Manual snow removal using permaculture design patterning (crenellation) to reduce labor

If you are dealing with unprecedented snow loads that are only getting heavier with cold rain, like many in the California mountains right now, you probably have more snow to move than you can get to without destroying your back. At least thats where I am at.

So, I tried applying permaculture patterning to help reduce my work by letting water do it for me. One of my main concerns was 3ft+ of snow on the least sturdily built part of my property, the carport. The problem was compounded by a shallower roof pitch that runs into an uphill slope that had snow up to and above the roofline. So once I moved enough of that to allow runoff of roof snow and meltwater, and got what was easily knocked off the roof, I decided to carve as deep of crenelations as I could into the snow up higher. I reached as far as I could to carve v-shaped watersheds every 4-6ft, with as much surface area as I could create with minimal work. This increased the surface area for runoff significantly. I then (after pictures below) also used the shovel to cut downward shaped crescents into the upper part blocks of snow between the crenelations/v-cuts. This allows rain to carve off those blocks for slide off before saturation. As of now, 48hrs after i started the work (about 2-3hrs), it is 95% melted off and no longer a concern of collapse.

One reason I needed to minimize my time and effort on that roof is because the uphill facing wall of that carport is also a concern with snow up against it and tons of it above on the hill, all melting now. So as I carved out drainages from the gravel floor of the carport out into the driveway and downhill, I strategically placed these for pathways and to use that crenellation surface area increase to improve the melting and pathway carving power of the roof and hillside snowmelt runoff. This also is helping get water away from the house.

However this all runs towards our pond, so another project I had yesterday was digging 4ft of snow out away from both sides of the pond outlet culvert to assure water did not find an easier way through, over, or around the dam wall before the outlet melted clear. Its held up fine before in normal annual 1ft snows, but I was concerned with this 4-5ft of snow melting off. I hope this helps save your back and maybe a structure!

That is a clever technique.
Do you get snow often?

Yup that's how I do it Ben. I had to shovel off my roof a couple days ago before this rain because my house is a dump and I thought it might collapse. For the really vulnerable areas I basically just shoveled it down to about a foot deep. That outta hold. But where I felt I could get away with it I dug some channels all the way down to the shingles to let it drain and left it at that. If you never hear from me again then consider that this was a bad idea.

Yup, good idea. If you let the snow melt from above, where the sun hits it, the water will be soaked up by the snow below and increase the spot load on the roof by a potentially dangerous amount.

As someone who lives on the Pacific Wet Coast where getting rain on top of snow is considered typical, never underestimate how heavy water-logged snow is!

Finding ways to encourage the water to run off safely is worth the experimentation and effort.

I did not get pictures today, or when I started the work, unfortunately. However I would describe my reaction to what I saw as going from, “oh sh!t” to “well thats kind of pitiful”, which is my general reaction to nearly melted off snow. In other terms, from 3ft+ to 4” over 1/5 the area. Other spot still have 2-3ft on the ground.

To answer John’s question, we have gotten snow every year since we moved here in early 2020. The largest event before this was 14” around the xmas before last (late 2021). It stuck around for a week. Locals said it equaled the biggest and longest lingering snow they’d seen in 20yrs. We had a 12” snow in 2020, that stuck for 5-7days. This 2023 series of storms has brought three larger versions of those annual winter events in succession over 2-3weeks.  Over 5ft has fallen at our 1750ft elevation, 12-24” over three major events. After these successive snows, over 3ft accumulated on even fairly steep roofs. Some neighbors have lost buildings and water infrasturcture. This is at least double the snow any of the old timers up here have seen, so we just do not have the equipment to deal with it. I have been glad to have cross country skis to enjoy it all and have emergency mobility, but its really understandable most up here would be less concerned about snow.