Where’s the Road?

2013-03-21 22:12:14.000 – Mike Carmon,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist

Drifted 5-mile

The second time was the charm for yesterday’s shift change.

Coming up the Auto Road on Wednesday morning, after the summit had received another two feet of snow with the Tuesday/Wednesday Nor’easter, we knew our chances of getting through were not great. After plowing through some major drifts on the 4-mile section, and with visibility rapidly deteriorating, we called it quits and decided to try again on Thursday.

After a bright and early departure at 7AM from the base, we headed up to the 4-mile section with relative ease. However, as we rounded a corner of the Auto Road into a section known as the ‘S-turns’, we noticed something was missing–a road! A massive drift had completely overtaken the road, pretty much as we had expected, which gave our operator Slim plenty of blading to do.

The fun didn’t stop there, as we peered ahead on the 5-mile section, almost this entire stretch of road had been overtaken by snow drifts. The ride was an extremely slow go, back-and-forth for most of the way, as we deliberately made our way through the impressive drifts, shaping and widening the road.

After nearly three-and-a-half hours, we finally managed to make it to the summit at around 10:30 AM.

A day late, no dollars short, and here we are, ready to take on another week on the rockpile!

Mike Carmon,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist