If you're afraid to fall,


Stay off the ice!

Icycling on Snow
Step 1: The Mount
If at all possible, try mounting somewhere that isn't covered in snow, as trying to mount in snow is hard. If you can find somewhere sheltered, just get on and start riding. If not, try and find a section where the snow isn't too deep or uneven. Then, attempt a mount, making it as smooth as possible. Any jerking movements can cause the tire to slip and you to not make it up. Once you're up, pedal back a half step, and slowly start to go forward.
Step 2: Riding
Let's say that you've made it into a forward motion. Now comes the part where you have to ride through the snow. The key to riding in snow is using plenty of force to get through the snow, but at the same time, your movements must be smooth. Basically, just start riding. There are a few things to remember. First off, the snow hides many obstacles that you may not know about. For instance, there can be curbs hiding under that snow! Or it may be a sheet of ice underneath. Or just big chunks of frozen snow or ice might be lying underneath a layer of snow. So make sure that you're concentrating at all times on what's in front of you.
Another thing that is important to realize is that there are many different types of snow. Some snow is very slippery, some snow will give you perfect traction. Some snow will clump up and form dangerous obstacles, while other types will look like big solid blocks, but will completely disintegrate when you hit them. So once again, it comes down to pay attention to what you're running into. I've gone towards curbs before, thinking that there was a packed trail sloping up that I can ride on, but found out the hard way that it was very soft snow which meant that I ran right into the curb. On the other side, I've been riding along and tried rollig over what I thought was a mound of soft snow, only to find that it was a block of ice.
And speaking of blocks of ice, the last snow hazard to talk about is snow that melted slightly during the day and then froze again during the night. I encountered this too often when I'd ride to class in the morning! This type of snow/ ice is the most hazardous because of its shape. Many times, there will be footsteps frozen into this snow on the sidewalks, or tire tracks in the middle of the road. These are dangerous because they are very slippery and if you hit them at an angle, can cause the tire to slide out at all sorts of weird angles. The best way to avoid falling is to avoid riding through any frozen tracks, or riding over any misshapen ice. But if you're afraid of falling, you shouldn't be trying icycling in the first place! If you do insist on riding over the frozen tracks, the way to do it is to try and always hit the slopes going straight up. Never approach them at an angle. If you go straight up and down, you can usually rely on you momentum to keep you from slipping. But when you hit them at an angle, there is nothing keeping the wheel from wanting to end up at the bottom of the mound. With no traction to keep it up, gravity will tell it to reach the lowest point, which usually results in the icyclist sprawled out on the ground after finding the lowest point himself/herself!

Icycling on Ice
Unicycling on ice happens to be my perfect part of icycling. It also is very difficult. Why? It all comes down to a little known physics law called Newton's Law of Icycling (oh yes, Isaac Newton was an avid icyclist as well!) This law states, "A unicycle in motion on ice tends to remain in motion, even when acted upon by an outside force, while a unicycle at rest on ice tends to be very difficult to mount." The problem with this is that it conflicts with the basic principles of unicycling. When you start to fall back, you naturally start pedaling slower. When you start to fall forward, you naturally start to pedal faster. When you fall to the left, the unicycle turns to the left, and when you begin to fall to the right, the unicycle turns to the right. This counteraction usually is enough to keep you from falling off. Unfortunately, on ice, you don't have the luxury of doing much more than riding in a straight line at a constant speed. Any attempts to make any sudden movements results in the icyclist going in the desired direction while the unicycle stays in the original path, causing the two to separate. And unicycling on ice also violates the Unicycle Rule of Falling Off. Usually, when you fall off a unicycle, all you have to do is put your feet down. Unfortunately, even when you reach this step on the ice, there is no guarantee that your feet will have any more traction than the unicycle tire did. So many times, stepping off a unicycle also means falling down.
Now that I've described the basic principles behind riding (or falling) on ice, a brief little guide on how to do it.
Step 1: The Mount
The first rule of mounting on ice is, avoid it if at all possible! It is one of the most dangerous and difficult things you can try on the uni. First off, you need almost perfect balance, because if there is any jerky movement at all, it is probable that you'll end up on your back. Plus, once you're on, you need to get moving, and this needs to be done pretty slowly to avoid spinning the tire. There is no good way to explain how to mount on ice. Just try and make it the smoothest and most balanced mount you've ever done. Plus, every movement should be as smooth as possible as well to avoid any chance of letting the tire slip. When you get on, try and keep your center of balance directly over the wheel's point of contact with the ground, even when you start to move forward. And if you aren't successful and have to put your foot down, try and make sure that your foot is alligned with your center of balance as well. Otherwise, you could be in for a nasty spill. Believe me.
Step 2: Riding
So now you're up and riding, and you're on the ice. Now what? The secret is to make sure everything is gradual. Want to turn? Your turning radius should be about the same as that of a small bus. Want to speed up? Increase your speed by minute increments. Want to slow down? Let the unicycle slow down at a normal rate. Want to hop? Don't! Want to get off? Get off very slowly, and set your foot down as lightly as possible. Besides that, have fun!

Falling Down (or Biff Counting)
As a rule of icycling, it is probable that you will fall down occasionally. And people are going to ask if you've ever fallen or not. So what exactly counts as falling/taking a spill/eating it/biffing? After a good season of sliding, falling, and sliding some more in Rexburg (they don't plow the roads, so sometimes it's fun to slide to the supermarket in the middle of the night to buy cheap sodas), my roomates and I created a guage to measure whether it counts as a biff or not, so we could keep track on our biff chart.

• If you remain on your feet, it isn't a biff, even if you spin around a hundred times, etc. So your unicycle can go crashing down, you can lose your balance and then recover, but as long as only your feet are the only thing that have touched, it doesn't count as a biff.
• You can have one hand touch to stabilize yourself, and it doesn't count as a biff. So you can go down, but as long as only your feet and one hand touch, it's not a biff. But if both hands touch, it counts as a biff.
• Other than that, if anything else touches, it's a biff. If one knee goes down, it counts as a fall. And that counts even if you step off your unicycle and slip as you put your foot down. It's still a biff.

Paco's Credentials
You may be asking, how come I know this stuff about icycling? What right do I have to consider myself an expert in the field? I'll just ask you one thing, have you ever seen a Rexburg winter? At its worst, almost no one even rides bikes to school! And I did two winters in those conditions. I rode to school every day, carrying up to 20 pounds of books, uphill, in two feet of snow, with the wind in my face, for four bitterly cold months each winter! And, unlike most grandparents complaining about how good the kids have it nowadays, I'm not exxagerating! And in my endeavours, I had 98% success rate. I came to this number by keeping a unicycle biff chart. I made 49 successful journeys, and on my 50th attempt, I fell on the ice as I was going over an ice-covered speed bump in the apartment parking lot. My first year at Ricks, I went out one night, when no one else was around and practiced icycling in a parking lot covered in a thick sheet of ice. I discovered exactly what you can (and cant!) do on a unicycle on the ice. I fell down quite a bit; once I ended up on my back with the pedal of my uni jammed against my spinal column, so when I talk about falling down, I know from experience.
And just for the record, my first year up at Ricks, I fell 7 times while unicycling on the ice, but I knew a girl who fell 17 times (and she was walking), so I don't think I did that bad!