Getting a snowcat stuck is such a rare occurrence that getting stuck this week turned on my Way Back Machine.
In three decades of grooming on My Mountain I've got stuck three times.
Technically the second time, in the late 90's I could have driven out (save for all the trees below me)...I had to get pulled back up on the cat road that I fell off of (or more precisely, the cat road that fell away under me)
The memorable stuck was during my rookie season. Back then the fleet was all Tucker SnoCats and one Thiokol 3700. The Tuckers didn't have a blade out front. Groomers towed various implements for different conditions...rollers, mogul cutters, powdermakers, even huge drag chains.
The morning in question, I was pulling a 30ft roller.
The trail I was grooming was a steep intermediate run that we usually got a little toboggan action from at the breakover a third of the way down.
Working left to right, I crept down towards the breakover...sure enough, once the Tucker's pontoons were past the breakover, she slid. I punched the throttle and away we went...this time was different than the times I done this trail before...this time the whole run crowned...wall to wall...a 3ft slab avalanche that roared down the 50 yards or so to the compression at the bottom of the steep.
My Tucker went into the compression like a lawn dart into soft turf, and the avalanche debris piled up around me. It was up to the top of the hood, and up to the windows in the doors...I couldn't even get out to shovel myself free. My only tool available was the Motorola 2-Way Radio.
I called the boss who was digging out the top of the mountain. He advised that I'd better start shoveling...I explained that I couldn't get out of my cab to shovel...he replied: "I've gotta see this!"
The boss in his 3700 roared up about 20 minutes later...clearly amused at my predicament. He made quick work of removing the snow around my cab and that 30ft roller. As he roared off to return to his digging he keyed the mic: "Now you can shovel your way out!"
Maybe twenty minutes with my shovel, and I was free.
That was the only time I slid a whole run at once. Back then I didn't know what I didn't know. I chalked up the thrill as just another bit of Groomer Esprit de Corps. Today I'd be scared shitless if I crowned a whole run!
Thirty years ago we had lots of thrills on the hill, but today we could never leave the ski surface the way we did back then. For the most part, we've evolved the adrenaline out of the job. That trail is only groomed by winch cats today...I can count on one hand the number of times we've groomed that run with a free cat since the turn of the century.
Having been in the trade all the way through this evolutionary epoch, I've evolved to enjoy the cerebral thrills in lieu of the raw adrenaline rush. Do I miss it? Sure...fun is fun...but the satisfaction I feel knowing how perfectly we groom the slopes in the modern era is deeper than I'd ever imagined back in those "Wild West" days.
Merry Christmas!
Showing posts with label Tucker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tucker. Show all posts
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
GroomerVision
I said I've been thinking a little more about grooming lately...in fact during the Heat Wave here in the Inland Valley, I was thinking about about all things snow and ice when I came upon a story of an "Ice Boat" that sank while in production for a BBC GeeWhizTV Show, "Bang Goes the Theory"
I read the story, and while looking at the photo, I remembered seeing an episode of The History Channel's "Modern Marvels" that delved into the WW2 scheme to build a giant aircraft carrier out of "Pykecrete"...the same stuff the British TV guys made their little runabout with.
Pykecrete was the creation of Geoffrey Pyke an inventor who worked for England's Combined Operations. Pykecrete was simply frozen water and wood pulp.
Combined Operations spearheaded many innovative projects that helped win the war...most notable were the "Mulberry Harbours", the concrete temporary harbors that the Allies towed accross tha English Channel to construct fully functional harbors at the Normandy Invasion Beaches, where war material was brought ashore to fuel the Allies march to liberate Europe form Hitler's clutches.
In concert with the Mulberry Harbors, Combined Operations' "Operation Pluto" strung fuel pipelines across the bottom of the Channel to bring fuel to the Allied warfighters.
"Operation Habakkuk" was Pyke's frozen airbase idea. The Modern Marvels episode showed archival footage of the scale model tests done in Canada. The project fell out of favor and was never brought to fruition. The scale model took three hot summers to melt away.
While I was looking at the History Channel's site for the Habakkuk video, I found some grooming video from the "Winter Tech" Modern Marvels episode.
The clip isn't exactly Grooming 101, but it is Grooming on TV.
If memory serves, the first groomer I saw on the Big Screen was a scene from Stanley Kubrick's horror classic "The Shining". It wasn't actual grooming per se, it was a Thiokol Sprite Troop Carrier driven by Scatman Crothers at night with the snow falling as the music swelled to pump up the suspense.
Tucker SnowCats were featured prominently in the Jerry Bruckheimer Actioner "National Treasure". The aerial scene of two SnowCats ranging across the frozen Arctic in search of a lost 19th century sailing ship is awesome. The editor even cut in a scene of the Tucker's small blade pushing some snow away from the entombed ship...a nice edit says this Critic!
There's a little SnowCat footage in the Trailer
In my opinion, "National Treasure" is a Modern Classic. It's half of my "Annual Independence Day Film Festival". It gets Top Billing over "The Patriot" with Mel Gibson. Strangely, I've never watched the SciFi "Independence Day" on Independence Day, though there's lots to like in the Will Smith blockbuster. "Independence Day" just isn't a 4th of July Movie, like my film festival faves are.
