Originally Posted by
ItsJustMe
The standard emergency treatment for frozen pawls (spinning freewheel) is to use a few zip ties to tie your biggest sprocket to the spokes. It won't ratchet at all then, you're riding kind of a fixed-gear with a derailler, but it'll keep you moving.
I haven't had to do this ever, I've not had frozen pawls, but this is what I've read.
In any case, it always pays to carry some zip ties.
I'd practice this in the cold sometime though. In my experience cold (below 0) zip-ties will snap if they bend to sharply, more so if there is presure on them. I think the key would be to do it in such a way that the loops each zip tie form aren't to small. I keep a good handful of zip-ties with me anyway, they are useful for so many repairs.
OP: glad you made it out saftely. Much of my commute is along an MUP which follows a river, worst case scenario would have me a 2 mile walk from somewhere I could have the wife land the Corolla for a dust off. However I'm stubborn enough I'd probably walk to work or home whichever is closest. Last winter I walked 3 miles when the unplowed portion of the MUP was to deep to bike through.