Ice Axes and Crampons

Standard cold weather mountainbiking equipment includes; long insulated riding tights, underarmour shirt, long sleeve jersey, two pairs of socks, neoprene shoe covers, good thick gloves, earmuffs, and maybe a jacket. This morning at Candler's, it would have been helpfull to have some extreme mountaineering equipment too. It started out fine, a little mucky, but managable. As we began getting to the areas less visited by the sun, the trail was glazed over with a thin layer of ice covering about an inch or so of snow. Traction was not too big of a problem, when the front wheel would break the ice, the snow gave some much needed grip. The problem was that it felt like riding trough wet concrete. Switchbacks were almost impossible and normal hills felt like mountains. We took a couple of trails that appeared to be relatively clear, only to find the steep sections were covered. Just walking up these icy traverses while pushing a bike was very strenous.
With all that said, we were still out at 7am on Saturday morning, mountainbiking with great friends. So it was a good day! I am wanting for Spring though.