"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 15 Feb 2017 13:33:41 -0500, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:


The consistency of the snowbank the road plows leave across the
driveway is somewhere between gravel and hard-frozen ice cream,
shading to wet concrete mix if it partly melts on a sunny day. Guess
what that turns into at night.

Something just ripe for a pick mattock? Thot so.

Sure, if you have the finesse to stop short of the pavement
underneath, or planned to repave it in the spring.

I've tried my winter climbing gear on a frozen snowbank.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_axe
It would have been the right tool to carve stair steps up and over the
bank but was nowhere near enough to hack out a vehicle-sized opening.

It's sharper than a mattock since it doesn't strike rocks (much). It
can't be too sharp because the self-arrest technique if you slip is to
hastily grab the wide blade (3) and force the long blade (1) down into
the snow.
-jsw