I read the story, and while looking at the photo, I remembered seeing an episode of The History Channel's "Modern Marvels" that delved into the WW2 scheme to build a giant aircraft carrier out of "Pykecrete"...the same stuff the British TV guys made their little runabout with.
Pykecrete was the creation of Geoffrey Pyke an inventor who worked for England's Combined Operations. Pykecrete was simply frozen water and wood pulp.
Combined Operations spearheaded many innovative projects that helped win the war...most notable were the "Mulberry Harbours", the concrete temporary harbors that the Allies towed accross tha English Channel to construct fully functional harbors at the Normandy Invasion Beaches, where war material was brought ashore to fuel the Allies march to liberate Europe form Hitler's clutches.
In concert with the Mulberry Harbors, Combined Operations' "Operation Pluto" strung fuel pipelines across the bottom of the Channel to bring fuel to the Allied warfighters.
"Operation Habakkuk" was Pyke's frozen airbase idea. The Modern Marvels episode showed archival footage of the scale model tests done in Canada. The project fell out of favor and was never brought to fruition. The scale model took three hot summers to melt away.
While I was looking at the History Channel's site for the Habakkuk video, I found some grooming video from the "Winter Tech" Modern Marvels episode.
The clip isn't exactly Grooming 101, but it is Grooming on TV.
If memory serves, the first groomer I saw on the Big Screen was a scene from Stanley Kubrick's horror classic "The Shining". It wasn't actual grooming per se, it was a Thiokol Sprite Troop Carrier driven by Scatman Crothers at night with the snow falling as the music swelled to pump up the suspense.
Tucker SnowCats were featured prominently in the Jerry Bruckheimer Actioner "National Treasure". The aerial scene of two SnowCats ranging across the frozen Arctic in search of a lost 19th century sailing ship is awesome. The editor even cut in a scene of the Tucker's small blade pushing some snow away from the entombed ship...a nice edit says this Critic!
In my opinion, "National Treasure" is a Modern Classic. It's half of my "Annual Independence Day Film Festival". It gets Top Billing over "The Patriot" with Mel Gibson. Strangely, I've never watched the SciFi "Independence Day" on Independence Day, though there's lots to like in the Will Smith blockbuster. "Independence Day" just isn't a 4th of July Movie, like my film festival faves are.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Grooming 101.2
Where to Really Begin
On My Mountain, we always start at the beginning. I'm not trying to be funny, it's just that "the beginning" has meant many different things over the years. Early in my nights behind the sticks, the Grooming Program was pretty loose...by necessity.
Oh, we always started with Work Orders, but back when I started grooming in the early 80's, Grooming was more "Reactive" than ProActive. The technology just hadn't matured in those days. When the fleet was mostly Gas Powered Tucker Sno-Cats towing Rolling Stock, there were many nights when conditions didn't allow much of the Work Orders to be completed.
When the Tuckers couldn't climb the mountain anymore, we'd move on to the next project on the Work Orders, and hope that the abandoned trails would "set up" enough so that we could come back later and finish the job. On the nights when that didn't work out, dawn brought mornings that Ski Patrol dreaded...you see when the Groomers couldn't get the job done, Patrol would have to "Boot Pack" the unfinished edges of our work to ensure our guests' safety. Man I pitied those guys on those days!
By the Mid-80's most of the fleet had been upgraded to Thiokol 3700 Hydromaster Groomers. For a few years, the Hydros, powered with Allis Chalmers straight-six Diesels without mufflers, still didn't have Tillers, so Rolling Stock still made the finished surface. Rolling Stock was lots of work, even when it wasn't doing much...it always had to be Dug Out and repositioned atop the pack. Every Snow Day meant all the Rolling Stock had to be moved up. Lots of shoveling, getting in and out of the tractors, and ending the shift with some real Ditch Digging Labor...we really earned our meager paychecks in those days!
Finally, Thiokol sold their Snowcat business and the new owner, John Delorean of Stainless Steel Sports Car fame, bought the Company and designed and added Tillers along with V8 Caterpillar Power, giving birth to the 3700C Model...Sayonara Rolling Stock! Those were great days!
Renamed DMC, the DeLorean Motor Company brought evolutionary change to the breed before Mr DeLorean ran afoul of the Law, and he sold the Company again. Now know as LMC, Logan Manufacturing Company, they soldiered along until Bombardier Groomers arrived in the High Sierra.
Bombardier's were another Quantum Leap in Groomer Evolution. The Mid-Engine, Cab Forward design was as big a step as the one from Tucker to Thiokol had been.
The next improvement proved to be the watershed idea that changed the whole ball game. Bombardier developed their Flex Tiller...the rest is history, as they say.
Now, Groomers could work from the Work Orders or "List" with impunity. Now only breakdowns, and weather could derail the Plan. Production rose by a factor of Two...unless the snow was flying. More snow on the mountain is a Double Whammy. more snow to pack, and harder, thus slower climbing...there go those Production Gains again...
Enter Winches...OK this is the Tech Evolution that finally "levels the playing field" LMC first brought Winches to Sierra Ski Resorts. The WinchCat was a standard Free Groomer with a hyrdoststic winch mounted on the back of the cat. Derisively named "Phantom Tollbooths", the WinchCat was positioned at the top of a steep trail, where the operator whould push up a big pile called a pad, and dig the tracks into the pad. the bare stinger was lowered into the pad, and the winch was activated. The winch operator payed out some winch cable, and a second Grooming Cat would hook to the cable by way of a large Eye mounted to the Push Frame of the Forward Blade.
