Lincoln Avenue is awake before the shops are. Duckels Construction Inc runs its snow work on that schedule — commercial lots and approaches cleared and stacked while downtown Steamboat Springs is still a row of dark windows and one lit bakery, so that when the doors unlock nobody has to wedge a car in sideways. Big storms here do not ask permission; they come in feet, and they come at night. The crews plow, set the piles where they will not blind a driver backing out, haul the excess away when there is no room left, and keep entries clear of ice through the day. It is plain work, and it is the reason a Tuesday in January downtown looks completely ordinary.