# Michigan's Upper Peninsula



## Chiputz (Dec 28, 2010)

If anyone is interested, our total snowfall to date is 141.5". We have been getting on the average of 6-10 inches every other day. A couple weekends ago we ended up with 18 inches overnight. Gotta love that Lake Effect snow!


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## sk187 (Dec 7, 2006)

I am always amazed how much snow you guys get up there.

Is there ever a winter your not busy full time.


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## Chiputz (Dec 28, 2010)

Some friends keep asking me to start snowmobiling and I keep telling them," I spend enough time pushing it out of the way, I don't want to go play in it" LOL 
The latest numbers for Calumet are 190" and more on the way... I keep thinking about getting some equipment and starting to do commercial plowing in the winter. My old Chevy with a chain lift works great for the 3 drives I do( mine, my in laws up the street and an elderly friend of my mother in laws nearby) The problem up here with snow is you always end up hiring a rubber tire loader to push the banks back.


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## Landgreen (Sep 8, 2007)

I was always curious how treacherous Houghton/Hancock is in the winter? There are some really steep roads leading to Portage Lake. How does the city handle that?


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## Chiputz (Dec 28, 2010)

The city crews actually have some pretty unique ways of doing things. The sander trucks back up the steep streets to clear them. They use some small use specific equipment on the real tight areas. They use some kind of small 4WD vehicle with a blower on it on most of the sidewalks. Graders are one of the main pieces of removal equipment along with 9 foot wide truck mounted blowers and rubber tire loader mounted blowers. They push everything to the middle of the street in a windrow and then blow it into dump trucks. All in all you just have to do what you have to do to get by. They actually close some of the streets in the winter.

Houghton and Hancock are the only two cities I know of that you can break your neck falling out of a basement window!! 

When MDOT took over the highways from the county they sure don't do near as good of a job. Fatalaties were few and far between when the county took care of the roads, now the state crews just keep dumping rock salt prewetted with liquid chloride on top of the snow on the roads. Every winter there are at least 6 accidents with someone being killed in the 10 miles between Calumet and Hancock on US41. I don't know if they are afraid to wear out a cutting edge or what, but they leave 4 to 6 inches of slush on the roads all the time. Houghton and Hancock is very treacherous most of the time. They city crews do what they can, but at times it's just too much. After a major event, it usually takes a couple days to get everything cleared 100%.


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