This cat, the "Yoyo" did the grooming, the winch held the Yoyo on the hill. The Winch didn't actually tow the Yoyo up the hill, but held tension on the winch cable so the Yoyo could groom uphill without digging in. It was tedious for both operators, and ripe for disaster. The Yoyo only groomed going uphill, backing down under winch tension every pass...not very efficiant, but better than "going around" like a free cat, and the winch assisted down passes turned out perfectly most nights.
In those days, all grooming machines were prototypes, really...grooming crews were developers of the technology, as well as Guinea Pigs. Twice the labor, and twice the equipment, but still production improved.
A few years later, the last piece of the puzzle was added. The Tower Winch was born. Adding an overhead boom the turned 360 degrees, retired the Phantom Tollbooth, and now two winch operators were available. The WinchCat Operator works solo, hooking his cable to an anchor and grooming up and down the run, held fast by the winch...Production...way up, again.
With the technology settled, now the List guides the crews to high levels of performance, hindered only by Mother Nature's Bounty. When a fierce Winter Storm is lashing the Mountain, production suffers, but compared to twenty-five years ago, the work we get done is still amazing, given the conditions.
On My Mountain, we always start at the beginning. I'm not trying to be funny, it's just that "the beginning" has meant many different things over the years. Early in my nights behind the sticks, the Grooming Program was pretty loose...by necessity.
Oh, we always started with Work Orders, but back when I started grooming in the early 80's, Grooming was more "Reactive" than ProActive. The technology just hadn't matured in those days. When the fleet was mostly Gas Powered Tucker Sno-Cats towing Rolling Stock, there were many nights when conditions didn't allow much of the Work Orders to be completed.
When the Tuckers couldn't climb the mountain anymore, we'd move on to the next project on the Work Orders, and hope that the abandoned trails would "set up" enough so that we could come back later and finish the job. On the nights when that didn't work out, dawn brought mornings that Ski Patrol dreaded...you see when the Groomers couldn't get the job done, Patrol would have to "Boot Pack" the unfinished edges of our work to ensure our guests' safety. Man I pitied those guys on those days!
By the Mid-80's most of the fleet had been upgraded to Thiokol 3700 Hydromaster Groomers. For a few years, the Hydros, powered with Allis Chalmers straight-six Diesels without mufflers, still didn't have Tillers, so Rolling Stock still made the finished surface. Rolling Stock was lots of work, even when it wasn't doing much...it always had to be Dug Out and repositioned atop the pack. Every Snow Day meant all the Rolling Stock had to be moved up. Lots of shoveling, getting in and out of the tractors, and ending the shift with some real Ditch Digging Labor...we really earned our meager paychecks in those days!
Finally, Thiokol sold their Snowcat business and the new owner, John Delorean of Stainless Steel Sports Car fame, bought the Company and designed and added Tillers along with V8 Caterpillar Power, giving birth to the 3700C Model...Sayonara Rolling Stock! Those were great days!
Renamed DMC, the DeLorean Motor Company brought evolutionary change to the breed before Mr DeLorean ran afoul of the Law, and he sold the Company again. Now know as LMC, Logan Manufacturing Company, they soldiered along until Bombardier Groomers arrived in the High Sierra.
Bombardier's were another Quantum Leap in Groomer Evolution. The Mid-Engine, Cab Forward design was as big a step as the one from Tucker to Thiokol had been.
The next improvement proved to be the watershed idea that changed the whole ball game. Bombardier developed their Flex Tiller...the rest is history, as they say.
Now, Groomers could work from the Work Orders or "List" with impunity. Now only breakdowns, and weather could derail the Plan. Production rose by a factor of Two...unless the snow was flying. More snow on the mountain is a Double Whammy. more snow to pack, and harder, thus slower climbing...there go those Production Gains again...
Enter Winches...OK this is the Tech Evolution that finally "levels the playing field" LMC first brought Winches to Sierra Ski Resorts. The WinchCat was a standard Free Groomer with a hyrdoststic winch mounted on the back of the cat. Derisively named "Phantom Tollbooths", the WinchCat was positioned at the top of a steep trail, where the operator whould push up a big pile called a pad, and dig the tracks into the pad. the bare stinger was lowered into the pad, and the winch was activated. The winch operator payed out some winch cable, and a second Grooming Cat would hook to the cable by way of a large Eye mounted to the Push Frame of the Forward Blade.
This cat, the "Yoyo" did the grooming, the winch held the Yoyo on the hill. The Winch didn't actually tow the Yoyo up the hill, but held tension on the winch cable so the Yoyo could groom uphill without digging in. It was tedious for both operators, and ripe for disaster. The Yoyo only groomed going uphill, backing down under winch tension every pass...not very efficiant, but better than "going around" like a free cat, and the winch assisted down passes turned out perfectly most nights.
In those days, all grooming machines were prototypes, really...grooming crews were developers of the technology, as well as Guinea Pigs. Twice the labor, and twice the equipment, but still production improved.
