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This Idaho teen made $35K last year shoveling Seattle slush. Will he return?

caption: David Holston in his Dodge Ram. He just bought it in October and this is his first winter plowing.
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David Holston in his Dodge Ram. He just bought it in October and this is his first winter plowing.
KUOW PHOTO/ CASEY MARTIN

When it snowed in Seattle last year, an Idaho teenager drove his white Dodge Ram truck to the city.

The teen, David Holston of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, bet that Seattleites wouldn’t be prepared. He bet right.

Holston loaded up his snow plow machinery and placed an ad on Craigslist, charging up to $750 an hour. By the time the snow – and the money – dried up, he told other media outlets he had earned $35,000 in four days. Most of that was made shoveling snow and slush from business parking lots.

We texted with Holston on Tuesday to see if he’d return to Seattle given the forecast. We also wanted to know what he’d done with all that money.

Holston said he bought a second truck and plow, and that he now employs someone to drive the new vehicle, a 1997 Chevy 2500.

caption: David Holston, a 19-year-old from Idaho, earned $35,000 shoveling snow and slush in Seattle last February. With his earnings, he bought a new truck and plow, and now employs someone to drive the second vehicle.
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David Holston, a 19-year-old from Idaho, earned $35,000 shoveling snow and slush in Seattle last February. With his earnings, he bought a new truck and plow, and now employs someone to drive the second vehicle.
Courtesy of David Holston

As for returning to Seattle, he is watching the weather forecast.

“I really wanted to do a “Seattle snow hero returns,’” Holston texted.

Last year, Holston put in 12 to 15 hour days working the snow.

"I'm getting calls every five minutes, so I can't answer them all," Holston said when we interviewed him as he plowed a Walgreens parking lot in Burien. "I put them on speaker phone and talk to them while I'm plowing."

His phone vibrated the entire time we were with him as he plowed the lot. In the big Dodge Ram he smoothly guided the massive plow around a packed parking lot.

caption: David Holston's snow plow is remote controlled, 10-feet-wide, and weighs two tons. The hardest thing to plow Holston says slush.
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David Holston's snow plow is remote controlled, 10-feet-wide, and weighs two tons. The hardest thing to plow Holston says slush.
KUOW PHOTO/ CASEY MARTIN
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