Snow does not matter on the lake, the ice does! It expands and contracts and the lift will get bend out of shape. If there is room on the shoreline, store it in the yard. You don't have to pay the fee. Find some old tires and a winch or come along. If there is a beach or stone seawall, make tracks out of the tires for the pontoon. winch it or use a come along to pull it out of the water and store it on the tires for the winter. My family used to do this every year. Less than an hour to get the boat stored properly. To get it back in the water, our neighbors would just hook a tow rope to their boat while we all pushed it back into the water.