A few years later, the last piece of the puzzle was added. The Tower Winch was born. Adding an overhead boom the turned 360 degrees, retired the Phantom Tollbooth, and now two winch operators were available. The WinchCat Operator works solo, hooking his cable to an anchor and grooming up and down the run, held fast by the winch...Production...way up, again.
With the technology settled, now the List guides the crews to high levels of performance, hindered only by Mother Nature's Bounty. When a fierce Winter Storm is lashing the Mountain, production suffers, but compared to twenty-five years ago, the work we get done is still amazing, given the conditions.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Eyes on The Prize
Thursday Morning
The next Weather Event is headed towards NorCal. Before I got out of bed to make the coffee this morning, I logged on to the Reno NWS Discussion page to "keep my eye on the ball" I was not surprised to read:
"On Friday...The most significant impacts from the storm are trending more toward potential for strong winds...while precip and snow amounts in the Sierra are expected to be less significant. The fast movement of this storm with limited moisture tap will probably limit snowfall totals below the typical warning criteria...but significant impact on travel is likely. The strong winds combined with a few hours of moderate to heavy snow are likely to coincide with the Friday afternoon commute and busy travel period over the major passes between NRN Nevada and CNTRL CA valleys. To continue heightened awareness for the potential travel impacts...the Winter Storm Watch for NRN CA and Tahoe Zones will be maintained with the current forecast"
Friday morning, right in the crosshairs of the storm, SisterSweetly with my niece the FamilyGeologist will be driving down to the Ancestral Digs. That's a trip I'm glad I'm missing! NWS Sacramento says snow levels for the Redwood Empire Friday will be down to 4000ft,so they'll avoid chain controls. Somehow, rainstorms in the Redwood Empire seem wetter than elsewhere...perhaps that's why the Redwood Coast is so green.
El Niño Update
This afternoon, I caught up with the Climate Prediction Center's monthly update of their 90 Day Climate Outlook. I groused about October's cop-out on temps and precip, when they said they could go Above/Average/Below.
This month the CPC isn't saying anything chiseled in stone, but they "held the waffles" so to speak. They did allow their prediction of an "Enhanced likelihood of Above Average Temperatures for much of the Western Half of the Continental United States" For the rest of the country, they stood pat, continuing with their Win/Lose/Draw equivocation act.
On the precipitation front, the CPC didn't leave out the High Sierra, saying; "Above Median Precipitation Amounts are most likely in Texas, Florida, and in California, and in Northern sections of Alaska" How good is my Prediction looking now? Just what the odds say...average or above. Gimme a Gold Star! I wouldn't blame you if you wait 'till Spring, though...I won't take it personally!
About My Prediction
I'm starting to feel like a team mate of Tom Steinstra! Thursday's are Outdoors Section Day in the San Francisco Chronicle, and Tom continued with his Winter Weather Forecast story. Aside from his geography gaffe, Tom supplies further data that validates my Prediction.
Steinstra writes: "Meteorologist Mike Polansky found what might be a correlation between heavy rains in October and high annual rainfall. Since 1848, San Francisco has had more than 3 inches of rain in Octobernine times, including this year. Of the previous eight, six became very wet winters, one was normal, and one was below normal. In the past 40 years, wet Octobers occurred in 1972, 1982 and 2004, and each time a very wet winter followed".
Yikes! Do I ever remember the 82-83 season! I was a second year groomer/trainee and still spending most of my nights in Tucker SnoCats. I worked at the neighboring resort so I could get some time in a Thiocol 3700 Hydromaster Groomer like my boss drove. It snowed like the Devil that season, and back in the Grooming Stone Age, operators did plenty of time with a shovel in hand. Lot's of digging out Rolling Stock, and always at the end of a long cranky shift.
Reality Check
Today's Photo is the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite image of the 1997 El Niño taken December 1st, 1997. The Winter of 97-98 was the El Niño that set tongues to wagging about Global Warming in earnest.
Now compare this TOPEX/Poseidon image from November 1st, 2009
There's all the difference in the world between these two events, still I'll stand pat with respect to my Winter Prediction, thank you very much.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Caboose
Recalling my Tucker Sno-Cat days was bittersweet. Those were carefree days on the Mountain. My only responsibility was to show up on time, and do what I was told. I was too clueless to make anything up as I went along, and fortunately I held onto my job long enough to fall in love with grooming and the Mountain.
Soon, I was allowed to operate a newer style cat...a genuine Thiokol 2100 Diesel. This machine was a precursor to the Groomers of today. This machine had the basic form factor of modern grooming cats...two tracks with a blade out front, a small centerline mounted cab and a rear lift frame for hanging rear implements. This cat was built in the 70's and Tillers hadn't made the scene yet. Compactor Bars and Tow Hitches still brought up the rear.
The 2100 was a friction steered cat, with a conventional drive and clutch. This old beast had been abused and modified aplenty, she smelled of hot oil and diesel soot, and was fitted with a manual transmission and a "Reverser Box" (a second stick shift, to select between forward and reverse in whatever gear the main tranny was in) The auxiliary hydraulics were molasses-slow, and steering the cat while smoothly using the blade was a real trick. I want to say it was an 8-Way Blade...alas, memory fades... The steeper the terrain, the tougher the going. Holding this cat back on steep, deep runs was a workout that would have a Famous Exercise Video series named for it today...good for upper arm definition, for sure.
