Just a quick additional comment here ... for whatever reason this past winter was a bad one in the Rockies. Most of the highways through there were completely closed for extended periods of time. My father and I drove through there in early April, and near the tops of some of the passes, there was still about 12 feet of snow by the side of the road from when the plows cleared a path through.
I've lived in the Canadian prairies all my life and have seen some significant snowfalls here, but when the plows clear the roads, the most I've seen is about 6 feet of snow piled on the side of the roads, and that's after a winter's worth of clearing. 12 feet, left after the snow has been melting is a lot. No wonder the Rocky Mountains were shut down most of the winter!!