I have a friend that tried to start an "Ice Dam Removal Service" by
using the equipment from his carpet cleaning truck. He cleared the ice
dams off of my house and a few others as a "test". The process worked,
but insurance costs and others issues made it an non-viable operation.

He heated up the water in the tank in his truck and put a high pressure
nozzle on a hose. Next, he climbed up on the roof and using the high
pressure hot water, he cut vertical slots in the ice dam at roughly 2
foot intervals. He then under-cut the ice until huge chunks fell off
the roof.

You did not want to be under one of these chunks when they hit the
ground! If you've never seen an ice dam up close and personal, you
might not realize how little of the dam you see from the ground. By the
time the dam fills your gutter, they can extend 3 feet up the roof.
Some of the chunks he dropped were too big for one person to lift.

I'm sure you can see how this enterprise was wrought with potential
problems. Put a guy up on an icy roof, hand him a hose and ask him
spray water all over the place. Everything within 15 feet of the house
was coated with ice, we went through hundreds of gallons of water, and
ended up with a few broken bushes. You don't have much control about
where a chunk lands, so there could be damage to property.

But you know what? It was worth it - the dams had started to cause
water to run down inside the walls of my house and drip out of the trim
around the windows. One section of wall is an exterior wall on the
second floor only and melting water from the ice dam was running down
the inside of this wall and dripping in the doorways on the first floor
and basement. I had buckets everywhere and tarps hung in the doorways
to direct the water to the buckets. Once he cleared the dams (~5 hours
of work) the dripping stopped immediately.

The process worked, and while it probably saved my house from some
serious water damage, it was very labor intensive and fairly dangerous.
The problem was that he didn't think he could have charged enough per
job to make enough to live on considering it good take an entire day to
clear a major dam like I had on my house.

Reed wrote:
With the Denver area undergoing an unusually long cold spell, ice has
built up fairly solid in the gutters, and on lower shingles, on the
north side of house. The south side does get just enough sun to have
melted OK. In 20 years in this house, this has not happened before.

Is there a best way to remove this ice before any damage is done,
particularly if it ever warms up again around here ??

The gutter and eaves are first floor, easily reachable with ladder on
ground.

--reed