February 22, 2023

We received nearly 30cm of snow around the neighbourhood Monday and Tuesday so I thought I'd talk a bit about how we manage snow removal.

In our part of town, it's common for people to use gas-powered snowblowers on snow days. These are not viable to us for a few reasons: they're expensive, they're very loud, they take up a lot of space, and worse of all they can emit as much CO2e as driving 500km in an hour.

And of course the problem with typical snow shovels (the ones where you plow then lift snow onto piles) is that they’re quite hard on the back when you’re facing large or heavy snowfalls.

What we found works best for us is a tool called the sleigh shovel. These are shovels with large buckets capable of holding massive volumes of snow and are attached to an ergonomic handle. You push the shovel—which has a metal edge—to scrape and scoop up snow from the ground, then you push the snow forward to where you want to dispose of it and simply tip or shake it out. You never once have to lift snow off the ground and while it's still a workout (especially with lots of wet snow) I've never felt the back pain I've had from using typical snow shovels. With it I'm able to clear our driveway, the backyard pathways, some paths through the park behind us and even a neighbour's driveway or two in 1-2 hours.

A large blue plastic shovel leaning on a snow pile on a driveway. There is snow on the metal edge of the shovel. There are lines on the snow pile where the shovel was pushed up atop of it.

The advantages of these sleighs are numerous:

  • Faster. I've timed myself a few times against my other neighbours with their snowblowers (not with their knowledge- but I was trying to keep my typical pace) and when you account for all the time getting the equipment out and ready the shovel easily beats them.
  • Quieter. The snowblowers are extraordinarily loud and the last thing I want to hear when looking out at a beautiful snowfall is an obnoxious engine.
  • Cheaper. A quick look at the local box store puts these shovels at around $55 CAD vs the cheapest gas snowblower at $450 CAD.
  • More fun. Our toddler loves getting rides in the shovel, and our neighbour's son borrows it to build giant mountains of snow.
  • Healthier. We have an elderly neighbour with back problems who also uses one of these sleigh shovels and I suspect he may have an easier time with it than a heavy snowblower which still requires a fair amount of strength to wrangle.

The biggest drawback for me is the size of the thing. Even though I can hang it on a wall (unlike a snowblower) it still takes up a lot of room. And I still need a typical snow shovel for narrower pathways and porches so it's not a complete replacement. In any case I hope to see more people adopting these, and restrictions on high-pollution tools become more popular.