Many Summit County homes have nearby fire hydrants that have been buried under piles of snow.  Our recent plentiful snows have been a boon for skiers but make street and home maintenance difficult.   The Lake Dillon Fire Department is asking that if you have a fire hydrant near your home, you "adopt" it, and dig it out!   

Clearing around the fire hydrant will save precious time if it is needed in an emergency.  It is tough enough to fight a fire in freezing conditions, but shoveling around it to find it first makes it that much more difficult.  Notice in the photo the little marker on a metal pole that sticks up above the snow.  We routinely have those on all our fire hydrants, plus our road markers are always double the height that you might find elsewhere.  It helps when the heavy equipment is moving the snow to know where they are.  

The second photo was taken on Granite Street in Frisco.  When we have a lot of snow, it isn't good enough to just move it to the edges of the street. To keep the street at two lanes wide, it has to be piled high.  The town then has to come in with highloaders and trucks and move it elsewhere.  By the end of the season (if it has been a snowy one) the snow storage lots get pretty full!   When I see it snow as much as it has been lately, I wonder how the early settlers in Frisco, Breckenridge and the surrounding mountains managed with just mules and shovels.  It must have been a tough life!