Sochi2014 It's All Downhill From Here

The Winter Games are heating up. The Men's Downhill is in the books, as is the Men's Snowboard Half-Pipe. America's Favorite Sons, Bode Miller and Shaun White misstepped in their attempts to step up to the top of the podium.

Conditions at Rosa Khutor look pretty tough on the competitors...every Alpine Event I've watched (save the Men's Downhill) has been contested in what you call 'Spring Snow'...Bode Miller lead the time sheets on two of three sunny Downhill Training Sessions, only to face the infamous 'flat light' on race day.

I just streamed the Half-Pipe, Qualifying, Semi-Finals and Finals...the pipe looked a little soft, save for the walls...they even sent a pack of skiers down the gut of the pipe midway through the Finals to sideslip the 'mashed potatoes'

Aside from the American Bobsledder who made a sensation on the web when he got locked in the shower room, broke out through the locked door, and tweeted a photo of the breached door, getting stuck in an elevator (no destructive escape this time around), for the most part the Snark from Sochi has been reduced to a softening mylar birthday balloon a week on...there are, medals being won and lost after all!

Well...there is the @SochiProblems Twitter account that has a third more followers the the Official @Sochi2014 verified account... Not all Snark from Sochi is dead, it's just been on the 'Down Low' for a day or two now...

@MagnifeyeRoads's man in Sochi, Truckee's own Jonathan Sass takes requests!

That's how it got started, I emailed him, and he blogged the photos two days later!

I don't remember if it was during the SlopeStyle or the Women's Combined Downhill coverage, but for a fleeting moment I saw a Bombardier MP Groomer with a Troop Carrier body on the back, parked on the side of a trail! It was still the original Bombardier Yellow, all waxed and shiny, too... It looked great considering that it was probably 10+ years old.

Seeing this snowcat was the genesis of my photo request. I was curious whether Sochi made a deal with Prinoth/Leitner or Pisten-Bully for a fleet of machines, and if they did, was there special Olympic Livery like Bombardier showed on the Salt Lake2002 machines?

Jonathan's photos showed a nice array of groomers. It doesn't look like what I think of as a 'Fleet' however. To me a fleet is all of a single manufacturer, and of a single tractor model. This keeps the parts inventory at the cat shop down to a dull roar...

My Mountain has had a mixed fleet from time to time over the years, and more down shifts and over-crowded parts rooms are the price you pay.

Photo: Jonathan Sass 2014

Pisten-Bully PB400

Photo: Jonathan Sass 2014

Prinoth BisonX parked next to an Everest Winchcat

Everyone who's into Sochi2014 should follow Jonathan's Magnifeye at the Olympics Blog, and while you're all at it, please follow CorduroyPlanet's Tumblr as well...thank you very much!

Going forward, I suspect there'll be more grousing about Sochi2014's Sub-Tropical climate. The forecast has Highs in the low 50°F's and Lows in the high 30°F's for the rest of the week. Tuesday's Women's Downhill Training was cancelled due to the balmy weather.  Women's Combined looked really juicy Monday as well. The early Downhill didn't look too bad, but the afternoon Slalom portion looked ridiculous!

Another thing caught my eye while streaming the Women's SlopeStyle Skiing last night, it was a CameraDrone following the action! I didn't see any DroneCam footage on NBC's LIVE stream, I'll look for it on Tuesday night's big broadcast.

There's plenty of Sochi2014 still to be contested, Stay tuned!

 

                                                                                                              

Sochi2014 Outta This World

 Update:
Sochi2014 Organizers stockpiled Two Year's worth of snow in the woods above the event slopes under thermal blankets.

BBC Buisness interviewed the artificial/stockpiled snow contractor, Snow Secure. It's an interesting listen.

Closing the circle next week at Sochi, Olympic Medals awarded on February 15th will include pieces of the Chelyabinsk Meteor that slammed into Russia's Southern Urals last year on February 15th.

This big rock hit during my hookey playing from this blog, but it held my rapt attention at the time.

For my money it had everything...Astronomy, Russian Dash-Cams, viral video...what's not to like?

PBS's NOVA did a show this fall on hunting the pieces of the space rock. 'Meteor Strike' can be streamed free online.

These things always remind me of Easter Egg Hunts. Remember the California Foothills meteor that hit in 2012? The Chelyabinsk Meteor Hunters did not employ a Zeppelin like NASA did in the Foothills Meteor Hunt.

