Leeway from Lloyd: Hang on to your snow shovels

STAFF WRITER GEOFF LEE

I think some of those Groundhog Day rodents saw their own shovels as well as their shadows to extend winter beyond their usual six-more-weeks prediction.

We’ve had a lot of snow this winter and we all know there is always that final unwanted dump in April just when we think it’s over.

I’ve lived in a lot of snowy places in Canada, but nothing beats the huge dumps that often fell in the coastal city of Kitimat B.C. where I spent one winter.

Sometimes six or more feet would dump in a single serving of participation thanks to weather fronts from the Pacific Ocean. Usually, it would all melt in a few days leaving behind a slushy mess.

I also lived in Sault Ste. Marie and I recall one winter there was so much snow, every road in the city was reduced to one lane. Snow there never melts until the spring.

I think that crazy memorable winter was also the year the City of Toronto called on the army to clear the roads to the amusement of many Canadians who are used to being buried up to their eyeballs.

It was, however, one of the best years for skiing in the Sault, so it wasn’t all bad.

In 1998-99, the year I enrolled in a ski operations and management course in Nelson, B.C., the local ski resort got more than 45 feet of fluffy powder to frolic in, although there were also a ton of avalanches in the region that year as a result.

The bad side of living on the Prairies is a whiteout, even when there isn’t a lot of snow on the ground. Driving during a whiteout, especially in the daytime when you can’t follow anybody’s tail lights, is a white knuckle experience best to avoid by staying home.

Unfortunately, this winter we also have a lot of snow and wind. The solution is to bag the drifts and export them to droughtstricken parts of the U.S.

We are not allowed to sell our water, but snow isn’t water until it melts. See me next month on Shark Tank when I pitch my company, Snow Job!

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