Even as rough as this old cat was, it really was a quantum leap over the Tuckers. On the steeper, off-camber climbs, it was magic at the time...after all, many times the fleet of Tuckers towing implements could only make the climb a few times before the snow was too worked to keep giving the Tucker tracks purchase, and the fleet would retreat down the hill to make passes on gentler slopes.
The better climbing of the "real" cat opened new vistas to conquer, and demanded that new skills be learned.
At the time, the Mountain had only one hydrostatic groomer, and it was a thing of beauty for it's time. An Allis Chalmers six cylinder diesel Thiokol 3700 in the requisite black and red livery. The A/C straight six had a straight exhaust, without a muffler. The stack pierced the sheet metal engine cover, and came right off the turbo. It elbowed straight up, only two feet in front of the windshield. When you "had your foot in it" making the pumps scream on a long climb, it would maintain a pretty blue flame atop the stack along with a tremendous howl. This was the Boss' ride. Rookies need not apply. The season was 81/82...still no tillers on the Mountain...and no chance of getting any stick time in that cat.
I took a job at the neighboring hill so I could get my stick time, I worked five nights a week at my Mountain, and my nights off I drove the neighboring hill's 3700. I kept that up right thru the season until the spring doldrums set in. I didn't always get to drive the hydro, about half the time I was driving a diesel powered rubber track Tucker with a clunky automatic transmission...what a beast! Once my neighbor hill boss started to trust me, he gave me plenty of elbow room.
During one huge storm period, we abandoned the neighbor hill altogether, and put that cat on the county highway. The Local Fire Department had called, there was a possible heart attack victim up the highway, and it was impassable for the ambulance and too deep for the Fire Dept. snowmobile.
We grabbed some chain, and groomed the two miles of the highway so the fire dept sled could get to the heart patient. We groomed out to the Interstate, and as we roared past the Highway Lodge, we were looking down from five feet above the cars in the lot! This was the storm that spawned the fatal avalanche at Alpine Meadows in 1982.
That avalanche killed seven, and trapped a young college student, Anna Conrad in her demolished locker room. Anna was rescued some days later, and returned a year later to ski Alpine again. I remember waking up at home with the TV news showing snow cats digging out the avalanche debris at the Alpine Meadows Lodge...it was the first time I ever saw groomers on TV.
I learned to run that hydro and before long, I got in trouble with my newly learned "skills" one snow day on my home mountain.
The Ski Patrol Leader and some other patrollers needed a lift to the top of the Mountain to run another avalanche control route. My boss was having breakfast, so I offered my services. His cat was parked outside Lift Ops, idling...I shut off my Tucker, saddled up, and headed out...me in the driver's seat...with a big ol' grin on my face. About halfway up, the scolding radio call crackled thru the cab...I stammer an apology/reason kinda thing, and the Patrol Leader takes pity on me, keys the mic and pleads my case. I made the top of the Mountain, the A/C was done, and I kept the Boss' ride on the cat tracks, and out of trouble. I took a lot of crap for my stunt, but I started earning a little respect that morning, too.
Leaving the Nest
After being part of the Pack for most of the season, the Bosses started giving the quick studies a little more rope, so to speak. There were two of us...The Bosses were trying to broaden our horizons, so they could leave us to our own devices whenever they had a project to do that we couldn't help with...the heavy lifting and the detail stuff...mostly building ramps, digging around lift terminals and buildings, building roads...the skilled jobs that we'd learn as time and talent allowed.
One run I was to master was an intermediate cruiser that had a short steep black diamond run in. It was always good for a little slide when the snow was deep or soft. Eventually groomers learn to lust for those toboggan passes, they're the only true thrill on the hill that's not extra-legal. Before we started seeking these thrills, we approached with caution...and a little down right fear.
I was working this run solo one night. There was a couple of feet of fresh snow on it, and I was about mid-way thru the job when things got a little scary. This run groomed from left to right...mostly in the fall line, though there was a little sidehill after the initial steep pitch. Creeping over the breakover, I let things get too fast, too quickly. There were some large, frozen bumps hidden beneath the fresh powder, and at toboggan speed, things got really bumpy. That's when my knee bumped the splitter box into neutral, and I accelerated like the Millenium Falcon entering Hyper Space!
The cat wasn't the only thing racing! My heart rate passed red line in milliseconds, followed closely by my adrenalin level. It was a helpless feeling as the heavy 2100 bounded down the hill headed towards the trees and a lift tower. I was riding a rodeo bronco in free-fall! I don't know what possessed me to bury the blade, but something had prepared me to do it. The fountain of fresh snow ricocheting off the cat's blade looked like and old-time photograph from the Placer Mining Days...a huge blast of material capable of mowing down most anything in it's path blasted out in front of me! I made a huge trench, right down the middle of the steep, and right across the fresh-groomed passes I'd just made. Thinking about that trip, I don't have any memory of redoing the whole run, though I'm sure I did.
Eventually I realized that I never could have gotten into the trees, much less that lift tower. Gravity was on my team, and it would steer me right, though it took some more experience on my part to realize it. That's the night I learned what an ally fear could be. Years later I put it to work every season...keeping my rookies on the straight and narrow...just like my Boss did with me, that night, on that run, in that old Thiokol.
