and the residential streets were still mainly ice even before the snow this morning, there was about 25cm of snow on a slight incline.
The annoying part was that I was not able to accelerate more when I wanted to. Luckily neighbours eventually pushed me out.
I've driven in snow deeper than this before so I'm really hoping that the ice underneath this thick snow is the culprit.

It was really windy as well so some spots had snow drifts more than knee deep.

After I got unstuck, I couldn't make it up the driveway because it too has a layer of ice underneath
snow was higher than the ground clearance in most spots

 

[Nodnerb]

I wouldn't worry about it. If it was glare ice underneath and that much snow it's no surprise. Maybe turning off traction control might have helped though. When you are stuck always turn off traction control to get out. In fact you may have had no problem at all with it off, but who knows.

 

[mikeee2]

Are those snow tires? If it's ice I guess it's possible. Looking at the picture, that's not much snow. Looks like 4 or 5 inches at most. Should be able to eat it for breakfast.

 

[Nodnerb]

He said some drifts were knee high. Going up the driveway( up being the key word) in snow higher than ground clearance with ice underneath is no surprise it was difficult. But again , I think turning off tcs would help. He said they got 25 cm of snow, almost 10". Obviously that isn't perfectly uniform across the area. Hence the knee high drifts but only 5-6" in the pic.

 

[baddad]

I parked my 4WD truck in the driveway which has a fair incline, woke up to find it had slid down to the road because of a thin layer of ice. Had a lot of ice on the road this year ... need studs.

 

[jeremy44]

Give you guys a better perspective of the drifts, and yes it was all ice underneath. You could skate on it if you cleared the snow.

I was pushed by some friendly neighbours to the tip of my driveway before I gave up and left it there.

 

[jeremy44]

I made this vid just for reference
Second clip i had TCS off, foot down, but no dice, car wouldn't let me spin the wheels

I did managed to spin it at a high RPM for a good few seconds before it took back over (after i stopped 2nd clip hence the clear marks in the last clip)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flv11qUuHes

 

[jeremy44]

Are those snow tires? If it's ice I guess it's possible. Looking at the picture, that's not much snow. Looks like 4 or 5 inches at most. Should be able to eat it for breakfast.

Yup. Conti- Barum Polaris 3 from Czech Republic, excellent handling, driven in much deeper snow before without any problems, which is why I was surprised I got stuck

 

[Nodnerb]

Yeah, you're on glare ice under all that. Not much chance. Don't fault the car under those circumstances.

 

[jeremy44]

Official snow totals is 29CM, but the drifts were much higher.

 

[Bcdad182]

Snow over ice is one of the worst conditions possible. If you had tire chains or studs, it would be interesting to see if you could get it unstuck without assistance.

 

[jeremy44]

Snow over ice is one of the worst conditions possible. If you had tire chains or studs, it would be interesting to see if you could get it unstuck without assistance.

Not sure about chains, but studs are illegal in this part of Ontario