I guess it was 25-26 years ago when we (Mitsu rally test team) were dispatched to somewhere in the Alps for some Monte testing. Me driving a well laden Shogun with test car on trailer, and another one of the lads in a Merc 815 Service van. Neither of us had any previous experience of what happens in those mountains when it snows, or the winter regulations surrounding snow chains and the like. Anyway, guess what, it snowed and snowed as we climbed higher through small villages heading for our base hotel. Eventually on a hill, the van, which was leading, slowed to avoid a fallen tree branch. I did the same, then to my horror realised that he had lost all traction, and was now sliding backwards towards me. Just before impact the van was stopped by a high kerb, fortunately!
So, the van was not going any further, and of course I couldn't get traction either with trailer hooked up. Eventually, after telephone conversations with other team members at the hotel, a couple of them came down in a 4wd Galant and we unloaded the test car. It was then possible to get the Shogun and empty trailer moving, the test car was 4wd as well so was OK- and the van? We abandoned it! Next day the local garage sent a recovery vehicle for it....
It was only then, in daylight and it having stopped snowing, that we saw how close the van had been to going 'over the edge'- only the kerb had saved it.
Moral of all that? Don't ignore warning signs telling you that a bridge is closed to HGVs, or that snow chains are obligatory if you climb higher.......
