EL PASO COUNTY — The pounding snow stopped in Southern Colorado, but the work continues, especially up along the Palmer Divide. Residents of towns like Palmer Lake and Monument who hunkered down during the storm, now face the big job of digging away the deep snow outside of their homes."Heavy, wet, hard to push sometimes," said Palmer Lake resident, Terry Tolbert. He had the advantage of using a Bobcat skid loader to move snow. Just up the road Sam Fashant only had shovel. "The first layer of snow had rain below it and it looks like it had time to melt and then the second snowfall that fell on top of it created almost a layer of ice below it.”
The snow is also deep. "It was blowing around in every which direction and we have everywhere from zero inches to about six feet and everything in between, said Monument resident, Rosemary Bogart, “I don't know how they figure out how much fell." Snowfall is in the 18 to 24 inch range. Then there are the drifts. “Three and a half to four feet high because of the wind,” said Fashant.
Clearing walks and drives is a lot of work, yet few complain about the snow. “The good snow is when they’re wet,” said Thomas Tolbert of Palmer Lake, “We need all the moisture we can get.” Then there is the mountain backdrop covered in white, revealed after the wind stopped and storm clouds lifted. “The beauty of it makes up for it,” said Fashant. He enjoys the view while taking a breather from shoveling.
