2010/2011 Winter Snard Contest

[Too Stroked]

Be careful what you ask for Dave! 

[GreyMichFX4]

Be careful what you ask for Dave! 

I would like a side of fries to go with my boot please.

[Too Stroked]

Sorry it took me so long to get back. There was a loader in my driveway removing the snards that fell off before I could take any pictures. Then again, I didn't deem them worthy!

[GreyMichFX4]

Although I did hit one of those baby snards that fell off my wifes car and it nearly stalled my John Deere.

[BigSur]

Does this little baby snard count? 

[Rollingrock]

Does this little baby snard count? 

us Texans can beat that! 

 

[Zaairman]

My submission, my 1997 Crapalier.  266K miles today, too.





Truck is doing great in the snow.



LOL

[Too Stroked]

Hmmm, not bad. And I'm stuck down here on business instead of being back home growing contest winning snards. Darn.

[Zaairman]

Its about the best I can do with the mudflaps on the car.  My roommate has a nice one going on his Buick. 

[Too Stroked]

As most of you know, I was the father of this noble competition just last year. Living, as I do, in the middle of the famous ?Snard Belt? that runs across the northern states in the US and well into Canada, I sometimes think I have an unfair advantage. But, this year?s business travel schedule has found me in the south for virtually every significant snard forming activity. Of course last week?s trip to Atlanta showed that sometimes Mother Nature just follows me around. But, since rental car snards are considered poor taste by the judges ?

For those of you not familiar with snards, they are the collections of snow, ice, salt and road kill that magically grows behind (and sometimes in) the wheel wells of a vehicle when it snows. That said, it?s not just any snow that allows snard formation. Yes, conditions actually need to be fairly specific to allow for good snard growth. A narrow window of temperature, humidity, show crystal size, salt content and vehicle speed (as well as trip length) needs to be closely adhered to if one truly expects to win this competition ? as many of you found last year.

So where have my entries been? Sadly, I just haven?t been either ?where the snards are? (as the song goes) at the proper times and / or the conditions just haven?t been right. Then there was last night. The weatherman predicted 1-4? of snow and the snard.com secret web site suggested that we might have a small to medium snardability factor coming into play between the hours of 5:42 AM and 8:01AM. So, I cancelled my plans for a day on the slopes so as to at least try for a proper entry. (The things I do for this site ?)

Although snard forming conditions were somewhat favorable, a camera malfunction caused me to have to drive back home after my first snard run to get a second camera. (My son tells me there?s a camera in my phone, but it must be hidden behind the rotary dial.) As you probably guessed, the city then foiled a reasonable snard entry by applying too much road salt ? which as you all know is death to snards. I did however capture a reasonable tailgate snard before it too fell victim to the killer salt. As the picture shows, the snard had already peaked, then begun to fail in the classic ?salt induced stress crack? mode. Like any work of art though, ?patina? has some value, don?t you agree?



I vow to keep trying valiantly to grow, and then enter a ?proper? wheel well snard for the competition. But, I have also enlisted the help of the owner of the plowing company I work for part time to open a new category ? Team Snards. Yes, the Winton Paving and Landscape team sports a fleet of ten F-350 diesels equipped for snow removal and killer snard formation. Now if we can just get a proper blizzard and 24 hour plow run, we?ll snow you what a real snard looks like. Of course then we?ll have to somehow chisel the driver out of the full truck snard ?

[attworth]

Always good for a laugh. 

We got some rain today.

[Rollingrock]

damn, nice post Tom.

I washed the truck on Friday...boom rain all weekend for me...looks like I may end up hunting again next weekend.   LOL ....maybe I will get a mud/snow snard. 

[Mike2301]

Haven't had much accumlation here. All snow shows and stuff.

[GreyMichFX4]

Put 200 miles on the truck yesterday and not one photo worth snard this is depressing. 

[Too Stroked]

Put 200 miles on the truck yesterday and not one photo worth snard this is depressing. 

As probably the biggest threat to me repeating as Grand Champoin in this contest, I just can't tell you how much that breaks my heart!