Four years passed, and I was the Boss...that old 2100 was retired as were all but one Tucker. The '76 with the rubber tracks was our back up rig and utility hauler. I didn't have but one or two rookies to teach, and we had three or four hydros, including our first Cat-Powered 3700C. Tillers now adorned the rear of the machines, and the manufacturer's nameplate said: DeLorean...yup, Back to the Future, DeLorean. No longer Thiokol red&black, the new C Models were painted orange. They would have been awesome in brushed stainless steel like DeLorean's sports cars!
Cleaning up around the Vehicle Shop, pushing four feet of snow off in to the trees, I plowed the beacon right off the top of that old 2100, left abandoned for the winter, in the trees behind the Shop...I didn't scratch the sheet metal, I just broke the beacon's plastic lens off. I felt bad for the old beast...but, I smiled and remembered the night I dug that big trench.
Soon, I was allowed to operate a newer style cat...a genuine Thiokol 2100 Diesel. This machine was a precursor to the Groomers of today. This machine had the basic form factor of modern grooming cats...two tracks with a blade out front, a small centerline mounted cab and a rear lift frame for hanging rear implements. This cat was built in the 70's and Tillers hadn't made the scene yet. Compactor Bars and Tow Hitches still brought up the rear.
The 2100 was a friction steered cat, with a conventional drive and clutch. This old beast had been abused and modified aplenty, she smelled of hot oil and diesel soot, and was fitted with a manual transmission and a "Reverser Box" (a second stick shift, to select between forward and reverse in whatever gear the main tranny was in) The auxiliary hydraulics were molasses-slow, and steering the cat while smoothly using the blade was a real trick. I want to say it was an 8-Way Blade...alas, memory fades... The steeper the terrain, the tougher the going. Holding this cat back on steep, deep runs was a workout that would have a Famous Exercise Video series named for it today...good for upper arm definition, for sure.
Even as rough as this old cat was, it really was a quantum leap over the Tuckers. On the steeper, off-camber climbs, it was magic at the time...after all, many times the fleet of Tuckers towing implements could only make the climb a few times before the snow was too worked to keep giving the Tucker tracks purchase, and the fleet would retreat down the hill to make passes on gentler slopes.
The better climbing of the "real" cat opened new vistas to conquer, and demanded that new skills be learned.
At the time, the Mountain had only one hydrostatic groomer, and it was a thing of beauty for it's time. An Allis Chalmers six cylinder diesel Thiokol 3700 in the requisite black and red livery. The A/C straight six had a straight exhaust, without a muffler. The stack pierced the sheet metal engine cover, and came right off the turbo. It elbowed straight up, only two feet in front of the windshield. When you "had your foot in it" making the pumps scream on a long climb, it would maintain a pretty blue flame atop the stack along with a tremendous howl. This was the Boss' ride. Rookies need not apply. The season was 81/82...still no tillers on the Mountain...and no chance of getting any stick time in that cat.
I took a job at the neighboring hill so I could get my stick time, I worked five nights a week at my Mountain, and my nights off I drove the neighboring hill's 3700. I kept that up right thru the season until the spring doldrums set in. I didn't always get to drive the hydro, about half the time I was driving a diesel powered rubber track Tucker with a clunky automatic transmission...what a beast! Once my neighbor hill boss started to trust me, he gave me plenty of elbow room.
During one huge storm period, we abandoned the neighbor hill altogether, and put that cat on the county highway. The Local Fire Department had called, there was a possible heart attack victim up the highway, and it was impassable for the ambulance and too deep for the Fire Dept. snowmobile.
We grabbed some chain, and groomed the two miles of the highway so the fire dept sled could get to the heart patient. We groomed out to the Interstate, and as we roared past the Highway Lodge, we were looking down from five feet above the cars in the lot! This was the storm that spawned the fatal avalanche at Alpine Meadows in 1982.
That avalanche killed seven, and trapped a young college student, Anna Conrad in her demolished locker room. Anna was rescued some days later, and returned a year later to ski Alpine again. I remember waking up at home with the TV news showing snow cats digging out the avalanche debris at the Alpine Meadows Lodge...it was the first time I ever saw groomers on TV.
I learned to run that hydro and before long, I got in trouble with my newly learned "skills" one snow day on my home mountain.
The Ski Patrol Leader and some other patrollers needed a lift to the top of the Mountain to run another avalanche control route. My boss was having breakfast, so I offered my services. His cat was parked outside Lift Ops, idling...I shut off my Tucker, saddled up, and headed out...me in the driver's seat...with a big ol' grin on my face. About halfway up, the scolding radio call crackled thru the cab...I stammer an apology/reason kinda thing, and the Patrol Leader takes pity on me, keys the mic and pleads my case. I made the top of the Mountain, the A/C was done, and I kept the Boss' ride on the cat tracks, and out of trouble. I took a lot of crap for my stunt, but I started earning a little respect that morning, too.
Leaving the Nest
After being part of the Pack for most of the season, the Bosses started giving the quick studies a little more rope, so to speak. There were two of us...The Bosses were trying to broaden our horizons, so they could leave us to our own devices whenever they had a project to do that we couldn't help with...the heavy lifting and the detail stuff...mostly building ramps, digging around lift terminals and buildings, building roads...the skilled jobs that we'd learn as time and talent allowed.
