Ice...

The forecast over Arizona today was horrendous. Low ceilings and visibility, and ICE ICE ICE!.
This morning, at Sky Harbor, called flight service and got the dreaded news, both destinations are WAY below minimums, ( 1/4 mile visibility, 100 foot overcast, blowing snow, winds gusting to 40 knots, YUCK.
HMMMM where could we go in the area that was good enough to get in but close enough for the little brown trucks to drive to... St Johns was vfr, so we filed IFR and launched. Into the clouds on the upwind, not bad, but, the whole way was IMC, picked up light rime ice, not a problem. Landed, Brown trucks came, everything was cool, but then wait......... got a call from J, down in Libby ( Libby is near the border of Mexico, St Johns is in the northern part of the state. J had a dead battery, couldnt start , so down we go. I am flying with
THE BOSS, who is here to see how the operation is running. So he wants to go down to Libby, pick up the freight, and deliver it to the east of the state where that particular run is finished. We head down, couple of hundred miles and change... have a monster head wind of 50 knots, so the going is slow. Into the clouds, stayed there another hour and a half, and began to have an ice issue. Rime ice, 3/4 of an inch. Blew the boots.... nothing but some cracks in the buildup and further ice began to buildup over that. Then, the Van starts shuddering with huge vibrations, the whole plane is shaking hard and making a weird noise from the propellor.THE BOSS,who is a very fine and experienced pilot, starts cycling the prop and the noise ceased ( for a few moments ) and the issue continues, ice is building, the prop is going ballistic, airspeed is going away and we cant maintain altitude. All this with an MEA of 14000 feet due to terrain. I am starting to get scared....
THE BOSS informs ATC that we are picking up ice at a rapid rate ( well over an inch now, and the windscreen is totally covered over ) and need lower. He says we have to wait 3 miles. In the meantime, things are not going well with the prop, every 20 seconds or so we have to cycle the prop several times to stop the terrible shuddering.
Finally, we are let down a few thousand feet, and can see the ground, hoo rah! Cancel%