My ice shoes passed the Phase 1 tests!

I didn't run today because I was busy all day doing some audio work on the computer for my 93-year-old mother-in-law.

We had about 5 inches of snow during the night, and because our daytime temperatures have been below freezing for several days, the snow is light, fluffy, and cold (right now the temperature outside is 5 (F), and it's only 8:30 pm). When I went outside to shovel my driveway and sidewalks, I wore my ice shoes, and they worked fine. The screw-heads dug into the snow and ice, and I didn't slip at all. I tried to slide my foot back and forth on a patch of ice, but the screw-heads dug into the ice and didn't move. The same thing happened with the commercial ice crampons that I used the past two winters. The cost of the screws ($1.98) and a few minutes of time are much less than the cost of the crampons. In fact, the screws should work better than the crampons in deeper, heaver snow, because they won't come out of the soles (the crampons came off in the snow). After I finished with my driveway and sidewalks, I jogged about a quarter mile in the street where ice had built up from the pressure of vehicular tires. I'm calling this Phase 1 of my testing of the ice shoes. Phase 2 will be when I run with them on ice and snow on the Jordan River Parkway.

I put 7 screws in each shoe (LOCO Perfecto), three in the heel, three in the mid sole, and one in the toe. I used 6-32 hex head one-inch screws in the heel and mid sole, and a 4-40 hex head 3/4 inch screw in the toe. I used those particular lengths of screws so the point of the screw would be about half-way through the sole. I used a nut-driver for the 6-32 screws and a screw driver for the 4-40 screw, and the installation only took a few minutes. Most of the time was with the two 4-40 screws; I had to drill a small hole to help each screw get started. I used a screw driver because I couldn't find my nut driver for those screws.

I'm keeping the ice shoes in the trunk of my car so I'll have them if I discover ice on the Parkway path when I start running.