Huge Slab of Snow Removed From Roof of Northern California Home

A huge block of snow was removed from the roof of a Truckee, California, home as the Sierra Nevada mountains’ second-snowiest winter on record continued in late March.

Colby Wangler recorded this video and posted it to Instagram. Wangler told Storyful his friends Brian Biega and Jimmy Haden are seen in the footage, with Biega sawing as Haden secures him from behind. Wangler said the homeowners are friends of theirs who asked them to remove the large chunk of snow.

“It has been snowing in the Sierra Nevada mountains and Truckee for months now, and we are looking at the second-biggest winter on record,” Wangler said. “The house, like thousands more in the area, was experiencing severe cracking in the drywall and many other structural components. This cornice was barely attached and was a huge safety concern.”

He said Biega was using an old timber saw retrofit with a shovel handle on one end to saw the cornice, and explained that he and his friends are rock and ice climbers so they “had the skills to do it safely.”

The footage shows the slab of packed snow fall and crumble to the ground with a satisfying crack and thud. The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab has recorded more than 59.4 feet of snow as of March 29, and are expecting more to come. Credit: Colby Wangler via Storyful