i was driving friday night in the snow, and i came to a narrow road that i had to go up-hill on, but pulled over because the jerk coming down the hill in his explorer doesn't know that the car coming down the hill has to yield to the car coming up the hill.

anyway, i was in a couple inches of snow and ice on the shoulder letting him by and then i had to really work 1st gear to get myself back onto the road. i ended up revving up to about 5k rpms and then shifting up to second and i got unstuck, contined up the road in third and then when i went to downshift to second at the top of the hill, second gear was blocked? i pulled over and started running through the gears and first and second gear were totally inaccessible, third gear was a chore, but then forth, fifth and reverse were fine. i restarted it several times and finially i got second gear back, but no first. i started driving home taking off from second, but i'd try first gear at every stop. eventually, it would partially let me into first gear, but then when i let the clutch in, it would grind and spit it back out. after about five minutes of driving like this, it finially let me use first gear! the next day she ran fine and continues to now.

i don't know what happened, but i called my toyota dealership the next day, and it says that what might of happened is that some ice got stuck in the shifter and eventually the hot exhaust melted it and unblocked it. does that sound likely? or did i maybe overload the transmission trying to get unstuck?