Dude one of the best memory accounts ever, just awesome . I would have loved to have seen that 166 depth, sweet
The big storm started after a reprieve of 4 days without snow. The morning of February 24th and through most of the day snow fell but mostly as light flurries with only a trace of new snow recorded. This flurry activity turned into serious snow as we went into the 25th. There was 8 feet of snow cover at that time and there was no place to put anymore. The lack of storage space made no difference to mother nature who, clearly, felt we needed more. The snow kept right on falling and when the day ended, we had recorded another 21 inches. This put our depth up to 113 inches on the ground. We plowed in shifts with our pick-up truck and front-end loader. The crew shoveled, had coffee, shoveled, had lunch, shoveled, had a beer, shoveled and shoveled and shoveled and the beer supply was getting dangerously low. It was hard to keep ahead and we weren’t making much headway if in fact we were making any headway at all. Then came the next day, the 26th, it again snowed all day and another 24.5 inches of snow piled up to give us a snow depth of 138 inches. We were working around the clock and were clearly losing ground. What was a small parking lot with just enough space for the guests was no parking lot at all. The state highway department worked three plows non-stop. Their crews were working 6 hours and napping two. They too were losing the battle. I finally threw in the towel at midnight to catch a few hours rest. I backed the plow truck up into the driveway of the manager’s residence facing downhill so as to get a running start when I again started plowing. The rear of that building was kept plowed out as it provided access to the fire hydrant. During those hours a lot more snow fell. On the 27th the snow increased to extra heavy in the morning and then continued as light snow with a total 27 inches recorded. That brought the depth on the ground to 164 inches. I got up at 4:00 am and started up the plow. It was back and forth a few times and then gave it all it had and it went for 30 feet. The truck was stuck and useless. I wallowed down through the waist deep snow to the path between the Administration Building and the old Trading Post. There was a wide wallow in the path that indicated that Melvin, the cook, was up and at least was headed in the right direction. I followed the wallow to the kitchen, had some coffee, chatted with the Melvin for a few minutes and set about getting the crew up to start the shovel brigade so the guests could get over for breakfast. It was no easy job as we could hardly throw the snow high enough to get it out of the way. Work they did and a path was cleared. It was apparent that breakfast was all the guests would be able to do. The main highway was closed in one direction and marginal in the other direction. It took 4 hours with the loader to make a slot to where the truck was stuck. The next day, the 28th, we were spared as very little snow fell. My wife, Mary, checked out the area around the camp on her cross-country skis. She was able to observe my oldest son taking his afternoon nap by peering in through the window of his second floor bedroom. The final fall of 4.5 inches was recorded on that day. Lodge guests were out trying to identify which hump in the snow represented their automobile. There is always a difference in time as the recorded record is taken at about 7:00 am each day. The record shows that the storm actually started on the 24th at about 6:00 am. And continued, non-stop, until the 27th at 2:00 pm. During that period, a record, 76 inches of snow fell.