This wintry scene is the view from my desk. Beautiful, but also potentially dangerous.

 There’s the culprit: a hard, slippery coating of ice.

Here’s where it becomes a problem. Just getting to the end of our driveway is now a major undertaking.

Walking on the snow doesn’t help, because that’s coated with ice, too.

I would rather not use sand on the driveway because it makes a horrible mess in the house. And we have so much ice that using ice melting products is not an environmentally sound option. So I brought out the heavy artillery: crampons.

My sister in Canada gave me these several years ago. I have used them often on icy hikes, and at times like this when everything is slippery. Not all crampons are created equal. Some don’t stay on and others aren’t grippy enough. At the time I received these, they were the ones used by letter carriers. They are easy to put on and they work really well.

Here’s what they look like on.

Problem solved. (Just don’t wear them inside your house. They’ll wreck your floors.)