![cover](files/cover.jpg)
Near Wynyard at 5:47 Good Friday
Driving in Saskatchewan’s Easter storm
Yellowhead highway - Tuesday,April 10, 2012
by: Timothy W. Shire
images by: Matthew Shire
Good Friday was moving day for a family at Kelliher and our family was there to lend a hand. I left Tisdale at 7:00 AM and there was only light snow which petered out south of Archerwill turning to light rain all the way down highway #35 to Leross and over to Kelliher.
![002](files/002-2.jpg)
It was right around four that we pulled out of Kelliher with a convoy of three cars, two SUVs, a loaded pickup pulling a trailer and a U-haul. The picture on the right shows what we began to encounter between Leross and Bankend. A slurry of ice was accumulating on the road. This is not the sort of thing you encounter in winter but unique to other parts of Canada and the US where you get a snow storm in close to 0ºC. It wasn’t long until we realized that this was not going to be an easy journey.
The first ditched vehicle was two young women who went off the road in front of the U-haul and the last three vehicles in our group stopped. They were shaken up by the experience and one of our people hopped in checked out their car then drove it out of the ditch for them.
![003](files/003.jpg)
![004](files/004.jpg)
![005](files/005.jpg)
![006](files/006.jpg)
Two of the vehicles in our convoy had very little clearance which added yet another dimension to the difficult of staying on the road. The smallest vehicle had exceptional tires and was able to keep its footing but a Honda Civic was tail end charlie behind us and we saw it vanish from sight. I immediately turned around and head back and the Honda was heading west after having done a neat double highway centre spin. Remarkable oncoming traffic took evasive action and we kept on going.
Half a mile further the scene above and the image to the right shows two vehicles in the ditch at the same spot and huge bulldozer wading around about to lend assistance. The pick up below was definitely not coming out of the slough on its own.
![007](files/007.jpg)
![008](files/008.jpg)
Half of our group stopped for coffee at Dafoe while the other half got back in their vehicles and headed west. There were still challenges to be met but the road was improving. These two (below) were in at the same spot and the snow on the side of the sedan was plastered on it by the slide into the ditch.
![009](files/009.jpg)
![010](files/010.jpg)
The Yellowhead highway is not usually a place were you find responsible drivers. The traffic is almost always heavy and the trucks are the main vehicle on the road. But Friday was an exception. The drivers were saints. They were courteous doing their best not to be another ditched vehicle and really doing a great job of missing vehicles which were out of control. It was impressive to see drivers looking after one another as they were.
By Lanigan the ordeal was over. The snow and rain was over, the road was clear and the traffic was travelling at normal highway speeds. There was even a sunset at Saskatoon.
![011](files/011.jpg)