This past Snow storm reminded me again how quickly the city can become a "wilderness" environment.

Saturday I had to help my SO pack up her Art Studio, on the way there it wasn't terrible but kind of "fun" to travel the normally 30 min drive to the studio. Now keep in mind our first travel was when the storm was really starting to warm up to lay down the snow. On the way there we pulled out only one car. The roads were starting to become unplowed. While rigging up the truck to pull out the first victim of the storm police car barley made it up a hill to see what I was doing. The road that we were on was impassable by any type of car and the squad car wisely chose to not go up the street we were on as it was unplowed.

Many back roads and some main streets were not plowed, and very impassable to the average car. This was my first sign that down town St. Paul was becoming a "wilderness" environment.

After packing the ride home became more of a challenge. By the time we got home I had to close down an off ramp, and pulled over 7 cars. The off ramp had to be closed, because it was clogged by an abandoned car and 3 other cars that went around it. We got the three cars out of the off ramp but it was best to use flairs to block off the ramp while getting the cars off the on-ramp and back on the highway.

The reason for posting was not so much about pulling cars or being able to help others but how quickly a "urban" environment had become wilderness. If you left your car at all you had to have your hat, mittens, scarf and eye protection on to keep warm, my pants had frozen up to my knees. We had to do a quick repair to the truck due to the snow and that required improvisation and we cold not rely on anyone or anything but ourselves. The only difference was that our surroundings were buildings and parking lots not trees and fields, but we were still not able to call on anyone to help us or help those around us. All of the gear that I carry in my truck was put to use, and often tested.

The gear that I had with me was pushed, and tested. I remember getting into the truck after hooking up one car and thinking that had I worn lesser boots, socks, jacket, gloves, hat and scarf I would have been frost nipped at the least, after only spending 10 min in the cold hooking up a car. Many times I was reaching for gear that I thought I would only need in the woods while in the middle of down town. When in the wilderness you take precautions, you don't do things that can put you at risk. I found myself in a more, "Wilderness" mental state.

I am interested to here what others experience was with this storm and if they felt it turned there urban world into a Wilderness expedition.

i'm just across the river in South Minneapolis..phone just rang it was the citys automated warning call,no joke--we have to move our cars tonite--again!!..so anyway i was over in St Paul today..Highland to shop..and it's a mess all over.side streets still packed with snow....and--that bag of winter gear and the propane stove that i got a fresh tank for is still sitting in the basement---sorry guys i'm not prepared..

Good job stopping to help. I'll bet those folks were glad to see you.

You're right, cities are temporary skins on the face of Earth, the illusion of control. When atmosphere or lithosphere sneeze, cities become wilderness without resources.

Lots of snow and high winds for 2 days in Northeastern Ontario, schools were closed today so I stayed home with the 3 kids, shoveled out our house and the neighbours.

My wife came home with a new appreciation for her new-to-her Toyota Rav4 and Blizzak Winter Tires, she felt secure to drive where ever she needed to go and it saved her from loosing a days pay.

Mike

I live in Burnsville and work in St. Paul... the main roads were "ok" but not great - the interstate and main highways were not bad at all from my perspective. In St. Paul, the ramp area I park in was not cleaned out well - it was useable for parking but where a path to walk out to the sidewalk was it was one snowblower pass wide with lots of white stuff on each side. The intersections are interesting - you can't see worth a darn in a lot of them.

Some major intersections in St. Paul had piled up snow that made getting around them and/or thru them tough. It will be a couple of weeks for them to get this cleaned up. I sure wish I still had the old Jeep and not the new Prius.

I just realized my gloves must have fallen out of my coat pocket at the grocery store so now I have to go buy new ones. Any suggestions for something good, the "leather" ones I had from wilsons leather didn't seem to work very well, the leather would get still when it got damp and didn't conform to my pockets very well either.

Do NOT go cheap on your gloves. I've been getting the two part ones with a waterproof external shell and a liner for them and that combo seems to work best for me. This weekend when blowing out snow at about 5 degrees my hands were freezing up with the leather/wool liner mittens I had on so I swapped them out for the REI shell and liner gloves and didn't have any more issues with cold hands.

As for gloves, three pair is what I've usually got with the theory that it's good to have a spare, two is really one and one is none. There is also an extra pair in the car at all times.

This is sort of what I've got... well worth the bucks
http://www.rei.com/product/757118

I also have (second pair) some warm leather 'duty' gloves
http://www.hatch-corp.com/detail.aspx?pid=WPG100

Good luck and stay warm!

Paul -

Those look nice, I like the layered idea, thin ones for when I need more dexterity.

Our city had a large ice storm a few years ago, knocked out power for a week at a time in a lot of places. People bugged out to friends/family homes, hotels that still had power, etc.
Its really wilderness like to drive down the street and see no lights, just dark empty houses.

I'm not one to "cheap-out" on things but as of last winter my go-to gloves, even during the blizzards we had, are these Duluth Trading "Glomitts." They are convertible mittens so you can have the dexterity of fingerless gloves and flip the top back up for the warmth of mittens.

My fingers were toasty warm this 22-degree morning on our dog walk.

