Haha Matt, I've almost fallen in during the winter too...
I have a pair of "past the elbow" wetsuit material gloves for cleaning out the skimmer in the winter.
I kept my last pool open for winter and will keep the new one open as well.
One of the coolest things (in my book) is when it snows and you have a gorgeous clear pool
surrounded by snow.
I bring it up to near shock level when it gets consistently below 47 degrees and there it stays until
spring.
But I only run the pump for 4 hours each weekend during winter months.
vacuum when needed.
My water stays clear and no algae will grow at that temp so I'm not worried about
lack of circulation for the 5 days not running.