I need them crampons yo!

For all the times I have seen snow, I’ve skied through it, hiked through it or glided across it. Never have I had to walk through snow in order to get to work. Well today was the first time I’ve ever walked through the snow to get to my office and it wasn’t a walk in the park, far from it.

Continuing on from the previous post, I had thought the rain last night would have washed away the snow. In fact it didn’t rain that much last night but instead the temperature dipped well below zero causing the snow to mould into slippery ice and surface of the water on the canal to freeze over.

I knew it wasn’t a good idea to put on my work shoes and tread through the snow. Instead I put my work shoes in my backpack, put on my hiking boots, gloves and waterproof jacket over my business attire. I wasn’t making a fashion statement, I was being sensible and wearing the right gear for the right weather conditions!

The snow was no longer fluffy and soft. Overnight it had turned into slippery hard ice and could cause some major bumps and bruises if one had fallen on to the ice. My hiking books were not made for walking on ice, it’s more slippery then a water slide so I had to tread carefully and look for the soft patches. The number of times I almost slipped over was ridiculous.

There was one slippage incident which almost could have been on funniest home videos if I had fallen. I was merrily walking to the train station on the main road, being careful where I was walking but there was a patch of ice I didn’t see. I walked over it, slipped and lost my balance. Luckily I managed to counter balance myself and got back upright.

Seeing as I slipped along a main road, and with many buses stationary at the red light, it would have been highly amusing for the passengers to witness this idiot slipping all over the place. I did take a quick glance to see how many passengers were on the bus but then quickly shuffled around the corner to avoid further embarrassment.

The snow will be here for a while or should I say the ice. The ice will not melt any time soon with the temperatures well below in single digits and negative overnight. What I really need on my boots to tackle this slipping problem is to get some crampons. Crampons for those who don’t know are basically spikes that you can put at the bottom of your boots to get better grip on the ice. I would probably get arrested for wearing them on the train as they could see these crampons as weapons. Can they be that narrow minded?

If crampons can save me falling on the ice with my work clothes on or reduce the risk of public humiliation for floundering around like an idiot on a footpath or walkway with a thin layer of ice then I’m all for it.

smiles