The First Snowy Commute

Winter has taken an extremely long time to come this year. This afternoon was my first real commute in the snow. At about 12:30 we started to get absolutely hammered with snow. Our vanpool left work early. Parley's Canyon was sli-ick. It took about an hour to get from PC to the vanpool meeting spot, we bypassed a bunch of traffic and saved a ton of time.

There were many inches of accumulation and I was looking forward to trying out the bike for the first time in the snow. I have it fully outfitted with fenders, lights, and cross tires (racks and panniers are still in the works). It looked like this when I got to it:



I was a little disappointed when I started riding because the plows had done a good job. I was, however, able to bypass about 3 blocks worth of cars waiting for one stoplight, that was nice. Once I got off main roads things started looking up:



Some may say I am crazy but anyone can ride their bike when roads are dry and the weather is perfect. I'm not a fair weather person and I love it when conditions are sub-optimal when doing stuff. The fun part for me is the challenge to see if I could ride through the snow, make decent time, and not wreck. Mission accomplished. I look forward to many more days of commuting through the snow. Who else got to say "I played in the snow on my way home from work today" or "I had fun coming from work today"?

Here's one last shot of my track through the snow: