Barbara Lawlor, Peak to Peak. It was as if the weather gods had dispersed Portland cement into the moisture clouds that slogged over the mountains Thursday morning and spewed sheets of snow that solidified into concrete as they landed on our roads, buildings, and trees, and buried our cars.

When Friday’s onslaught came down even harder, an accumulation averaging three feet convinced many businesses to shut down for the day and events to be postponed. The Nederland Community Library, the Nederland Community Center, the Backdoor Theater movie, the Carousel of Happiness, the Nederland Middle/Senior High School production of CATS, the girls’ soccer games, The Nederland Town Hall and The Teen Center decided to call it a snow day. Gilpin County was closed.

Unfortunately for local students, Friday was already a no school day.

As people who were able to get out exchanged digging out experiences, most of them just said, “We needed the moisture.”

According to Craig Skeie, Water Resources Facility Manager for the City of Boulder, the 85 percent of average snowpack of last week reached average by the end of the weekend.

“Our snowpack average falls on May 1 so we have about a week to go and snow is predicted for the weekend,” he said. Usually there is 19 inches of snow water equivalent by then and right now there is 18 inches. But even had it not snowed, we would have filled our reservoirs.

If a city has planned well, it takes more dry to make a drought. But it was a great storm, weather wise.”

As Nederland Public Works employees watched the weather forecasts coming in, they knew they were in for a couple of 12-hour days.

NPW interim manager Chris Pelletier said he had the 3 a.m. watch this month, but by the time the snow was accumulating, the team already had an action plan. By 4 a.m., the first shift was on the road. “We have to anticipate the time it will take for us to get out and show up in time,” said Pelletier. We would rather be safe than sorry and give ourselves plenty of time to get to town.”

Most mountain residents knew they were going to be hit hard, many of them remembering the 2003 blizzard warnings of up to four feet which turned into a seven-foot record.

When the public works team hits the roads their priority is creating one-lane openings to ensure that emergency vehicles can get in and out. They clear the School Road, to make sure the bus drivers get the kids to school safely.

By the time Nederland town residents are waking up and considering not going to work, the plows are already hitting Big Springs, Sunnyside, Old Town, and downtown. The first sweep usually means just getting the road open, pushing the snow aside. Later, as soon as they can they move the snow to another location.

Clearing the roads for resident travel takes planning and meetings. The steep hills are always plowed from the top to the bottom. Each section is plowed up to five times during the day to keep up with snowfall.

Pelletier said that by noon on Saturday, the snow had been moved off the roads and the warm temperatures had melted the plowed area down to pavement. Four employees had managed to complete the process smoothly and efficiently, even with one person gone and a piece of equipment down.

There are always people who will be unhappy about being delayed or stuck behind a berm, who will complain that their driveways were plowed in. Pelletier said the crew tries its best not to do that, but the priority is to get the roads open. “We will ultimately go back and clean up the berms, but all that matters in a storm is a getting the snow off the road, doing our job.”

Pelletier has been the NPW manager for three weeks, taken over for Jason Morrison, but he has lived in the area and plowed snow for 20 years. “I am no stranger to big snowstorms,” he said.

In her first year of working for the town, Monica LaSalle utilizes her expertise with machinery. She also has to figure out the night before where her son Asher will be as she begins a 4 a.m. plow shift. At 3 a.m., if there is two inches of snow on the ground and it is still snowing, she knows she will be in a plow at 4 a.m.

She was on the 7 a.m. shift last Thursday, chained up her 1986 Mack plow/sander truck, fueled up at the Boulder County yard and headed to the School Road. The public works employees are the first responders to a weather event, the ones who clear the way for the rest of the town agencies, the emergency departments and the school bus drivers. They are the front line of the battle against being stuck or isolated from help and food and power if it goes out and public service trucks can’t get in.

LaSalle said that sometimes it is scary; that she drives along steep road banks and switchbacks; that the Mack can be a rough ride and can do a lot of damage if things go wrong. When the plow lands on the ground, the truck shakes, a body-jarring experience, something all the drivers deal with. The job requires constant surveillance of road conditions, traffic, and things hidden under the drifts.

At 4:45 a.m. Friday there was already 18 inches on the ground and there was a plan in place. Everyone was out plowing and by 9 a.m. the main roads were cleared but the secondary road still needed to have snow moved to make room for more.

Friday’s lucky break was that school was out and more attention could be paid to the residential roads, so she could hit School Road once and move on to other places. But it was still a slow process because many people, unable to get into their driveways, had left the cars in the road, sometimes blocking the plow.

“We had to call to get at least one car removed. We couldn’t get by, it was stuck in the middle of the road and traffic was at a standstill. Backing up the steep, winding hill was dangerous, so we had to wait, which cuts into the time to get other roads clear,” said LaSalle.

The crew began cleanup at 6 a.m. on Saturday, needing to get the Nederland Community Center open and go over the roads again.

LaSalle said she was happy the community honored the situation by closing businesses and facilities, allowing people to stay home and give the plows a chance to get the job done.

“When people are stressed out and impatient it makes it more difficult,” she says.”We are all part of the same team; the whole mountain region has to work together to make sure everyone is safe.”

Nederland Police Department police chief Paul Carrill said all officers in all shifts dealt with stranded motorists and slideoffs during the storm and many people who left their cars and pickup trucks in the road were ticketed. “It is their responsibility to get vehicles off the roadway so public works can through. It is a matter of health and safety,” said Carrill.

He also said that contract plowers are issued tickets for pushing into the town’s right of way or from one person’s driveway to another person’s driveway without permission. “Just play fair, follow the rules and do the right thing,” said Carrill. “Most of the plowers are hardworking business people doing it right.”

Aside from closures and accidents and being snowed in, mountain residents were seen walking dogs, riding fat tire bicycles, pulling children in sleds, and, of course, shoveling.

That’s what mountain spring is all about.