DHC-8 gets stuck in a snow bank on the ramp. Blowing snow and poor braking action contributed to the event.

Narrative

The Tower was calling the visibility about 1 mile with blowing snow. The wind was blowing at over 20 KTS. The taxiways were covered with compacted snow; and as we were taxiing in; we experienced extremely low visibility (near white-out) due to the blowing snow. As we were taxiing to the ramp; we were taxiing eastbound on Taxiway C. I noticed an Airbus parked on the end of the A Terminal. With the braking action on the taxiways reported as 'poor;' and the wind blowing over 20 KTS; I decided to stay well clear of the Airbus. We were still on the taxiway; and not anywhere close to the edge of the taxiway. I was taxiing very slowly because of the reduced visibility. Then all of a sudden; almost directly in front of us appeared a snow bank. We were approximately 25 FT from the edge of the taxiway; and never expected to see the snow so deep that far from the edge of the taxiway. I turned the airplane to the left to avoid the snow bank; but the right main gear got stuck in the deep snow. We called Operations and they sent out a tug and a towbar. We shut down the engines; they pushed us back out of the snow; then we started the engines back up and taxied to the gate. After shutting down at the gate; I inspected the right main gear and called my Dispatcher and conferred with Maintenance Control. Maintenance Control decided that since it was only stuck in snow; and there was no damage to the gear; wheels; tires; or brakes; that we did not need to make a maintenance write-up and we continued on our day.