I see Halfords (and other like stores) are peddling snow socks to the UK market, just a friendly warning, they aren't designed to run on tarmac, in fact unless it's fairly solid/compact snow then they rip to shreds in seconds, so don't waste your money.

Yeah they are pretty much a waste of time unless you live in a country that has snow for many consecutive weeks of the year. Even then snow chains are better.

socks are handy as they don't take up much room, but you are 100% right, chains are better (and try explaining to the police in the alps why you've got socks instead of chains if you cause an accident)

They only thing they are good for is getting the car going if you are stuck ie on the drive to get you to the main road and then take them off again.

I think the AA use them for this.

A £2 bag of cat litter is just as affective.

Or you could just adopt the safer option of "If I can't get it off the drive then its not going out today".

That is just the option I will adopt this year.

not really an option when you've got to drive in the Alps, the problem with driving in the UK is the idiots that have no idea how to drive in adverse weather (back to the M5 crash thread)

But why would they? Apart from relatively short spells in the last couple of years, there's been no adverse weather (as in snow) for them to practise in.

If more people heeded the "don't travel unless your journey is absolutely necessary" message, there'd be relatively few problems. Unfortunately many people think that going to Trafford Centre or Bluewater is "absolutely necessary"

Mate, we had several days last winter where we had worse weather than the Alps and roads just weren't getting cleared regardless of the driving skills.

You'd think that after a decent amount of enforced snow/ice training last year, a lot of cold weather ingenue drivers would be better equipped this year.

But no, it is my firm belief that if you are a moron who believes that the faster you spin your driving wheels, the greater the chances of forward motion, you are genetically stuck like that for life, and no amount of explanation, training or experience of the contrary can ever shake this belief, which is actually a result of a mutation of the T=#FFFFFF[size=50.[/sizeW=#FFFFFF[size=50.[/sizeA=#FFFFFF[size=50.[/sizeT-1 gene.

the huge difference is that other countries expect the weather every year, and so invest in the right equipment, as cod'ead says, it's once every Sheffield flood in the UK and people would be up in arms with a few million quid worth of snow clearing equipment sat dormant from one year to the next.

as usual I will be driving from Chambery to The Alps on Christmas Eve, we land at 11am and I'll allow 6 hours to travel 32 miles, we'll have snow chains, shovel, etc etc and it will take as long as it takes.