"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 15 Feb 2017 23:35:54 -0500, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

"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.

One could use the reverse croquet stance, sir, as if hitting the
ball
back between one's legs, wot? Or how about the side strike,
splitting
the mound vertically so you could roll boulders of it to the side?


I've tried my winter climbing gear on a frozen snowbank.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_axe

Ah. I see. You -were- nuts, climbing up icicles. Eek!


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.

I hadn't even considered something that light and small to attack a
couple-foot thick mound of solid ice. Aren't they used for clearing
ice from crevices to insert expanders or set pitons?


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.

Sounds like great fun...for you. Enjoy. I very much prefer
snowless
areas.

Actually the ice and snow open up areas that are inacessible the rest
of the year. Lakes and streams become highways instead of
obstructions.