They are on sale for $17.50 -- I wear the Men's small. They're so cheap and wonderful that I have several pair so will be wearing them for years even if I lose one here and there....

http://www.duluthtrading.com/store/products/50041.aspx


For bikejoring in slushy snow, snowshoveling and making snowmen, I opt for Dakine snowboard gloves. But the truth is I get a lot more use out of the Duluth Trading Glomitts.

http://www.rei.com/product/802577:


I second the recommendation for redundancy in gloves -- I have several pair in the car, all year long. Including the Glomitts, work gloves (insulated and not) and down mittens.

The right gloves and socks are priceless in freezing conditions.

I'll second the importance of keeping feet and hands warm. When doing barn chores during cold conditions I always keep at least one extra pair in my pockets so I always have a dry pair to slip on.

While not waterproof these are great for working around horses or anything where you need a good grip. I machine wash mine in warm water and hang to dry.

http://gloves.lfsinc.com/content/?p=908

When it gets real cold I switch from Smartwood socks to Filson socks in either the medium or heavy weight. I've never found any socks that beat Filson when it's cold.

Last year's blizzards are still fresh in memory and I'm fond of recalling how deserted the streets were around my house. I loved being out with Gidget (Samoyed) at the height of the storms when the snow was blasting sideways and there was nary another soul out and about.

I felt like we were alone for blocks --trudging along in the middle of the streets -- but we were no doubt seen from the vantage points of toasty living rooms.

Alas, major arteries criss-cross the city so we didn't have to walk far to see a few determined drivers and there are always police cruising.

Let it snow!

Wow, you guys did really get hit last winter! I'd forgotten how much snow you guys had.

Love the patriotic graphics on the K-9 SUV.

How did the vehicles parked on the streets fare? I'd worry they would become victims of sliding cars.

We had snow like that in the 08/09 winter here in the PNW.

As for the gloves: Thick mittens is really the way to go for prolonged periods outside. Having all four fingers inside a mitten is A LOT warmer than a glove.


Every single glove I've tried is either too thin to keep my hands warm or too thick to give me the finger dexterity I need. Or both (surprisingly often the case, at least if you're outside for long enough). IMO, the perfect "glove" compromise between dexterity and insulation simply doesn't exist for very low temperatures.


Those "Glomitts" sure look nice, but not having tried them I can't vouch for them. Thanks for the tip, the glommits I have tried so far were of inferior quality and performance.


I have nothing against gloves, and I use them frequently. But when it's really cold I consider them a short term solution only. If I need to be outside for a long time in -10C (14F) or colder I go for thick wool mittens inside a wind proof outer shell.

Though a pain to get in/out of, when I was in Alaska 2 years ago, I used a pair of REI liners, overlaid by some thing glomitt-type in wool, covered with a waterproof Marmot shell. Worked great down to -5, on a snowmobile.

Wasn't able to get them off fast enough to shoot a fox, however!

I don't know of anyone's parked car being hit. Mine didn't move for two weeks. Even if your vehicle was capable, you didn't want to lose your parking place that you'd spent hours digging out.

That becomes a big bone of contention after snowstorms. The shopping cart in that photo was later used for several days to "reserve" a parking space for someone.

Our first big snow last winter occurred on December 19. I hope and hope.... right now the forecast for the 19th is just flurries.

I had forgotten that I had parked my work truck at the back of our lot prior to the recent storm event. This afternoon I dug a Ford width, 100' long trough through 4 feet of drifted snow, it took 2 hours but I got it out! I was prepared for the weather except my pants were not wind or waterproof, I should have put my Goretex overpants on. Mike

Yipes! Lotsa snow. Thanks for the pix.

I've got a couple of pairs of the glo-mitts, one wool (a bit heavier), and one fleece (a bit lighter). I like them, although they're not perfect. Sometimes the glove part flops down into what I'm doing which is a pain, especially when cooking.

BUT so nice not to have to take gloves on and off. With the tops folded back, I have fingerless gloves. With 'em down, I've got mittens. Add a pair of Gore-Tex overmitts, and you've got a pretty good cold weather set up.

HJ

For this evening's pup-walk, I wore glove liners under the Glomitts.

Perfect.

It's in the 20s here, dropping to 20 overnight. And breeeeezy! Brrrrr.

When I lived just outside Iowa City in the 70s and 80s, several times per winter we'd go from being able to freely travel into town or out to interstate 80 within 5-10 minutes, to being snowbound for 3-4 days. The lane to my farmhouse was about a block long, and I had a 4WD Subaru. Even if I could make it out to the asphalt road in front of the house, within another block or so there were deep roadcuts in both directions that would drift full of snow to 8-10 feet or more within a few hours. Neither the city nor Johnson county claimed us, and even when they got it worked out who would come out to snowplow, they had to wait for big snowblowers to come from some distance away that could blow the snow 60-70 feet up over the power lines to clean out the roadcuts. We always had to be ready for these impromptu confinements in the wintertime, and had a nice Lange airtight woodstove and plenty of oak treetops harvested by our own hands (and with a permit that cost $5 per year) from the big commercially logged timbers in nearby Amana. The lumber companies would take the big trunks and leave the treetops for locals to chainsaw up and haul away. Amazing firewood. Once dried, the hard oak logs would basically burn twice. Once with a flame, and then a second time as a big log-shaped red-hot glowing coal which would slowly crumble into fine white ash.

Hey Dagny, that is the same way I wear my mitts when hunting. Dark coloured wool flip-mitts over polypro liners, it keeps your hands warm but leaves your fingers sensitive enough to function. Mike

Hmm. Nice combo idea. I'll have to try that.

HJ