Is snow removal worth it?

When he lived at home, our son always felt that making the bed daily was a total waste of his time. Was he right? Fundamentally, I think so, since what he had to “do” every morning would end up “undone” at night. Could you say the same about brushing your teeth for instance? I don’t quite think so, since this activity could be classified as “cleaning or maintenance” and is quite justifiable. To me, snow removal in driveways is similar to bed-making. I know a couple of homeowners in our subdivision that didn’t remove all the snow in their driveway even though we’ve received so far some 197 inches of cumulative snowfall. Today, as spring has arrived and we’re nearing – hopefully! – the end of winter, these driveways are almost clear of snow, save for a few big bumps here and there. So the bottom line is that my addictive-compulsive snow removal habit has cost me 41 snow removal sessions at an average of 45 minutes each, not to count the cost of gasoline when I had to use the snowblower. All together, that’s almost 31 hour of work that I could have saved had I let my car roll over the snow and packed it thin and icy over the driveway. With "taxes, aggravation plus wear and tear," that’s at least $600 worth of work I won’t have anything to show for comes the 1st of May, so please tell me, what’s the point of clearing all that snow?

The dangers of snow removal

It’s not uncommon that snow removal issues provoke conflicts between people. That happened to me several years ago with my next-door neighbor, and has been a recurring issue ever since. 

A few days ago, he ended up blowing his snow into my driveway. I called him up on it, and he came to fix the problem, shoveling what what his snow off my property.

It wasn’t as bad as what happened this Monday near Scranton, Pennsylvania, when a couple was shoveling their snow into their neighbor property.

The latter got mad, killed the couple and killed himself shortly after that. A pretty onerous conflict resolution for a few cubic feet of snow. 

I hope my own neighbor behaves more nicely, or better yet, stop pushing his snow into my home!

The art of snow removal

In winter, skiing and snow removal are parts and parcels of our daily lives. Some winters more than others, but in any case, the two activities remain front and center, as long as the snow keeps on falling. 

My wife and I love clearing snow each one of us with our specific approaches, our preferred thickness, our favorite tools (shovel for both of us and snowblower for me when there’s more than 4 to 6 inches) and our preferred technique (my wife pushes the snow against the bank on the opposite side of the house, while I push it on either sides and then throwing it over sidewalls that keep on getting taller). 

We seem to thrive from this very tangible exercise where the result of our good work is always impossible to ignore!

Recycling old ski fashion

What do you do with that old one-piece suit from the 70s and the 80s? You can give it to charity, but I doubt that too many folks will find good use for it in Africa or in Asia. First, it could be a bit too warm in most developing nations’ hot and humid climate, and second the bright, patched-up colors would understandably be found in poor taste even by those who don’t know what winter sports are all about. In my view there’s only one best and highest use for these old garments; snow removal. That’s right, if you’re shoveling or blowing snow they are the best clothes to wear. Their “unibody” construction prevents any pesky snow from seeping inside, all the way to a human skin that is not yet used to the morning cold. In addition, because we’ve all put up a few more pounds in the past 20 to 30 years, wearing a now tight one-piece ski suit will amplify your body forms and make you look larger than life, scaring away any puma strolling around your neighborhood in the wee hours of the morning (we indeed have a mountain lion terrorizing our Park City subdivision at the moment.) The real benefit however, is that your neighbors and any passer-by will see you as a true professional in the pristine field of snow removal, and that alone makes your ancient one-piece suit worth upgrading into a work uniform.

Snow removal

We seem to be desperately looking for snow, and when it falls we’re equally desperate to clear it. Lots of options are available to us in Park City. Obviously, you can ignore the snow, drive over it all winter long with your vehicle but soon you’ll get gigantic ruts and ice that will rock you through the end of March. Another solution is to pay someone who comes with a truck outfitted with a snowplow blade and cleans up after each snowfall. You can pay the service on flat rate basis, for the season (good if there are tons of snow), or per occurrence. That solution is not only expensive, but it will also break a few things around your house; I guess this comes with the territory. Then of course, you can always do it yourself, with a snow shovel or if you’re mechanically inclined, with a snowblower. We own both set of tools but since we pride ourselves on being “green”, we only use the blower when it’s really necessary.

