Tales of Ice and Snow

Toronto woke up to another 5 centimetres of white, fluffy snow on Tuesday morning, bringing the total snowfall for this winter to around 90 centimetres. This is a lot more than last year, which got me thinking about the logistics of it all...

The city spends a whopping $85.7 million on snow ploughing, road salting and sidewalk clearing each winter. It takes a massive team effort by some 600 snowploughs, 300 sidewalk ploughs, 200 salt trucks and a crew of over 1000 people to keep the streets and sidewalks safe for motorists and pedestrians.

The salt statistics alone are mind-boggling, with over 130,000 tonnes of the stuff spread over the roads every year, costing the city a cool $10 million. Unsurprisingly, a 5-year study conducted by Environment Canada has found road salting to have a negative impact on local plants, animals and marine life. One very visible example of this is that pet dogs are often dressed in little balloon shoes to stop the salt irritating their paws on winter walkies.

So what happens to all the snow that gets ploughed? Sadly, it doesn't stay fluffy and white for very long. Usually within a day or so, the remaining snow on the roads and sidewalks turns to brown slush which flicks up onto the backs of your legs as you walk, leaving salt stains on your pants. If the temperature drops rapidly after the snowfall, the slush will start to re-freeze, creating treacherous icy paths for you to slip over on.

Clean, fluffy white snow

Sad, dirty brown snow

Snow ploughs

Ice salt

XC

We decided to try something new last weekend and went cross-country skiing at nearby Albion Hills. It was a beautiful day for it, not too cold and with plenty of fresh snow on the ground.

I was surprised at how aerobic this sport could be, it didn't take long at all to get our heart rates up! The movement was a little strange, sort of like running on polished floorboards in socks. The skis are much longer and narrower than downhill skis, with tips that curve upwards. The ski poles are also a lot longer, and the boots clip into the skis at the toe only, so it was quite a different feel to downhill skiing.

I'm glad we were able to give cross-country skiing a try. When the Sochi Winter Olympics start I'll have a new found appreciation for the incredible endurance of athletes who can race distances of up to 30km (women) or 50km (men)! We only managed 2.5km at a very leisurely pace before it was time to go inside for a hot drink in the chalet.