When an upslope storm swings in from the northeast and piles itself against the Front Range, Lakewood gets the deep end of it — wet, heavy and stacked. Colorado Snowcat goes to work in exactly that weather, out toward the grades near Rooney Road where the wind loads drifts clear across the pavement. Plowing drives and lots, cutting through the berm at the street, widening the shoulders so the next storm has somewhere to go. Deep snow needs a machine that keeps its footing on a slope, and the job is not finished until a vehicle can genuinely get out. There is a plain joy in beating a storm everyone else is waiting out.