Several truckers failed the first real winter driving test of the season, when a heavy snowstorm passed over part of an upper elevation highway.

Traffic came to a standstill on an icy stretch of Highway 97C between Kelowna and Merritt on Tuesday.

First one driver's vehicle started to slip, then a second trucker stopped to check on the first and his truck became stuck as well.

The truckers chained up their tires, but often not until after getting stuck on the mountain pass.

"I had a look this morning. The highways didn't look that bad," one trucker told CTV News, explaining that he'd looked at the traffic cams online first.

"I thought I'd just get behind a great big truck and follow it."

And members of the public didn't fare much better.

Melissa Martens, a visitor from Australia, got stuck in a rental car on the highway.

"We were just trying to get it to the side so we weren't in people's way, and maybe wait for the snow plow," she said.

The temporarily stranded drivers were back on their way about an hour later, with a reminder of the challenges of winter driving.

About 500 kilometres southwest, Metro Vancouver's North Shore mountains were also dusted with snow on Tuesday.

Photos taken from the peak of Grouse Mountain on Tuesday showed snow falling at the top of the hill, though the resort's webcams showed most of the snow that fell for the first time this season had melted by the afternoon.

The temperature on Grouse Mountain was forecast to dip to 0, feeling like -2 C, overnight, with light flurries expected again.

Snow is also in the forecast for the mountain on Thursday, Saturday, and early next week. However, periods of snow are punctuated by rain, so the snow may not accumulate this early in the season.

To the east, Mount Seymour also received its first snowfall of the season Tuesday morning. The forecast for that hill suggests snowfall overnight and into Wednesday and Thursday. More snow is expected to fall Saturday and Monday and Tuesday of next week, but the temperature will likely be above freezing during the day and the snow may change to rain.

Further west, snow is in the forecast for Cypress Mountain on Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

Heading north up the Sea-to-Sky Highway, Whistler-Blackcomb is already covered in a blanket of white at the summits, though the Whistler village is still green.

The resort's ski season is expected to open Nov. 24, as long as the weather cooperates.

With a report from CTV Vancouver's Kent Molgat