Walking on ice - shoe tricks (house, wedding, buy)

[harry chickpea]

The rain on snow has turned to ice here, and where people have packed it down with walking, it is particularly dangerous. Best advice? STAY INDOORS and off of it.

If you really really need to get out, and you don't have cleats, here is a trick:

Gather the coarsest sandpaper you can find, your office stapler, and that Alabama fix-all - duct tape.

Cut or tear sections of sandpaper to match the bottoms of the shoes you will use, especially the front ball of the foot area.

Reinforce the back of the sandpaper with duct tape.

Place the sandpaper sand side down over foamcore/cardboard box/ back of a carpet.

Flip the base of the stapler so that you can drive staples into the back of the sandpaper and duct tape without the ends or the staples folding over.

Staple in a bunch of staples.

Add another layer of duct tape to seal in the staples.

Remove the sandwich from the foam core

Use more (smaller) strips of duct tape to hold the sandpaper onto the underside of your shoe's toe box (rough side down). Add more duct tape to hold in place as needed, with minimal amount covering the exposed sandpaper and staple ends.

The shoes will now keep you from slipping on slick ice for a few minutes. If you walk in snow, all this can get covered with a coat of snow and be slippery, so try to avoid it, and carry a walking stick to tap the side of your shoes to remove it, as well as act as a third leg when needed.

There are any number of variations of this trick, so if you don't have the materials, use it as a starting point. Crazy glue and aquarium gravel. A small bucket of sand and walk like you are spreading rose petals at a wedding.

Slipping and falling is no fun. If you are older it can be dangerous. Non-slip footwear is critical, even if it looks bad.

[elnina]

I tried that and the sand paper got clogged and covered with snow in no time. Perhaps work on ice only surface. Ice underneath snow, even a little, is no go.
The best that works for me are shoes with soles that have "tire" profile and even those need to be chosen carefully.

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6252613

Other options might include snow traction cleats over shoes. They are also great if you just go for a walk, but get worn out quickly when you also walk over clear concrete surface. They can be quickly removed (for shopping, for example) and stored in purse or pocket.

Something like this (many variations)
https://www.amazon.com/OROOTL-Tracti...f_B09BCD9YQT/?

This type might be better to walk on mixed surfaces. I didn't try them, yet.
https://www.amazon.com/Winter-Walkin...df_B07GJSWP4P/

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by elnina

I tried that and the sand paper got clogged and covered with snow in no time. Perhaps work on ice only surface. Ice underneath snow, even a little, is no go.
The best that works for me are shoes with soles that have "tire" profile and even those need to be chosen carefully.

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6252613

Other options might include snow traction cleats over shoes. They are also great if you just go for a walk, but get worn out quickly when you also walk over clear concrete surface. They can be quickly removed (for shopping, for example) and stored in purse or pocket.

Something like this (many variations)
https://www.amazon.com/OROOTL-Tracti...f_B09BCD9YQT/?

Exactly, which is why I added the cautions and suggested adding staples. It is a stop-gap measure when there are no alternatives. FWIW, I have LL Bean hunting boots with a strong profile - they don't work on pure ice.

Cleats are not going to help if they have to be shipped in by Amazon and both the post office and UPS are shut. My suggestions are for people locally, who are suddenly confronted with a lot of icy areas that they are not used to.

[BMW R1100]

Amen to this. I slipped on ice a year ago, jammed my left thumb, and it still hurts.

[1973PINTO]

my car spent the night in a big ditch on walker lane and in my two mile walk home i fell and got myself a hip pointer .. i`ve never had anything so painful . i see why it keeps NFL players on the sidelines sometimes ..

[arleigh]

You are better off using a small rope and wrapping your shoes. It works out better stepping into the house or in the car not damaging the floors.
There are rubber gripers one can buy for this as well.
When I worked in snow-making we installed short screws to the bottoms of our work boots, but you had to remember to take them off before going in the house. A lot of concrete floors covered in ice and snow.
Another trick is to walk stiff-legged. I had to learn this working on boats still in the water covered in snow we had to shovel off during the winter months.

[RocketDawg]

You can also buy crampons to strap on to your boots, from Amazon if not available locally. They're not expensive. But that's something you'd have to have on hand - the mail's not running right now. Or, old-fashioned golf shoes with metal cleats might work, or even baseball shoes (I assume they still have metal cleats - they did when I played many years ago).

[Igor Blevin]

The problem is the various conditions. What works on snow doesn't work on a thick sheet of ice. What works on ice, may not work in slush. If it is a very thin layer of black ice, it is different still. So you would have to carry 3 different shoes and change them each time you got to a boundary where the conditions changed.

Maybe it would be better just to use a walker like weak 80-year olds do. I have seen people using such things learning to ice skate. As long as you can support yourself with your arms, you could keep stepping/sliding/pushing.

I don't know the best solution when you step off a sidewalk with thick ice and onto a smooth road with black ice, etc.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t_5PgA570Y

[FTG-05]

We haven't left since the IceApocalypse started:




Last I saw (yesterday PM) they still haven't plowed the blacktop at the end of our one mile gravel road. It doesn't look like they plowed the road down in the valley below either (barely visible in the pic).

Oh well, I guess I'll just have another Avid-vac'd Publix special Prime Rib tonight. Life's tough, then you die.

[elnina]

Well, apparently to keep from slipping we should walk like a penguin.

Here’s how to do the penguin walk:

“Keep your knees slightly bent so you’re in an active position, ready to react if you need to.”

“You’re venting your knees and pointing your feet slightly out to improve stability.

“And you’re walking [slowly] with a flat foot or a shuffle step almost.”

“[You’re] keeping your center of gravity over your feet — so you might be like leaning forward just a little bit.”

Keep your hands out of your pockets and extend your arms out to your sides to maintain balance.

Keep smiling when you are videotaped to look great on social media

Neoprene and non-slip rubber soles are best.

Avoid shoes with smooth soles and heels.

https://www.kent.edu/compliance/envi...y/walk-penguin