Out along the Elk River the county road narrows and the drifts start doing whatever the wind tells them. Ed's Excavating of Steamboat takes on the snow that has grown too big for a pickup and a blade — long ranch drives, deep cross-drifts, banks that creep inward until a lane has become a slot. They plow and push, and when the piles get high they move them off entirely so there is somewhere left to put February. There is real satisfaction in opening a road that closed itself overnight and handing it back wide enough for a hay truck. Steamboat Springs winters reward that kind of muscle, applied early and applied often.