Today was one of these days; as we got up this morning, we found at least 14” of fresh snow waiting for us. We fired up our Honda snowblower which started on the first pull, in perfect Japanese fashion, after nine month of hibernation. While I was operating it, Evelyne was doing the finishing work with her shovel. Between the driveway, pathway and backyard patio, the whole job took us close to one hour. Then we drove to Old Town and repeated the same operation on a building that we have there, but this time, it was all handwork and we had to move 18” of new snow off a pretty large area. When we returned home, we saw one of our neighbors, whose husband was out of town, and who was trying to clear her driveway with just a shovel. We took pity on her, restarted the snowblower, and proceeded to finish it off. But before I completed the job, the blower caught her daily newspaper that had been thrown into the deep snow and the machine came to a screeching, frightening halt. Bad news! I had that happened before with a thick Sunday paper and I had to have the machine brought back to the dealer. I ran home to fetch a large screwdriver in order to free the auger, but by the time I returned, Evelyne had done it by hand. This made for an even more memorable first giant snowfall day!

Worshiping snow gods

For the twenty-two winters that we’ve lived in Park City, snow has always be present and in all but one exception, very generous. In spite of starting early December instead of November, this current season proves to be no exception to that rule. In the past week or so, we’ve been pummeled by that California storm which has brought a huge amount of snow all over Utah. At the top of Park City’s lifts, there’s now 75” of settled snow. In our yard, it’s close to 30”. Snow banks are growing impressively everywhere in town and nowhere more than in historic Main Street where snow removal is more than ever a huge challenge, especially a few days before the start of the Sundance Film Festival. So, in spite of our legitimate concerns about global warming and our fears that we might soon be running out of white stuff, the snow gods have so far been very good to us. Without little doubt, this is a solid proof that my steady worshiping on the slopes does bring flakes down!

The wrong way to blow snow!

Snow removal is always a big headache for ski town municipalities that need to deal with speedy clearing and removal.

This is why they also ask residents not to push, or blow snow, back into the street. This is pretty logical and any individual with minimum brain power should get it, but this is far from being the case.

Many big-city dwellers that have make Park City their home and other egocentric characters still can comprehend this civic rule and sometimes we need to tell them or let the municipal authorities know. This shows, if it ever needed to that common sense has truly become an endangered specie.

How do people blow their snow in your town?

The joy of clearing snow

I enjoy when snow falls, not just because it means good skiing down the road, but also and almost as importantly, because it gives me a chance to clear the snow around the house. Snow removal at home is something I've always liked and in fact, seem to enjoy more and more as time goes on.

Yesterday was one of these days when it snowed all day and I had to keep on keeping snow out of the way, and boy, did I just got a kick out of it! That job is my form of compulsive-obsessive disorder and I love to be very systematic in the way I clear snow. Up to two inches is shovel work only. Above that, it's a combination of shovel and snowblower.

There's a system to my madness that got perfected over the years and from house to house. I love to do the job myself; it's a real treat. When it's done, I get a wonderful sense of accomplishment and I wouldn't want anyone else to do it for me!

Why I love snow removal

Second only to skiing, removing snow from around my home is my preferred winter activity. I like it for several reasons.

First, when there's snow to clear, there's good skiing to be had, and that's paramount to a ski-addict like me.

Second, it's a very concrete task. You begin with a space that is filled with snow and you liberate it from that invading white stuff. At the end, you can see and measure what has been done. There are few paid jobs left in this world that we are willing to do and that let you get that kind of satisfaction.

Finally, for perfectionists like me, it's another chance to act on my obsessive compulsive disorder, and strive for doing the best job possible and this is worth all its weight... in snow moved around!

Snow, skiing and global warming?

While the Alps are in right to wonder about the (melting) relationship between snow and climate change,

America has been blessed so far with a normal winter except perhaps for the usual eccentric behavior in large cities that never were in the snow-removal business, but to this day, nothing is too alarming in terms of a dwindling snow cover.

