Barbiesfriend,
Every sortie was planned VMC. But every sortie had a "bad weather" plan.
Most involved a penetration climb.
Most of the aircraft I flew on relied on anti or de-icing to carry out this plan.
The one exception was the Canberra which from 300kts low level could normally zoom through the icing layer before it could affect.
This luxury was not available to the Chinook.
So could the Chinook have safely climbed to SALT?
Read back through the thread. It has been discussed hundreds of times before.