I have new (greater) respect for you guys who regularly ride in snow. I decided that today was the day to see whether I could actually do it, and... I guess the answer is yes, but I don't plan to make a habit of it.

mid to high 20s as I started, and I was doing okay on a snowy stretch of MUP until I came to my first hill. I pedaled part way up, then lost traction a few times, resulting in coming to a near standstill. I walked the rest of the way up that hill. Lesson learned -- gear down more than usual for hills. Didn't have to walk any more, but I did get sideways a few times. More nerve wracking, though was going down hills. Disc brakes or no, traction is limited by tires, and on cold snow, there wasn't much. Once I got to a street portion of my commute, things were better, as the roads were pretty clear (the first MUP portion runs along a high-ish speed two lane with way too much traffic to feel safe on the road). The ride on the towpath was uneventful, and the CCT was fine other than quite a bit of sliding as I went from packed snow to looser snow and back. No other cyclist in my sight, but plenty of others had been there before me :-). The rest of the ride was uneventful. I was the third bike on the rack at the office :-) Metro home tonight (planned) and hopefully the weekend will bring great melting so that my ride home on Monday will be simple.

Given the amount of snow we usually get, I can't see investing in studded tires, but I wonder if the knobbier tires on my MTB would help at all?