Am I in denial of man-produced climate change? Not in the least, but I feel that until now we've been lucky to dodging the bullet at our mountain resorts. The only thing that I have observed is that warmer spring conditions seem to have come earlier in recent years and that the snow melts at an impressive rate of speed during the months of May and June. This said, our Utah skiing remains great and I hope this condition continues at least for another two or three decades!

Spring micro-climate

Where our home is located, severe winter weather really last from November through February; while March and April are often the wettest months of the whole year and snow and sleet can linger through a good part of May. Starting in March, substantial snowfalls tend to be concentrated on the highest elevations and at 6,750 feet where we live, the snow that falls around our house doesn’t fall in substantial quantities and doesn’t last nearly as long. That is good news as far as snow removal is concerned. Roads as well as driveway are also no longer icy as they now store the spring heat and new snow has a much harder time sticking to them. What is striking though is that in March and April, clouds mostly stick to the largest mountains formations and even though we are only 2 or 3 miles away from Jupiter Peak, which at 10,000 feet is the highest point in Park City, that summit and the surrounding ranges are always shrouded in clouds while around our home all remains clear. As an example, yesterday was snowy without any accumulation down in Park City, while there was almost one foot of fresh snow up at Jupiter Peak. A close observation also shows that in early spring, clouds only stay in areas forested by pine trees. Conifers don’t grow naturally where our home is located, this is already “high-desert” with grass and sagebrush and that also says a lot about the kind of precipitations we receive the rest of the year...

Snow removal express

Some people are lazy, some are careless and some are selfish. I have a neighbor that is “all of the above”. I'm a mountain guy and I use mountain common sense, okay.

My neighbor is clueless. He clears his driveway by simply pushing the snow into the street, leaving a big heap of snow right in the middle of the road and goes back satisfied inside his home.

He doesn't care that the city has already cleared the road, that cars will have to plow through the mound of snow and pedestrians might sleep and fall on snow that will stay there for a while and sue him for that.

I guess, when you're dumb, you're dumb; sad but true.

The perfect snow car...

As shopping season has officially begun in America, I've been torn between my upcoming Christmas present wishes. On one hand, I'd love to have a brand-new sports car to address a late, mid-life crisis, and on the other, my old snow blower needs to be replaced.

I've since communicated my desires to my spouse, who always very pragmatic and regimented, just said: “You just can have one, but not both”, knowing full-well that I would have to settle on the more mundane, snow-removal tool.

That's when Luigi Tuttofari came into the picture. You see, this man knows his way around Italian-made sports car (he's worked on Fiats all of his life) and he volunteered to modify the rig I had in mind, so it could meet both of my want and need.

He's managed to fit a snow-blower in the front of that little Lamborghini Huracán, that not only will help me clear the snow around the house, but also address the car's low ground clearance if I get stuck and will add some power to the front wheels when roads are slick.

You may object to the size and look of the discharge chute, but I personally think it adds to the character of the automobile and besides, I'm the only one using it!

Then, the city blows it…

In Park City, when the winter is as severe as this year, snow removal is a two-stage process. First, our municipal crew pushes the snow with a regular snowplow, enough to clear the road and allow cars to move around. This initial phase leaves us with streets that are not as wide as they normally are, but folks seem to make do with it. The number one priority in town is always the historic district - the Old Town if you prefer - where streets are much narrower, activity is intense and traffic significantly higher. There, the city resorts to loaders and dump trucks to get all the snow out of the way after snowplows and locals have pushed and cleared everything they could. When that job is done, the city starts taking care of its residential neighborhoods and come with a heavy-duty snow-blower to restore the streets close to their original width and give more elbow room to the many of us that still can’t live with their humongous, gas-thirsty SUV. Yesterday, a city crew came to our street with their four-wheel contraption and appeared to have the time of their lives, cutting sleek and square vertical banks on either sides of the street. In my next life, I really want to run of these neat machines!

Lots of early snow...

This early winter season is probably one of the best I've seen in many years, with more snow to come, already waiting into the “California Pipeline”.

Skiing has been great and now that the crowds are thinning out, there will be more “pow” left just for the locals.

