I moved to Bend from southern California in January 2023, in a car without snow tires. I got through the rest of that winter, the next one and the one after that, mostly by not driving when it was particularly icy or the roads were covered with snow. I used TripCheck frequently in the mornings, especially when it was icy. I didn’t think I’d be doing enough winter driving to make getting winter tires worth it, and I wasn’t that confident in my skills.

I remember being very proud of myself as I slowly got the hang of driving in small amounts of ice, or driving safely when it had just started to snow. Driving in frozen rain was a new experience, and I was careful and drove to my destination and back safely. It felt like progress. I have spent a few years in Boston, so I do have prior experience with snow, just not with driving in it. Regardless, I wanted to keep practicing and learn new skills that might save my life one day.

Last year, I became aware of the Deschutes County winter driving training program, called SkidCar for the technology used. Taught by retired Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Mike Johnston, the program met at the Deschutes County Public Works Complex. Though the four-hour class allowed spots for three people, only two of us were there Monday.

The SkidCar frame, custom-made in Sweden for each car, attaches to the suspension of a car and a computer allows the instructor to raise and lower the front and back tires independently, allowing the driver to experience both front and back skids as if you were losing traction due to snow, ice or another problem.

Johnston talked about how everything a driver does with a car affects the way it moves and carries weight. Braking, for example, brings the weight to the front of the car. The idea is to drive as smoothly as you can despite obstacles.

Roundabouts, he said, are the places in Bend where drivers slide the most. When driving in snow and stopping at roundabouts, heat from the car hits the snow underneath, melting it slightly and making it even slicker. Awbrey Butte is also a danger zone, he warned, due to its steep hills.

Speed causes sliding, so even if you think you are going slow enough, you’re still going too fast if you slide. Johnston advised slowing down early and, on Bend streets, aiming for the sections of the road that still hold gravel or cinders, because it helps tires keep traction.

After the classroom instruction came the driving practice. Sitting in the backseat as my classmate drove was an exercise in queasiness. The front skids weren’t so major that they could be felt, but the rear tire skids were much more dramatic. The area we had to practice in wasn’t the largest, so essentially we both went around the lot in squares, due to the sharp right- or left-hand turns we were making.

Repetition was the name of the game here. Johnston set the computer to have the car make different types of skids on every turn, first for the front wheels, and then the back wheels. The idea was to steer out of the turn when the car began to skid and to get back to a flat, stable and straight line before accelerating again.

The repetition was probably the most valuable part of the whole process. It felt helpful to drive a car that wasn’t my own, one that had quite a lot of power. Again and again, I turned, trying to make it muscle memory: steering out of the turn and the skid, getting straight again and accelerating.

Though I hope I don’t have to use these skills any time this upcoming winter, I’m glad I have them, and I hope that the muscle memory sticks. Getting the experience of skids by way of computer, and not ice, was a smart decision.

Interested individuals over 15 and with driving experience can enroll in the class through Deschutes County’s website. Class slots open at particular times for the following month. The class cost $100 and the program can be reached at skidcar@deschutes.org.

Noemi Arellano-Summer is a reporter at The Bulletin.