Southern Wisconsin got dumped on today. As it's so late in the season and the ground was starting to warm up, it's heavy, heavy, heavy. I mentioned previously in this thread, that I sprung for Simplicity's 1524 -- their Signature Pro series. The extra horsepower and sturdy frame are much appreciated when dealing with this stuff. Though we average about half as much snow as we've gotten this winter, I have no regrets on spending the extra cash. Years like this will make it well worthwhile. The bells and whistles don't matter so much, I know, but I can affirm the advice of so many on this forum -- buy as many horses as you can afford.
You guys got it a lot worse than we did, but we still got about 6" of the real heavy wet stuff in Northern Illinois. I think this year is a record as far as snowfall goes. I was afraid that we weren't going to get much snow this year since I bought the new Simplicity. I wish I could get this lucky in timing the stock market.
When I was a teenager, I bought a used Snowmobile. I kept it a few years, but because we weren't getting much snow, I sold it. The next winter after I sold it was the winter of 78-79, nuff said.
I still really like the new machine and haven't had any problems yet although the electric chute rotator makes me nervous. As I said in a previous post, I wish Simplicity would provide a manual backup.