Winter Travel

If you’re from a cold climate, you’re already plenty familiar with what winter travel means. It can be difficult, uncomfortable, slow, and even dangerous at times…but there are plenty of things you can do even the odds in your favor, too.

• Ice scrapers are a must, of course. If you’ve ever tried to scrape an iced-over windshield with a credit card out of your wallet, you know how impossible it is to do this with anything but a decent ice scraper. You should also consider the long-handled kind with a snow broom on one side and a scraper at the end.
• Deicers can be handy as well…many a windshield has been gouged with the wrong ice scraper, and plenty have been cracked by pouring warm water on them in cold weather in an attempt to break up ice. A good deicer will be non-toxic, non-corrosive (unlike salt-based deicers), and easy to apply. Don’t just stop at your windshield – use it up and down the sidewalk as well to get rid of treacherous slippery patches!
• A life hammer is one of those things where it’s definitely better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it! Designed for EMTs and other emergency personnel, a couple of swings from a life hammer will shatter the window of a wrecked car. They also incorporate a utility blade that is designed to cut through seat belt webbing. All in a package that’s compact, lightweight and easily stored in your car’s door pocket. Nobody wants to be in a car wreck, or to be first on the scene when one has happened, but you can’t be too careful in car travel during winter.
• As great as 2WD pickups and SUVs are for lots of other situations, they’re woefully short on traction in snow and ice, due to the lack of weight over the rear wheels. People used to fill truck beds with concrete blocks, firewood or snow (!) and leave it there all winter for the added weight, but now there’s Shurtrax. Available in sizes for all sorts of vehicles, Shurtrax is a heavy vinyl bladder that you fill with a garden hose, then allow it to freeze. Secure the bladder with bungee cords and you’ve got an extra 100-400 lbs of weight in your favor for added traction.

Nobody said car travel during winter was going to be fun or easy. But with an emergency kit, plenty of warm clothes, a blanket or two and a few winter travel items, you can at least take some of the worry out of your next winter trip.