Caught in a winter storm at El Espinar

It was a long time I was not caught by surprise in a winter storm. The last time I remember I saw something similar to that was in Italy, I believe during the winter of 2001.

I was taking my girlfriend home from Las Rozas (Madrid, Spain) when it started to heavily snow above the A6 motorway. In a questions of minutes (at an average speed of 80 km/h) the landscape was absolutely white and the snow flakes density in the air was so high that I initially confused it with mist.

We reached without many problems El Espinar but once there, I was seeing no way back. I was driving an Alfa Romeo GT Q2 with bare pneumatics and we covered the last slope before reaching her house crossing our fingers. It was not even 21 o'clock. I stayed there until 23.00 hoping the situation changed but it was constantly worsening instead. I couldn't wait any longer: I already spent a night in a car during a winter storm and I preferred not to do it again. The last cigarette and the last kiss. I took my car and went away.

Sort of a driver's nightmare. The landscape was incredibly beautiful, the sky was gray with a sort of luminescence, probably due to the full moon, and it was throwing sinister reflections on the woods surrounding El Alto del León; the atmosphere was frightening and my car was the only one on the highway.

I will remember this for a long time.