There was some amazing snowfall the last two days, and I woke up this morning to find everything completely blanketed in thick snow. I haven’t seen this much snow in years. Usually there’s about 2 inches of icy snow, but this year nature delivered 6 inches of powder to the area.

Building with snow is a mixed blessing. There’s a desire to build something amazing, but doing so completely destroys the pristine landscape which is always more amazing than whatever you build. But with 6 inches this year, I didn’t have to destroy nearly as much while building because there was sufficient accumulation on the roads.

6 inches? Am I in Canada?

Now this I'd like to see every year.

There was enough snow to build an awesome arch. I intended for it to be 6 feet tall, but the structure was unstable so I had to downsize it. The arch is roughly 89 centimeters tall and 70 centimeters to the base of the keystone. It was constructed from compressed snow blocks formed in plastic container. The weight of the arch caused the legs to fracture twice causing the arch to collapse, but eventually the whole thing balanced out and it was pretty fun.

Building the arch.

Still building the arch.

Shaping the arch with an old kitchen knife.

The completed arch.