In the past few days, I've refocused my winter skills into snow removal as my left knee has not appreciated my taking it into places a guy my age would be wise to ignore, but my excuse was a good one; I had to do it, I was skiing with my daughter!

For now, I plan to be patient, let that inflamed MCL (just my opinion, I haven't seen a doc yet) calm down and, Ullr willing, I'll be back on my skis in no time!

Potholes galore!

Our winter has been marked with lots of snow and now that the white stuff is receding, we’re invaded with a myriad of… potholes. 

These wonderful, hollow creations that we see on roadways and parking lots are created when the top layer of pavement and the material beneath bend under the weight of vehicular traffic, due to the amount of traffic and the presence of water below.

Snowmelt or rain seeps through cracks in the pavement and into the substrate. Short of draining away quickly, the ground underneath becomes saturated and soft. That trapped moisture is subjected to repeated freeze/thaw cycles and with each occurrence, the expanding ice lifts and cracks the pavement more. The passing traffic weakens the pavement, cracking it further. 

This is also exacerbated by multiple passages of heavy and abrasive snow-removal trucks and abundant sprays of salt (remember that here in Utah, we have a Great Salt Lake nearby, with plenty of cheap supply!). As the process repeats itself from November through April and temperatures keep on fluctuating, the ice freezes and melts continuously, a void is left under the pavement. 

This void collects more water and after enough of that treatment it has no other way but growing larger and deeper. This whole winter has been a constant battle between my car and an army of potholes. I’m now looking for a cease-fire!

The age of reason?

Since January 3, I've not been on skis and I don't plan to return until this coming Monday. Together, I will have stopped skiing for two full weeks and have amazed myself at my patience in not itching too badly to return on my skis.

I couldn't have done this when I was 18 years of age, let alone just two or three winters ago. The temptation was immense though and was measured in feet of new snow everyday.

Instead, I have gradually eased into snow removal, stationary bike and walking with my wife around the neighborhood. I still can't believe I was able to do this! I must have finally reached what wise people call the age of reason!

The trees that fell in my yard…

On October 12, we experienced the first snowfall of the season while most of the leaves were still hanging on to the trees. 

Leaves and snow never go well together and, as a result, they were a huge number of broken trees and limbs all over town. Our yard didn’t escape the incident as two aspen trees were laying there as I woke up that morning…

I alerted my neighbor and sent a picture to my son as he’s is a “specialist” on fallen trees (he had two massive trees torn off his property during a hurricane-like windstorm in September 2020 in Salt Lake City. 

Knowing the “rules” so to speak, he reminded me that if my neighbor’s tree fell on my property, it was my responsibility to handle the tree removal service, not the neighbor’s. 

Conversely, if my tree had fallen on my neighbor’s property, it would become their responsibility to take care of its removal. Poor tree maintenance or other careless manners of handling a tree would of course not qualify. 

Sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s the law, at least in Utah, but also in my native France! Because of that, it’s not uncommon for neighbors to disagree with each other over the tree falling on their property due to a storm. 

In my case, my neighbor was great, he said “Don’t worry, me and my son will take care of that!” I offer to help, but after I return from my morning stroll with my wife, the trees were no longer there! 

A good bottle of wine and some chocolate compensated him for his good deed!

Picking up... dog poop

During winter months, our aspen trees are totally bare and we can easily see through the neighbors' properties; two days ago, my glance was stopped when I saw two men armed with buckets gathering up something in an older lady’s property that’s just across from our kitchen. No, they weren’t picking up mushrooms; there still was too much snow on the ground. Then I saw one of her dogs running around by these two guys and was reminded that she has three of them and one is a mean looking pit-bull. That’s when I made the connection with the bucket carriers and realized that these courageous souls were doing what most of us don’t like to do, picking after fido. What’s remarkable is not the removal process, but that some enterprising soul has created a business out of… dog crap! The company, aptly named “Dr Scoopy Poo,” offers an attractive pricing based on the number of dogs that are roaming free in a yard and the needed frequency. Weekly service for two pooches will set you back $17 which to me sounds pretty good. If you own a herd of say four canines that poop more frequently, you may opt for the twice-a-week service that is advantageously priced at $22 per session. Only in America!