SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Snow removers are out in full force to deal with the big fluffy flakes that have descended upon the city.

Capital Transit employee Michael Hudson Mix clears snow from the Greenstone parking lot on Nov. 11. - Andrea Bennington/NNSL photo

Michael Hudson of Capital Transit Mix, a Yellowknife concrete hauler and snow-removal company, has been pretty busy so far. During the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 11, he was clearing snow from the parking lot of the Greenstone building.

"I have been working at this for 20 years" he said, primarily as a front-end loader and heavy equipment operator. He has spent the last 13 of those years with Capital Transit. Hudson laughed when asked what is the biggest challenge about removing snow in Yellowknife.

"Mostly people parking where you're clearing and not giving you any room," he said. This usually doesn't present too much of a problem, he said, because when you're in a vehicle as big as his, "a lot of people move away from you."

Hudson got into his line of work after driving highway tractors for some time, learning the equipment as he went along. When it isn't snowing in winter, Hudson, like other snow removers, hauls away the snow already piled up around the city to a snow dump area. Removers also haul cement for construction, regardless of the weather outside, he said.

Hudson's average day often starts early in the morning, sometimes as early as 4 or 5 a.m., with work days extending to "12 or 14 hours, sometimes," he said.

After a couple weeks of snowy weather, Hudson sometimes tires of seeing all the snow - but for the most part he enjoys the job. The nice thing about this season's snowfall so far, he said, is that it is dry, and once it starts melting, there's nothing that needs to be done with it. Hudson's favourite aspect of the job is simply "getting paid," he laughed.