Steep Dirt Roads in the Winter

[m85476585]

I'm not sure where to ask this, but here goes...

There's a house for sale in the mountains around here. It's a cool house on about 7 acres not too far from where I work (30 minutes). And the price makes it seem like an amazing deal. But it has a problem with the dirt "road" to get to it. It's a privately maintained road, and it's incredibly steep. I calculated a max of 21% grade. I drove up to the property, and ATRAC came on a couple times on the way up. It was dry at the time, but there were some bumps and ruts. I really want to buy it, but I wonder how I would get up and down that in the winter? Or in the rain? Would snow tires and rear chains be sufficient? I assume the neighbors pitch in to have it plowed in the winter (but I'm not sure), but even then it's hard to get all the snow and ice off since there are ruts and pockets that you couldn't plow. Does anyone have experience living somewhere like this in the winter?

The house is 0.5 miles above a major county road that gets maintained extremely well in the winter. But there's not really anywhere to park if I needed to park at the bottom and hike up. Staying home for a snow day/week is not an option.

 

[philsey]

Neighbors?
Ask them ...

 

[BrianSD_42]

How much is it to pave the tough parts? How much to build a better road / driveway?

 

[No Name]

Yeah, I did it for 4 years, 9300' down to Golden and back 4 days a week. Easy cruising except my "last mile" give or take. Steep, ruts, hard-core snow, wild-life, etc. Bottom-line, sure, everything is harder livin' up high, everything. Only reason I moved back down to the turd-festival is the lady of the house started to get hammered with travel, 90 miles DIA and back for her (Outback) was too much to ask, I sold.

Ran a stock, well-maintained 08' 4Runner with studded Nokian Hakkapeliitta's in the cold season and MS2's other-wise, carried chains, always had a solid get-home-bag (<-- Mandatory with quality gear, used it on occasion) and carried a chainsaw. Beyond that, its all entertainment. Neighbors band together, so do strangers when circumstances dictate.

Be honest with yourself and your life-style though. There are days where you get 40-50+ inches of powder, trees fall, roads close, etc...at times you ain't goin' nowhere for days unless on foot or a snow machine.

 

[wadle5]

Buy it

It sounds like a really cool setup, but maybe that road is the only deterring factor(which maybe is why it is so cheap or hasn't sold yet). For me that sounds like another selling point. Worse case scenario you get stuck in the road, from you description it doesn't sound like its traveled by anyone else but you and your new neighbors. So you get stuck leave your truck and you can always reassess in the morning. Or you could buy a cheap atv/truck with plow and leave up at the house for those really bad days and you can always clear it and then drive up it. But the reality is I think with snow chains or studded tires and some basic off road knowledge traction and forward progress shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Oldmanb777]

It can be a real challenge. Plowing can be VERY expensive, and paving won't last. If you buy it, have your eyes wide open. Those places can have so many issues that you can't even imagine. So.................
Just a few:
Have you checked on fire insurance? so many places are uninsurable.
Some of the mountain communities have not had building departments, or the building departments were poor at best. That means, it may not have been built with building codes in mind. Not necessarily a bad thing, however, lots of builders build there to keep away from inspector's, for a reason.
Is it north facing? If so, when it gest cold soaked in the winter, never having sun on it, it could be impossible to heat.
How is the water supply, and sewer. That can be amazing to deal with in that climate.
So much absolute JUNK has been built in the mountains, it can be hard to find good stuff. And many that move through here build without understanding the climate, and building requirements. They move in when the economy is good. Mover here for the dream, and build like where they came from. Then leave when the economy tanks here. A house built for southern Tx, or Kaliforny won't stand up to a zone 7 climate.
So check it out, the neighbors may be great, but then again, they may be there to stay isolated and don't want to be bothered by anyone plowing their chunk of road. They want to be isolated for a reason.
Just some things to consider before you plunk down your money. Don't be fooled by emotion.

 

[CXS]

Posts like this remind me of Marvin Heemeyer and his “Killdozer,” the Coloradoan that made national headlines at the time. The best thing that came out of that was a comment by a writer who lives in the mountains. He reminded readers that there’s a reason that many people live in the mountains with a big reason being they can’t live with people very well.

The idea sounds very appealing but heed what [MENTION=157434]Oldmanb777[/MENTION] posted.