Drifting

Running techniques for snow conditions, including Running, Bounding, Postholing, Crawling, Swimming, and Rolling

Believe it or not, each of these techniques have been personally tested.

And all in one fateful day.

My regular running route includes a stretch of park path along the north side of a shelterbelt. Depending on snowfall and wind direction, this path can vary from day to day as snow piles in before plow crews can clean it up (which they do quite diligently). I usually opt to take this route regardless of conditions, curious of the adventures that might await after a big storm.

One day a couple years ago, I approached the path realizing drifts were deep, but I didn’t realize I was about to embark on a polar adventure.

I began treading carefully atop the fairly solid snowdrifts. As they rose (or got deeper), I tried to stay on top of the drifts, occasionally falling through the wind-hardened crust into the soft snow underneath.

Eventually, the crust didn’t hold me at all, so I was all in. But the snow was so deep, my legs weren’t long enough to find traction at the bottom of the drift.

I was swimming.

I burst out in laughter as I realized the possibility of becoming entirely stuck in a snowdrift, unable to move.

Is this where I would meet my end? Swallowed up by a snowdrift within a few hundred metres of my warm home?

I carefully combined crawling, swimming, and rolling to try to get to shallower snow, where I could eventually find traction and resume my plodding march to safety.

I kinda hoped someone had happened to look out their window and see me swimming for my very life on the park path along the shelterbelt.

And people wonder why we run in winter…