Chains for the feet

Having seen what our road looks like this morning in my previous post,  the question might come to mind, "How did you get out there without breaking your neck?"  Actually that's pretty simple.

As a veteran of icy climates, I've always had some sort of chains for my feet.  These are available in a number of places.  I think mine came from the Herrington's catalog, but I can't remember.

I keep them in a specific place in the garage, ready at a moment's notice for this particularly Applachian mixture of sleet and freezing rain that we so often see in the southern Virginia mountains.  While my friends up in Happy Valley or State College, Pa are probably enjoying a nice snow storm, we have to deal with ice.  Falling on ice is something I would like to disappear into my past memories so I keep my chains for the feet always ready for action.

There will be a window from about 10:30 am to 2:00 pm today when you can scrape the ice off your driveway.  I'll probably make a path, and my chains for the feet will be indespensible for that task.  I'm not going to work very hard at it since the temperatures are supposed to reach near fifty degrees tomorrow.  It's always better to let the sun do your work for you if possible.

That's the difference between northern New Brunswick in Canada where we lived for so long and the southern Virginia mountains.  In Canada at this time of year or just a little closer to the first of the year, you often see today's low temperature becoming the high temperature for tomorrow.  That would be okay except that it often goes on for a week or two until things bottom out at minus twenty five or thirty degrees Fahrenheit.

At those temperatures you need a body suit, not chains for the feet.

Our mountain must be pretty slick today.  I just saw a Volvo SUV come creeping back home.  From the time it was gone until the time it came back, I would hazard the guess that it didn't make it down the hill.  The driver is one who usually can make it out if anyone can.

I think it is a good day to let mother nature have her way with the roads.

Comments

[Joe Clark]

How are these different from crampons, the devices with the curious and disquieting name?

[Ocracokewaves]

Ah these are very different, and not nearly as scary as crampons. They even glow in the dark. Think of a giant spring for a ballpoint pen with florescent plastic drawn through the spring. The proper name is "Yaktrax."

http://www.herringtoncatalog.com/fs311.html

I have never owned crampons, but I did have an ice axe in my climbing days unless I'm dreaming.

Crampons are pretty scary.

http://www.ems.com/catalog/subcategory_simple.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302866331

There is even crampon history.

http://www.ems.com/content/traction.jsp