One run I was to master was an intermediate cruiser that had a short steep black diamond run in. It was always good for a little slide when the snow was deep or soft. Eventually groomers learn to lust for those toboggan passes, they're the only true thrill on the hill that's not extra-legal. Before we started seeking these thrills, we approached with caution...and a little down right fear.
I was working this run solo one night. There was a couple of feet of fresh snow on it, and I was about mid-way thru the job when things got a little scary. This run groomed from left to right...mostly in the fall line, though there was a little sidehill after the initial steep pitch. Creeping over the breakover, I let things get too fast, too quickly. There were some large, frozen bumps hidden beneath the fresh powder, and at toboggan speed, things got really bumpy. That's when my knee bumped the splitter box into neutral, and I accelerated like the Millenium Falcon entering Hyper Space!
The cat wasn't the only thing racing! My heart rate passed red line in milliseconds, followed closely by my adrenalin level. It was a helpless feeling as the heavy 2100 bounded down the hill headed towards the trees and a lift tower. I was riding a rodeo bronco in free-fall! I don't know what possessed me to bury the blade, but something had prepared me to do it. The fountain of fresh snow ricocheting off the cat's blade looked like and old-time photograph from the Placer Mining Days...a huge blast of material capable of mowing down most anything in it's path blasted out in front of me! I made a huge trench, right down the middle of the steep, and right across the fresh-groomed passes I'd just made. Thinking about that trip, I don't have any memory of redoing the whole run, though I'm sure I did.
Eventually I realized that I never could have gotten into the trees, much less that lift tower. Gravity was on my team, and it would steer me right, though it took some more experience on my part to realize it. That's the night I learned what an ally fear could be. Years later I put it to work every season...keeping my rookies on the straight and narrow...just like my Boss did with me, that night, on that run, in that old Thiokol.
Four years passed, and I was the Boss...that old 2100 was retired as were all but one Tucker. The '76 with the rubber tracks was our back up rig and utility hauler. I didn't have but one or two rookies to teach, and we had three or four hydros, including our first Cat-Powered 3700C. Tillers now adorned the rear of the machines, and the manufacturer's nameplate said: DeLorean...yup, Back to the Future, DeLorean. No longer Thiokol red&black, the new C Models were painted orange. They would have been awesome in brushed stainless steel like DeLorean's sports cars!
Cleaning up around the Vehicle Shop, pushing four feet of snow off in to the trees, I plowed the beacon right off the top of that old 2100, left abandoned for the winter, in the trees behind the Shop...I didn't scratch the sheet metal, I just broke the beacon's plastic lens off. I felt bad for the old beast...but, I smiled and remembered the night I dug that big trench.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Catching Up
In weather and climate science there's millions of data points to be captured, and understood before the Climate Scientists and their Computer Geeks can understand what they mean so they can massage all of it into useful tools for predicting daily weather or long range climate changes.
Meanwhile, every day young computer geeks invent another wizz-bang gadget or write the killer app that turns them into Silicon Valley Moguls with offshore bank accounts. Yahoo, Google, iPhone, Twitter...who knew? Last time I checked, cell phone Ring Tone sales were a multi-billion dollar industry! Wow...
But the weatherman's tools aren't so mercurial...their tools are evolved, not brainstormed like the consumer candies so lusted after by the technorati. Slowly at the glacial pace of government, the refinements are tested for efficacy, reliability, and stability before becoming another tool in the meteorologists' ever-growing toolbox. For these developers, the playing field isn't flat, it's an ever changing, undulating sea surface obscured from satellite surveillance by clouds and fog and even data-corrupting solar outbursts.
Sno-Cats
Grooming machines are evolving technology too...when I think about "My Cats" over the years, it's no less amazing to me than any of the latest consumer tech gear.
I refer to my machine as a Cat. The Cat name comes from the original Tucker Sno-Cat, the machine in which I first earned a groomer's paycheck behind the steering wheel. Yes, Tuckers had steering wheels...most Pisten Bullies have wheels today, but they're a far cry from the original Tucker Tech.
The Tuckers I learned my mountain in, were all 1970's vintage. Tuckers were like a cross between a WW1 biplane and a Jeep. The frames were hand-built tubular affairs, skinned with hand-formed riveted aluminum and painted CalTrans Orange. Ours were front engine Mopar V8 powered, and the drive was a traditional 4X4 system with the transmission coupled to a transfer case and driveshafts for and aft turning automotive differentials and axles to the pontoons or tracks.
We had two flavors of Tuckers, metal track and rubber track. The metal tracked cats had four lightweight sheet metal pontoons, one at each corner. Around the inside and outside perimeter of the pontoon a welded on track or raceway provided the running surface for lots of steel rollers to run around the pontoon supporting the grousers...one pair of rollers at each end of every grouser. These rollers were cantilevered over the pontoon's raceways from the ends of every grouser...it worked, but it was very delicate, and didn't take kindly to hitting anything hard in the snowpack like buried tree limbs, concealed stumps or rocks, and their service life, even without abuse was woefully short. If memory serves, each pontoon carried at least 60 rollers!
Steering the pontoons was a hydraulic system, with hydraulic rams steering both front and rear axles. Operators had to avoid turning the steering wheel when the vehicle wasn't moving. Doing so would always break something...the classic immovable object scenario. Because of the physics involved, the Tucker drive lines were special too, they were designed to twist a lot before failure, because they would often have to break a frozen layer between the pontoons and the snowpack, as all the play in the rollers and grousers loaded up and then lashed free...more trouble ahead...
