The snow/ice following the unusual storm that hit here on two weeks ago (January 25) continues to create challenges for owners, contractors, guests, and emergency service providers at Wintergreen.
“Many homes remain snowed in,” Wintergreen Property Owners Association’s Jay Roberts reported on Friday. “Often, it is where owners have not visited recently and have not contracted for cleanup. Because of the freezing rain layer, the surface can be dangerous to walk on and almost impossible to shovel.”
“Instead of shoveling, the white ground cover often had to be cut into blocks and tossed away.”
Instead of shoveling, the white ground cover often had to be cut into blocks and tossed away. Long driveways that usually were plowed clear of snow with a truck with a snow blade took almost an hour’s work instead of five or ten minutes.
Because homeowners who typically either waited a few days for a thaw or shoveled it off their driveways and walkways themselves could not move the sleet-snow that froze rock-hard in single-digit temperatures, traffic to the list of snowplow services on the Wintergreen Property Owners Association website shot up. The good news is the number of snow moving services on WPOA’s list almost doubled.
“This snow was unpleasant in all aspects other than looking at it out of the window.
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“The snow surface that remains undisturbed is beautiful, but, it is not light and fluffy. Standard plastic snow shovels are not the right tool. Heavy duty steel shovels are a better choice,” WPOA’s newsletter on January 29 warned vacation property owners.
“This snow was unpleasant in all aspects other than looking at it out of the window,” Roberts said on Friday. "The feedback from our property owners was mostly good; most people understand snow plowing is not snow scooping, and the process creates berms on the driveways. Those who addressed snow removal quickly benefited from easier removal. Everyone who waited had a much more difficult job.”
The driving over the plowed snow was problematic as it was hard as rocks.
““I cannot recall a snowstorm ever affecting our operations as long as this one has.””
A week after the snow-sleet hit, Wintergreen Fire & Rescue Chief Curtis Sheets reported that, in the four-day shift rotation, which covered Friday through Monday (January 30 to February 2), Wintergreen Fire and Rescue handled over 50 calls.
“That's pretty busy during normal times, but when you factor in the bulletproof snow, the difficulty went up. I just can't say enough how extraordinary the past few days have been. And yet, every call for service was met,” Sheets said in an email to his volunteers and staff, pointing that:
“We handled as many rope/technical incidents during the rotation as we have handled in entire years.
“Last Monday, Ryan Ferro and Jacob Flannery completed a 5-mile hike to retrieve a stranded hiker in one of the Appalachian Trail shelters. (Those guys are beasts!)
“There was a structure fire on Monday, which was particularly challenging due to a lack of manpower.
“Two of the technical rescue team incidents required more than 10 responders.”
“We continue to run into a call a day where the patient simply can't be safely carried from their home to the ambulance,” Sheets reported on Friday. “We end up placing them on a sled-like device and sliding on the snow with ropes. This way, if they start on the ground, we can't drop them to the ground.”
“I cannot recall a snowstorm ever affecting our operations as long as this one has,” says Sheets.
The good news is the daytime temperatures in the upper 40s and above forecasted for next week should start serious melting, with cold nights to keep the resort’s snowmakers happy.
“On January 31 our Technical Rescue Team was called to a scene where a patient slipped on the ice and slid down a steep embankment before coming to rest in the forest. A bystander attempted to assist, however became a second patient,” says Sheets
-Charles Batchelor and Flo Quick
