In 2014, when I drove back to the lesser 48 from Anchorage I had good weather in early October.

It had snowed in Tok, but the roads were clean until the border.

The Canuks had turned the snow machines on again and I had snow from the border for about 50 miles the first night.

Then I never saw another bit of snow all the way to California.

Of course we had snow in the mountains outside of LA in March and April.

I might have to do another one-man trip up later in the year. Just a 4x4 truck no trailer.

I'll buy new snow tires in Great Falls before I cross the border, and I'll have chains. Anything else?

A shovel, tow strap, enough gear to spend the night if needed. I'm sure you have cell which hopefully is in range of a tower when you need it.

Sounds like a fun trip - enjoy.

I traveled the ALCAN with my family Dec of 2013 Dec 11th to be exact. we had all the necessary safety gear sleeping bags, buddy heater with propane, extra fuel, It was slow going from Anchorage to Tok then even slower all the way to Ft St. John. Lots of snow we took our time we were in a ford explorer awd. Their was plenty of cars on the road but we planned our stops carefully and never really travled at night. I was not going to put my family at risk. Then last year I traveled it again with my family in October early October I want to say around the 10th. The road were great all the way to Tok then tok cut hwy their was snow on the ground. That made for slow going again, but we had the usual oh shit gear if things went bad, plenty of warm weather gear if we had to stay overnight in the car. The temps were not that bad in October.

driving during daylight is a must. watch out for the bisons between end of bc and watson lake.

other stuffs as been given by others.

i will post the new link about winter driving made by our gvt and it s well made.

all the best.

Yep the bison were everywhere, especially at night. I stopped driving about 1830 last year when I noticed a bison bull cruising down the middle or the road and decided that it was a good time to find a gravel pit to park in and go to sleep. I woke up in the morning to find a herd directly outside my truck bellowing.

Later in the year you may even want to have a set of chains, from Ft. Nelson to Toad River can get interesting sometimes. I once got snowed in at Ft. Nelson for 2 days in May!

Going to put new snow tires on it when I get to Great Falls.

I plan on having chains.

One of my favorite pieces of winter safety gear for driving is a medium size steel scoop shovel. With a long handle. Sturdy enough to dig thru a frozen snow berm. . Big enough to cube and shovel thru a few drifts.
Take your time, keep your speed down, and watch out for bad permafrost drops around Pick Handle Lake in the Yukon.

Lived in Fort Nelson for 15 years. Good tires and enough stuff to be on your own for 3 days. Candles to keep a little warmth in you vehicle, but beware of CO2

i've made several roundtrips to Chicagoo in midwinter usually traveling alone. Drove a Subaru Forrester and a Toyota tundra. I had some really cold weather and lots of snow and yes I did a lot of night driving. I had moose lights on both vehicles and if you stop to P at 50 below, leave the engine running and stand so that the door can't close with you on the outside. I drink a lot of coffee. A cell phone is essentially totally useless and the most important safety device that I carried was a satellite phone. I always had arctic cold-weather gear,sleeping bag, extra food etc. but the satellite phone was a great comfort. I haven't driven the highway for a few years during the winter but there were long stretches with no one on it when I last drove it about five years ago.

Is there enough hotels open in the winter time to go hotel to hotel, or do you sleep in the vehicle? Which to me would be hard with the CO2 worry.

I camped damn near the whole way to Anchorage last time. Excepting the area between here and Edmonton.

I drove up in February of this year. I drove from Coeur D' Alene to Palmer, Ak. The first night I stayed in Calgary, the second Dawson Creek, the third at the Northern Rockies Lodge near Liard Springs, the last night in Whitehorse. The last day was a long drive into Palmer. There are hotels open all year along the way in the larger towns. Fort Nelson, Watson Lake, Haines Junction(hard to find gas, but its there), even Beaver Creek and Tok. I was hualing a trailer so not making great time, but still did it in just 4 days. I had two 5 gallon cans of gas but never used them. I just filled up whenever I hit a 1/2 tank. I had Rigid LED lights on the truck but didn't need them as I left at dawn and tried to be off the road by dark. It will be darker in December though.

I should correct myself and say, the last day I was driving after dark. I can't recall just where, but I know from at least Eureka down I had my big lights on.

Made the drive in 2002 the last week of October. It was beautiful. Cold. But beautiful. We hit a bad snow storm the second day but after that had good weather the whole trip.

Good tires, tow strap, shovel, jumper cables, tool kit and never pass a gas station without filling up.