How is your winter biking coming along?

[happyslug]

5. Rode my bike home, no problem in the snow on the flats

But the last part of my trip is up 5% slope for about a 1/4 of mile. The road had about an inch of packed snow, that was chewed up by cars going over it i.e. both packed AND loose. Normally I bike the whole 1/4 mile but halfway up that slope, I had to dismount today, the snow was to loose.

Now, this morning when I went down the same road, no problem. I have studded snow tires so I had traction. It was the combination of slope, packed snow and loose snow that forced me to walk that last 1/4 mile. If the route was flat or downhill I could have done it. Had the snow be packed with no loose parts I could have done it (I did it last week on such packed snow), but the addition of the loose packed snow was what killed me going up the hill.

I hope this is over soon, I want to get the Studded tires off my bike, They help a lot in ice and packed snow, but at the cost of extra rolling resistance so it is a little harder to bike then when I am on non-studded tires.