So, having almost recovered from the fun of the great "Holiday Blizzard of 06", as the news reports around here started calling it, we were hit with another big storm almost a week later. In the case of Woodland Park, that meant more snow than the first time around (about 2 feet) and more headaches. The storm rolled in on the Thursday night before New Years, and shut everything down on Friday. By late on Friday, the storm had passed and the road crews seemed to be getting on top of things. The fact is, though, that there's only so many places that you can push all the snow we'd had. There was a huge pile of snow at the bottom of our drive, which appeared to be almost as tall as I am (not that that's difficult), and the roads in the neighbourhood looked more like alleys. So, why is he talking about the roads? I'll get to that.
Given the road conditions (icy and snow packed - can you imagine that!), I "stole" Nikki's Lincoln Aviator, instead of taking my Audi. Not that the Audi is bad in the snow, but the Aviator has higher ground clearance. I thought that would make it easier to get to and from the ski area.
The day itself was a little disappointing. Monarch was reporting about 14 inches of new snow in 48 hours, and I was looking forward to playing in the powder. Unfortunately, there was also a lot of wind, blowing from the lodge, right up the mountain. In fact, it was blowing so hard that they closed one of the lifts (the Garfield) for a good part of the day. Given that the ski area was busy with holiday skiers, that created something of problem with uphill capacity. On top of that, the wind blew all the new snow off the mountain. All in all, it wasn't the best day that I've had on snow.
Anyway, I skied until the almost end of the day, but I wasn't happy. I still don't have complete control of my skis and my weight distribution doesn't feel right. I'll work out what is wrong, but I don't have it yet.
The funniest part of the day, at least if you're not me, was what happened when I got back. For some reason, I felt the need to make some Black Russians (Kahlua and Vodka with a little Coke/Pepsi added in for flavour), so I stopped and picked up some vodka. I will admit to being tired, but that's not really an excuse for what happened next.
As I said, the roads and the driveways were very narrow and snow packed. As I came up the road, I realised that I had to make a late turn into the drive. As I started to turn, I noticed that the snow plows had been around again and deposited a nice little snow bank across the bottom of the drive. It didn't even occur to me that I would high centre the truck on the compressed snow, but that's what I did.
Our drive runs up hill, and there's a slight slope from right to left as well. I got the truck high centred, and the wheels were just spinning. I was annoyed, mainly with myself. I have to admit to placing a rather terse phone call to Nikki, asking whether she could bring shovels down so that I could dig out the truck. At that point, the back end was stuck out in the road, and I'd managed to slide so that the driver's door was right against the huge snow bank. I had to climb out the passenger door. Grumble, grumble, grumble.
Just as I got out, one of the neighbours (Lee) showed up. I'm sure that he was laughing inside, but he did a good job of keeping it to himself. Instead, he helped me dig out enough that I could back out of the drive. Nikki and I completed the clear out of the snow, and I tried to get up the drive again.
Unfortunately, the drive was a great combination of ice covered with hard packed snow. In addition, there was no way for me to get enough momentum, given the tight turn that I had to make into the drive. The result was that I managed to get the truck onto the drive, but that was about it. We abandoned the vehicle there, and completed the job the next day.
All in all, not the best way to end not the best day.
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