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> It didn't seem to be a stupid thing...we stuck to paved roads It doesn't sound like you did anything stupid. You didn't go even remotely close to where the G

by erentz 8y ago

> It didn't seem to be a stupid thing...we stuck to paved roads It doesn't sound like you did anything stupid. You didn't go even remotely close to where the German's went in this case. They went into areas on roads that nobody would normally tackle without a serious 4x4 and a backup plan. They went down the westside unpaved road up to Warm Springs Camp and the Geologists Stone Cabin. The thing reading it that surprised me is that they tried this in a station wagon, not a 4x4, and never got the sense to turn around, and then from the Stone Cabin they went waaaay into serious offroad territory trying to drive down the wash. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FdGZI6DDRPe3Y9-dtpLGGtDr2pQ&usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FdGZI6DDRPe3Y9-dtpLGGtDr2p...

bitL 8y ago
That's pretty normal for Europeans. 4x4 are rare and roads are often in worse conditions in mountainous areas that even some Fiat Punto can climb without any major issues. Most US folks would freak out without a proper Explorer or similar. It's like when in Germany you regularly see females driving 130MPH on the highway on their way back from shopping; it would freak you out but it's totally fine over there. So my guess is that those Germans just took it as a typical overcautious American thing and did it the same way they would do it in Austrian Alps or Canary Islands. Their main mistake was not to turn back, but again, moving forward and extreme resilience to pain is one of their national attributes anyway.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- pthreadses 8y ago
  This is not at all my experience. I'm an American living in Germany who pretty regularly goes to the Alps, the roads are nothing remarkable. The amount of infrastructure built in the Alps is remarkable, but Americans are not going to bat an eye at the road conditions in the mountains of Europe, nor are they comparable to what people are talking about here.
  - bitL 8y ago
    That's true if you are a tourist in Alps, but as a native you'd know some really dodgy mountain roads that your clunker could climb without much trouble, but no American would ever attempt them without a proper 4x4 and life insurance. There is also a factor of underestimating distances due to latitude differences, i.e. Europe is drawn much larger and US much smaller than it should be in comparison, so looking at a map is very deceiving.

by erentz 8y ago

bitL 8y ago

That's pretty normal for Europeans. 4x4 are rare and roads are often in worse conditions in mountainous areas that even some Fiat Punto can climb without any major issues. Most US folks would freak out without a proper Explorer or similar. It's like when in Germany you regularly see females driving 130MPH on the highway on their way back from shopping; it would freak you out but it's totally fine over there. So my guess is that those Germans just took it as a typical overcautious American thing and did it the same way they would do it in Austrian Alps or Canary Islands. Their main mistake was not to turn back, but again, moving forward and extreme resilience to pain is one of their national attributes anyway.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
pthreadses 8y ago
This is not at all my experience. I'm an American living in Germany who pretty regularly goes to the Alps, the roads are nothing remarkable. The amount of infrastructure built in the Alps is remarkable, but Americans are not going to bat an eye at the road conditions in the mountains of Europe, nor are they comparable to what people are talking about here.
- bitL 8y ago
  That's true if you are a tourist in Alps, but as a native you'd know some really dodgy mountain roads that your clunker could climb without much trouble, but no American would ever attempt them without a proper 4x4 and life insurance. There is also a factor of underestimating distances due to latitude differences, i.e. Europe is drawn much larger and US much smaller than it should be in comparison, so looking at a map is very deceiving.