Whether you are a three-season weekend adventurer or a hardcore, backcountry trekker, winter is a good time to work on gear for the coming season, maintain gear you’ll be using throughout the cold months ahead, or even try a DIY project or two. Use those “stay inside” cold, wintry days to take on a few rewarding projects.

Here are a few outdoor-related tasks for your “to-do” list:

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Winterize your footwear

Dry, warm feet are the key to a comfortable winter. Footwear has to breath to provide warmth, and to do so it must be clean and treated with appropriate waterproofing. The basic process is to first clean the leather (soap and water is basic cleaning solution); once dry, apply a waterproofing oil or compound. It’s important to reach every seam and crease throughout the boot to assure complete protection against moisture seeping in. As part of your periodic waterproofing routine, check for wear and tear on boot laces and the boot itself.

DIY ice safety gear

You should never venture out onto a frozen body of water without a pair of ice awls (aka ice picks) hung around your neck, poised in position down by your hands for easy access in an ice-breakthrough emergency. Easy to make, these ice grabbers are key to helping in your self-rescue back out onto the ice. Remember, Ice is never 100% safe!

Winter walking aids

A stout hiking staff can be a real aid when bushwhacking through brushy snow country or by simply providing better balance and support when traveling across an uneven snow field or over ice. Classic diamond willow makes artsy staffs while a simple straight section of birch has worked for me for decades. 

I’ve added gripping power to my ‘walking stick’ by attaching small, screw-in ice studs to the bottom of my staff. They keep the tip from sliding across the ice or losing purchase on almost any slipper/icy surface. Easy to apply, these studs are good to attach to thick soles of boots for added traction, too.

Emergency “glasses”

I didn’t believe this “hack” until I made a working pair myself. Based on the principle of a pinhole camera, each tiny hole works as a miniature lens to bring your less-than-20/20-vision view into focus. It’s somewhat like looking through tiny meshed netting, but the correction is more toward the glasses end of clarity than the blurred vision of not having your spectacles. Should you break/lose yours, these duct tape “glasses” can offer you a clearer view of your surroundings.

These are just some of the many winter projects you can work on to keep you at least mentally in tune with the outdoors during the colder periods of winter. You may resign yourself to thinking that you are merely a three-season outdoorsman/woman, but working on a string of projects over winter can give you a full-season mindset and help you hone a few self-reliance skills. You might also find one that might encourage to bundle up and enjoy the outdoors even more.

Be smart, be safe, and have fun out there!