"Big Jaws" can take wide swaths of 10-foot tall snowbanks and shoot them up or down onto the mountain sides. It has a 7-foot opening and the yellow 3-foot berm cutter which knocks the highest snow down into the opening where the giant auger is as it drives past at about 4 or 5 miles per hour. The snow shoots out of that giant top chute (which the operator can rotate to either side of the street as well as raise and lower) and the streets have 2 lanes once again.
On the days when Jaws is out and about, we can hear its engine (the entire long section behind the cab is the engine) for hours before it arrives on our street, so we tense in preparation. Will the operator see our driveway before he shoots snow 30 feet up into it? They usually know, but we've had a couple guys bury our driveway with it, so we are always outside when Jaws comes by, day or night.
Thankfully Jaws generally comes out only a few times each season, most especially when over 6 feet of snow falls over a 7-day period as happened this week. There is no other way to keep up with that much snowfall except to bring out the big Jaws!
