Snow and Slush - Upstate NY

[cndgany]

Hey guys my name is Jack and this is my first year with a rink. It is 32ft x 50 ft and partially frozen but now its covered with more than a foot of snow. Deep end is about 12 inches deep and pretty solid, but at least 5 inches underneath is water as I know ground is not quite frozen yet. Shallow end is pretty much all slush. I cannot walk on it to shovel snow. Any recommendations? Someone told me to try and water down all the snow with the hose, but that seems to me like it will be effective. Should I just be patient and wait til it is solid enough to walk on or is that much snow going to make it difficult for it to freeze? Forecast for next week in Upstate NY is: 24/21 34/27 29/19 20/7 11/7 22/21 30/23. Thanks!

[jmondanaro]

You can use a roof rake to pull the snow off from the edges. It's a fair bit of work, a lot more than shoveling, but it will work when you don't have enough ice to stand on yourself.

J

[cndgany]

Thanks for the tip....its solid now so I should be able to get to work on it with no trouble -Jack

[Joe]

Now that it's frozen you're in good shape. The roof rake is a decent idea, but I only suggest it when there is no slush involved. Trying to move slush (or trying to move ONLY snow that is sitting on top of slush) is difficult at best. If you tried to use a roof rake to remove the snow on top of slush, you'd no-doubt scrape into the slush, and all those marks would freeze solid. Your best bet is to wait it out, as much as that sucks. You did the right thing.