Shoveling a Huge Snow Drift 03-15-10

This is a time-lapse of almost 1 hour of footage shot while 5 members of our summit crew shoveled a 7-8 foot snow drift from in front of the main entrance to the building we are housed in. This drift was formed in one day by over 17 inches of snow that fell on moderate to strong east winds.

Mount Washington Observatory is a nonprofit, membership-supported research and educational institution with a mission to advance understanding of the natural systems that create Earth's weather and climate. Since 1932, the Observatory has been observing Mount Washington's incredible extremes, conducting scientific research, educating the public about the science of weather and climate and amassing one of North America's longest and most unique climate records. For weather reports, webcams, photos and more, visit MountWashington.org.

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[WeeDan3]

victoire? you mean victory?

[MWOObserver]

@WeeDan3

Victoire is French for victory. It's also the name of a really good soccer movie from the 80's starring Sylvester Stallone and Michael Cane :-)

[MEGSIMONEVIDEO]

What is amazing is that during the time lapse you guys never shed a layer! It was that cold egh? Even shoveling that much! Totally nuts!

[MWOObserver]

It actually wasn't all that cold...relatively speaking of course. Some of us in the video aren't actually wearing that much to begin with. We learned a long time ago not to wear a lot of layers when shoveling, even if it is really cold out!

[phazerrazer]

here in newfoundland on sunday we got 3 feet of snow

[696969Brian696969]

Were getting it tomorrow and Wednesday 4-8 foot drifts are expected!

[WeeDan3]

@MWOObserver haha ok cool

[MWOObserver]

I will have to take your word for it since I've never used that snowblower, or any snowblower for that matter. However, I would be extremely surprised if it could eat through the density of snow that we sometimes see, with any sort of speed.

Unless you own a snow tractor, you won't be making it to the summit when we're seeing this amount of drifting!

[assmunch1]

@MWOObserver Hondas have a downpressure setting so the auger angles into the ground for scraping... if you can shovel it, it can gouge into it...

I live close enough to the mountain to drive my snowblower up there on a couple of tanks of gas... let me know when you get drifted in again, I'll be up to give it a shot... ;-)

[MWOObserver]

@assmunch1 It all comes down to the density of the snow. Because of the wind, the snow packs in very tightly, making it difficult to nearly impossible for a snowblower to handle. Chances are that unless you have been on Mount Washington in the winter, you have never seen snow as dense as this.