[JamesBrown]

I haven't seen any other mention of this, I would like to tie the official hint in with the old talk about snow.

First the shovel's show, for the next few months everyt one up north will get plenty of chances to see their shovels and shovel snow (not dirt and not digging holes)

Then montana, while I agree that Joe Montana may be a connection I found this

"Statewide, average annual rainfall is near 20 inches, while rainfall in the higher elevations of the Rockies (especially north) exceeds 80 inches, and snowfall is usually heavy."

Mostly the snowfall at high elevations. I must say many things are pointing towards snow (also you could include pasta-> Italy-> winter olympics-> snow)

Before you all say how impractical snow is because of temperatures you should see that there is more than one definition of snow

The white specks on a television screen resulting from weak reception.

v. tr.
Slang. To overwhelm with insincere talk, especially with flattery.

Phrasal Verb:
snow under
To overwhelm: I was snowed under with work.
To defeat by a very large margin.

To cover, shut off, or close off

those are from dictionary.com I eliminated ones I did not see as pertinent, I believe that either bad reception or to shut off/ close off may be the most pertinent


also games object-> snow-> snowball->balls was a chain of thought that occurred to me.