All the headaches of all those rotating steel on steel parts were solved by the advent of the rubber track system. The Mountain had one rubber track Sno-Cat, a 1976 model. This cat didn't have very much in the way of suspension really, not like today's machines. There was some side to side flex in the belts, but no flexitors or bogey wheel suspension. Some of the operator thrones had suspension, but all in all, it was a rough ride.
The body was a single ply of aluminum sheet, uninsulated, though our mechanic glued commercial carpet to the inside of the skin wherever the frame allowed. There were no stereos, and back then the 2-Way Motorola radios were crystal controlled, single channel units...everybody on the mountain worked on a single frequency then. Groomers used Astral Tunes cassette players and headphones to quell the monotony of the V8 roar. The tunes were carried in a chest pack, the volume cranked, and all was right with the world...or so it seemed...Good Times!
Rolling Stock
There were no implements on the Sno-Cats then, everything that actually worked the snow surface was towed behind the Cats like a boat trailer! We had several varieties of "Rolling Stock"
For fresh snow, or packed powder, we pulled Plain Rollers in two widths, 13ft or 20ft wide.
As the surface firmed up, we would switch out the Plain Rollers for Mogul Cutters. These were 13ft rollers with a heavy frame mounted box blade in front of the roller. The blade was raised and lowered with a pair of small hydraulic rams. We'd set the blade to shear the tops of the moguls off, and the roller would compact the sheared-off snow into the troughs and leave a flat, dance floor-like surface. Some cutters were towed from the frame-mounted pintle hitch, and we had a "Gooseneck Cutter" that was towed 5th Wheel style from the deck-mounted pintle.
Trailing behind each roller, was a small diameter drag chain that stirred up some loose duff to cover imperfections and break-up the corrugated culvert pipe imprint of the roller. Stone age by today's standards.
Once the snow surface turned Spring-Like, we added "Powdermakers" and a huge Drag Chain to our arsenal. The Drag Chain was used to set-up the snow surface for the Powdermakers.
Once Ski Patrol finished their sweep of the mountain, two Swing Shift groomers driving Tuckers towing 13ft Rollers, would hook this Drag Chain between their respective Rollers. In tandem they would roll around the flatter, slushier ski runs to knock down all the sloppy ski tracks before the sun set, and the snow started to freeze. This took some coordination between the two operators, and some experience to judge when and where to start. Mostly this technique was employed on the "Home Runs"...the Easiest Way Down on the slopes with Western Exposures. The Drag Chain was really an Anchor Chain, the links were 3/4 of an inch in diameter and the links measured 4X6 inches in plan...one heavy chain...it lived at the base of the Mountain, and was marked with bamboo for guest safety.
Every time it snowed, the Drag Chain had to be dragged back up to the top of the pack, so it would be ready once the pack turned slushy. Every piece of Rolling Stock needed to be dug out too, following every new foot of snowfall, and repositioned atop freshly packed snow...every time. My memory is fortunately hazy, but the Drag Chain was pretty long, too...more than 50ft, maybe 80ft? A big hassle to dig up and move...that I do remember clearly!
Once the Drag Chain task was complete, the operators would drop their Rollers and hook up to Mogul Cutters and head for the steeper, bumped-up runs on the Work Orders...Nature was expected to pitch in, and freeze the spring-like runs where the Drag Chain had been deployed.
Powdermakers
After the snowpack froze hard, and seemed frozen deeply enough, the Graveyard Crew would hook up the Powdermaker and re-roll the cut and dragged runs to make a little duff from the hard-frozen surface, and tho put a little "tooth" on the hard frozen pack. The Powdermaker was a heavy, wide implement, with several heavy, "reels" fashioned from stout expanded metal. Each reel had it's own frame linked to the other frames. The powdermaker was pretty cranky to operate, conditions needed to meet a certain threshold for best results, and handling the beast when doing anything other than moving forward was just asking for trouble.
The reels ride on the snow surface at an oblique angle to the direction of motion when they do their best grinding of the surface. Hydraulics controlled the Angle of Attack, or how aggressively the reels would grind. The reels could be aligned with the perpendicular, to facilitate easy towing and to minimize the dig-in factor. My Mountain had two of these contraptions...one had three reels, and the Dinosaur had a bunch of reels...six at least, maybe 8 or 9 all told.
You did your best to never get in a Back-Up situation with the Dinosaur. Backing-up that powdermaker often ended with a broken powdermaker, or a jumbled pile of reels that looked like hell.
Worse-Case scenario was when you misjudged the quality of the freeze. That's when the reels would break through the misjudged crust, and dig into soft, still wet snow just below. That's when the below-freezing reels picked up huge globs of slush that froze instantly to the expanded metal, creating a new implement...the "Lawsuit Maker"
A Frozen Powdermaker dug ugly, lumpy, random ruts wherever the operator dragged it...Shovel it off, and the snow would grab right back onto it, making newer, uglier ruts to fix. Once you were in this mess, you were toast, burnt toast...you weren't going to salvage a good shift from your predicament. No, you were going home, after messing with your awful mess for the better part of your last hour on the hill, with your head hung in shame.
I don't miss powdermakers one bit!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)