A car trip to the mountains is an amazing and memorable adventure, especially if you remember some secrets. Let’s discuss them in this article.
A car in the mountains
A trip to the mountains is very special. The ability to admire mountain peaks, moving from place to place, is limited to the presence of highways if your car is not a crossover, and is practically unlimited if your car is an off-road vehicle. However, even here there is a “ceiling” with an average altitude 2500 meters above sea level. Steep slopes are another barrier. Using a relatively gentle rise you can of course climb to a fairly high altitude, and even go to the eastern peak of Elbrus (5621 meters above the sea level), as the team of Russian Alexander Abramov did in 1997 using a famous Land Rover Defender-90.
However, we are not talking about extreme auto travels to the mountains, but ordinary trips for several days using conventional cars. A regular car is able to take you to a certain place with suitable conditions: parking, a place for camping, water sources. After that a tourist is free to put up a tent and make one- or two-day outings through picturesque surroundings, meet sunrises and see off sunsets, gather mushrooms and berries on forest slopes. Then you can either return home, or move by car to another no less picturesque place. If this is a mountain-skiing gorge, then there is an opportunity to climb by a cable car directly to the glaciers.
What should be in a car during a trip to the mountains?
Depending on the time of the year in which a trip to mountains is carried out by car, the set of necessary things will have a certain specificity.
Spring-summer period suggests that tourist needs the following:
– Tents to house all people;
– Stock of food and water;
– Backpacks;
– Tech gloves, pump, warning triangle;
– Sleeping bags and tourist carpets for everyone (and also a pillow and a blanket);
– Gadgets for communication, spare batteries and chargers;
– Photo and video equipment, if the trip is organized as a photo tour;
– Insect repellents;
– The appropriate equipment, including thermal underwear as it might be very cold high in the mountains even in the summer, especially at night.
In the autumn-winter period, in addition to the above, you will need:
– Tire snow chains;
– Sapper blades;
– Fuel supply;
– Appliances for heating (chemical heaters);
– Medicines for frostbite, colds and fever, however, they should be taken on any trip, same as bandages and disinfectants.
Meals in the car require the presence of plastic dishes (cups, mugs, spoons, forks and knives (preferably folding), deep plates), towels, paper and wet napkins, thermos, multi-fuel burner, tray and cutting board. Auto-refrigerator, working from the 12V cigarette lighter, should be taken whenever possible.
It is better to take tourist towels as terry towels will not dry out. Warm underwear and socks are mandatory. Soap, toothpaste, shampoo, a comb, cleaning and decorative cosmetics, each of the participants of the auto travel gathers in an individual traveler’s cosmetic bag.
Secrets of driving in the mountains
Needless to say that an inexperienced driver should not test himself and the passengers on a mountain serpentine. The latter can be on the ascent and on the descent. Driving on each of these sites requires a certain skill, especially when you consider that mountain roads are usually narrow, dusty and broken.
Mountains have a difficult terrain both for a driver and a car. The effect of brakes in the mountains is often overestimated; on long slopes it is more expedient to brake by means of the engine. You should climb an ascent at a lower gear, and at a low speed. High speed causes the engine overheat. If you have noticed that the engine overheats, you should lower the speed to the minimum and continue the movement, since this way the engine cools faster than at a stop. When using a car with manual gear shift, the driver, when driving in the mountains, must be perfectly in control of the gear shift and gas pedal. You must always remember: even a small mistake in the mountains can turn out to be a fatal one. You can admire the beauties of peaks and mountain slopes only at stops, but not when driving. Full concentration on driving and not even slightest reason for distraction should become the rules of auto travel through the mountains. It is very important to believe in yourself, but do not overestimate your strength.
Thank you for reading this article. We hope that the information you have gathered will be useful. Do not forget about an international driving license — it is a must in foreign mountains.
