Winter brings wonderment and woe

By GUS TURNER ZICK

The Mirror reporter

From sledding to skating and everything in between, the winter season can bring many activities. Along with these activities come a wide range of holidays.

Two of the top ranked holidays in America happen in the winter. According to both thetoptens.com and thrillist.com, Christmas is in the top two for America’s favorite holiday and New Year’s is in the top ten.

Senior Spencer Tyson said, “Christmas has to be, by far, my favorite holiday. I love all of the good food, receiving presents and giving presents.”

“My favorite holiday is New Year’s because if your past year wasn’t good you can use the new year as a fresh start,” sophomore Kayla Lass said.

This cold season also comes with many different activities that are only available this time of the year.

According to onlyinyourstate.com, Wisconsin has many places and activities that you must put on a list to do this winter, for example, ice fishing, skiing and tubing.

Senior Joey Roth said, “I get very excited when the temperature starts to cool down because that means ice can start to be formed and my favorite winter activity is playing pond hockey.”

Ice can not only allow you to play pond hockey but also go skating, ice fishing and more. “I enjoy going ice fishing much more than open water fishing because when you go ice fishing you don’t need a boat to get you out on the water,” senior Joe Strigel said.

Winter can bring obstacles along with the activities. Snow causes troubles on the road making them more slippery.

Junior Cole Wright said, “The roads during the winter are terrible. Especially after it snows and you live in the country because it takes plows longer to get out to country roads.”

According to safewinterroads.org 24 percent of weather related accidents are on snowy, slushy, or ice pavement and 15 percent happen during snowfall or sleet. That adds up to 39 percent of all accidents being caused by winter weather.

These bad road conditions can be simply solved by using road salt. Road salt reduces crashes by 88 percent and injuries by 85 percent, according to a study conducted by Marquette University.

“I feel like road salt helps a ton, it gives your car more friction with the pavement causing your car to slide around less,” senior Jacob Erdman said.

No matter if people enjoy the winter weather or dread it, everyone who lives farther north in the United States has to endure it.