The Snowdrift Incident

Yesterday the weather turned rather warm, it actually got above freezing for the first time since last October, wow an early Spring! The sun was shining and all was well. It was a little slow in the office so I decided to go out into the tundra and pay a visit to my field engineers; boost moral and all that.

So off I went.

As I was driving out I noticed that the temperature was falling again and clouds coming in, what a pain , the day was so nice. But onward I went.

Then the wind started to get a bit frisky and snow started to blow across the road as it does frequently here, nothing new. However I did notice that the wind was getting stronger and stronger and the snow was really starting to pick up and blow about. But onward I went.

I got onto the tundra ice road and then the snow started and the wind really howled and visibility dropped to about 10 yards. But onward I went.

Driving started to get a bit interesting and then it happened....I hit a snowdrift and got firmly stuck!! The front end of the vehicle was well and truly planted. I shifted down to Low FWD and tried to reverse out, no such luck, it wouldn't budge.

I got out of the car and stepped up to my knees in snow; do you know how hard it is to walk about in knee high snow....not easy! I waded to the back of the car and got out the emergency kit and pulled out the shovel. The wind was really blowing and the snow was flying by, and the temperature was obviously dropping. The shovel was a joke, it was a collapsible one about the size of a large serving spoon!! But I had to do something to get free so I started digging.

After about five minutes of digging it was obvious I was loosing the battle, as fast as I dug the snow away the wind blew in more. After 15 minutes I was totally exhausted and beat a hasty retreat to the warmth of the car to await a passing truck to pull me out. Of course my cell phone didn't work, the usual no coverage anywhere more than a mile from town!! So I waited, and waited, and slowly the car was being covered with blown snow.

And then the rescuer appeared through the blizzard.....A pooh truck!! He had been out to the rig to suck the toilets out, and here he was to pull me free!!!! What a star! Through various hand gestures I got him to figure out what I wanted to do and he latched onto my car a pulled it out of the snowdrift. Yeh!! I then turned round and followed him out to the main road and went back to my safe office and dried out.

Today I learned some very important lessons

1. Never, ever , ever underestimate the weather here
2. The speed at which energy is sucked from the body in cold blizzard conditions
3. Rescuers come in all shapes ....and smells!!!