Snowy slip and slide

400 N in Bountiful UT
Saturday January 21, 2012

Saturday Lars and I had planned on fixing a part of our fence that had blown over during the big windstorm in December. It was cold and rainy but we had the supplies and it needed to be done. So we set to work and worked until we were soaked and Sam had woken up from his nap at which point we decided to go inside, drink some hot chocolate, and warm up a bit. Once we had done that and Sam was settled, playing happily with Emma and Lilli, we went back outside to find a winter wonderland. We also found cars lining the streets, we have a corner home, and many accidents, both in progress and already happened. Our street had truly become a snowy slip and slide and many people were still trying to navigate it, despite the accidents on the street. Now I must say in their defense, before you come around the corner near our house you can't really see what is going on on the rest of the hill. They probably were quite surprised to see cars lined up along the streets, cars in yards, and people waving and yelling not to go down the hill. Unfortunately at that point it was probably already to late, you put on the brakes and begin your decent against your will. Thankfully people were finally able to get high up enough on the hill and low enough down to stop more traffic from coming up or down the hill. The severity of the situation can be viewed on this youtube video taken by someone 2 streets down from us. It was almost comical at first but then people helping those that had crashed or slid into yards and curbs were nearly run down but out of control cars. 

The snowplow was even having a difficult time making the climb up the hill. We watched wondering how this would play out. Finally after several failed attempts the snowplow began to turn around. Was he abandoning our street as a hopeless cause? And then he began to go up the street backwards, allowing the salt that shoots out the back of the truck to lay down traction up the hill instead of down. Another snowplow arrived on the scene and suddenly they were working together, one going backwards and one facing forward pushing the other along just to lay down that salt and make the road passable even for them. It was quite a scene and I am so sad we didn't get it on video. There were cheers and clapping on the street as the snowplow turned around at the top and finally cleared a path down the hill. Everyone waited, watching, as the snowplows made a couple of passes up and down the hill and finally the road was once again safe to drive on. There was, of course, clean up of the cars that couldn't be driven but everyone waiting was able to safely drive up or down the street. 

And then Lars and I finished the fence and drank more hot chocolate. It was quite a snow day.