AS we motored along a pitch-dark A483 the carriageway beneath us looked dry and clear enough to stage a grand prix race.
And gritter-truck driver Tony Hammett agreed with me that a scene less like a snowbound hell it was hard to imagine.
This just before 9pm on Tuesday night but just a few hours later the picture had changed dramatically as the bypass became choked with morning commuters struggling through the latest heavy snowfall.
The going for them was tough, but it could have been a whole lot tougher if it had not been for the efforts of Tony and about 40 of his mates who drive Wrexham Council's 14-strong fleet of gritters.
Through the columns of the Leader, the council's gritting operation has come in for an avalanche of criticism since the weather took on an Arctic turn just before Christmas.
So I booked myself a ride on one of the gritting trucks to see if the operation in any way deserves all the flak it has been taking.
Kevin Edwards, one of five senior council managers who oversee the gritting teams on a rota basis, met me as I arrived at their base on Wrexham Industrial Estate just after 6pm.
He explained that the operation takes in 10 routes across the borough, covering the entire network of A and B roads, along with strategic routes such as those to schools and hospitals.
The whole process normally lasts for 22 weeks at the height of winter and runs seven days a week.
A weather forecast is taken each day around lunchtime, with data provided by a private specialist company and the council's own weather stations, on the bypass, at Bwlchgwyn and in the Ceiriog Valley.
Information taken into account includes windspeed, air temperature and the dew-point.
The number of teams called into action and the frequency of their sorties depends on managers’ judgement of the overall situation.
Each of the trucks, which can be fitted with snowploughs to give extra shifting power to their spreading ability, can be crewed by one to three men according to the severity of the conditions.
The gritting is not restricted to just a couple of sweeps a day – there can actually be many if the situation requires it.
Over the past couple of “big snows” the trucks have made countless trips around the patch.
In fact, Kevin Edwards, who has been doing the job since 1989, reckons this is one of the busiest winters he has ever seen. And what of the stick he and the team have been getting from some quarters?
He said: “It’s true we have some criticism but we've had our compliments too. What we do is appreciated on the whole.”
Another major talking point has been the amount of grit or salt left in Wrexham’s stockpile. To best answer the question I put to him on that, Kevin led me across the yard to the storage shed where the stuff is kept.
Before the snow began to close in, this was packed to the roof with 35,000 tonnes of it.
At that point in the night there was only about 500 tonnes left, all packed into a small space at the bottom end of the building. On the wall of the shed was only a dark stain where the grit mountain had been.
After picking up their instructions for the night, it was time to clamber into the cabs – all fully loaded for action with about 10 tonnes of gritty road relief. Forget any fancy 4x4. These are the beasts to be aboard when the weather turns nasty.
The one I was riding in – one of the largest and most powerful in the fleet – is too big to fit down most residential side-streets, so it is solely tasked with taking care of Wrexham’s A483 arterial route.
At the wheel of the 30ft long, diesel-powered monster was 40-year-old Tony Hammett of Gresford.
Like the rest of the gritting men this is just an after-hours activity for him. Most of them have day-jobs as refuse collectors. He is an all-purpose council driver, handling everything from vans to quadbikes.
This is the second time in his six-year stint with the council that he has been on the gritting squad and he loves every minute of it.
Like his boss Kevin, he told me this is one of the busiest winters he has seen.
Although the lower-lying areas of the borough have not seen all that much snow, Tony said that many of those at higher levels have been, quite literally, in the thick of it.
The men in the gritting trucks are limited to driving for eight hours in a 10-hour shift and they clearly take a pride in packing as much effort into their shifts as possible.
Tony and I are scheduled to be out for about three hours doing the bypass run.
Tony controlled the output from a small electronic console by his left elbow.
The stuff going on the road behind us is not simply grit but a concoction of rock salt coated in molasses, called a pre-salt, which sticks much better to a clear road surface and helps prevent the accumulation of snow or ice.
When snow has actually fallen, the trucks reload with rock salt, which melts the stuff as well as giving adhesion to vehicle tyres.
We finally pull back into the Abbey Road depot just after 9pm, with about half of our load now safely spread.
Back at HQ Kevin Edwards has been taking another weather forecast before he decides if another sweep is necessary.
"Does it look like snow to you?" I ask Tony before heading home. "No, but I bet they'll ask us to go out again," he replies.
They did and out he went.