Thursday night I watched some Sochi2014...Men's Snowboard SlopeStyle the new-to-the-Olympics event. I agree with 2-Time Snowboard Half-Pipe Gold Medalist Shawn White, that course is a little Extreme...or Dangerous as White called it. White, who got banged-up during SlopeStyle practice this week, withdrew from the SlopeStyle event to focus on the Half-Pipe.

I think I saw some Grooming Machines parked off the adjacent trail to the SlopeStyle Course...I'll keep an eye peeled...

Meanwhile...

A different kind of Sochi2014 Up & Down...

6'-9" Hockey Player Zdeno Chara towers over 4'-11" Skater Kristen Moore-Towers

I'm in town all week, Folks!

Opening Daze

I see I haven't pecked out a blog in six whole months. It would be disingenuous to claim 'Writer's Block' when I'm neither a writer or a blocked writer...

Sloth doesn't quite describe my failure to communicate either...indifference would be closer to the crux of the biscuit, actually.

Those who know me personally will find this hard to believe, but I haven't had a single bee in my bonnet in a half an Earth orbit around our star...unless you count Politics...

I'm not a pundit, and my folks were of the Old Fashioned variety...Politics and Religion are best kept to yourself in Polite Company they taught...

In the three years I blogged here, I strove to keep the partisan politics out of CorduroyPlanet, successfully I might add!

So why now you ask?

It's the middle of April...I'll be down at the Post Office today buying the Registered Mail/Return Receipt treatment for the Income Tax documents going to the Feds and Sacramento.

There's been a pair of Opening days in the past week or two, and I noticed a bunch of ski resorts closing for the season in Sunday's online newspaper editions.

"One in, one out..." Richard Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) 'Casablanca' 1942

Major League Baseball  returned for another season on the last day in March, while Spring Training, the Cactus League and the Florida version have rolled up their tents and faded into memory for another year.

Salmon Season off the Central California Coast opened April 6th to good success for most out trying for them.

That was before this regime of high northwesterly winds set upon us...the Reno NWS Office says there may be snow in the High Country in the next few days.

So ends my first whole season wherein I did not set foot on My Mountain, or climb into my BR350 Groomer and grind around the slopes having way too much fun to realistically refer to my time spent at the sticks of said groomer as Work.

Truth be told? I'd do it for nothing if I had the bank account to sustain me!  As much as I've missed the life, I'm sure glad I wasn't grooming this season...it looked exactly like work save for a few weeks of storm fighting in November and December!

Lots of weak, under-performing warm storms delivered rain at the base and glop on top. Days and nights of above freezing temperatures for weeks at a time doomed the slopes to thin sooner than the resorts would prefer...

So four months of dodgy conditions, and little Hero Snow...I'm broke, but my Soul wasn't exposed to the nightly heartbreak that would have broken it.

These windy conditions are trying my Soul...there's plenty of tasty Dungeness crab and Chinook salmon just offshore, but the weather is all Gale Warnings all the time so it seems.

Chin up! This too shall pass...I'm so ready for a crab/salmon combo...our own Captain's Plate, caught fresh...

Soon...

Sleep Tight

I gave a lot of thought to my Reno provisioning trip before I postponed it 'till Monday. COSTCO and WINCO will be downright sedate after the pre-Super Bowl shopping frenzy...I was curious to see how many new big screen TVs were going through check out. The new labor regime at My Mountain gives me a four day weekend, so I can spend one doing all my errands.

I don't remember seeing the Noon News today, I tuned in the TV a minute before noon...and I woke up at 9:30PM. I feel well rested...I guess I needed the winks more than I needed the aggravation of midweek errands.

Last night's shift was a good one...darn near Hero Snow...the remote sensors say more of the same tonight...it hasn't been over 32°F in 48 hours.

I'm off to enjoy it in thirty minutes!

Better Now

As it turned out, last night's shift was better than "glass half full".

24 hours of sub-freezing temps did wonders for the piste. I actually ran with a roll of snow in my blade most of the night, in fact I did a push project for a good hour, vastly improving two adjoining trails that we opened earlier in the week. Boy howdy, that felt good!

A look at the remote sensors says "Springtime Conditions" Saturday night due to the afternoon high of 45°F. The mercury is falling fast, and should fall past freezing by 7PM-8PM.

I expect tonight's shift to be mostly making corduroy, with some light pushing and patching...in short, another satisfying shift.

On the mechanical front, my old favorite BR350 ran like a Ferrari last night. My oil pressure was back where it should be after an oil change. The wrenches said I had fuel in the oil.

This was a little less than a surprise. Over the last three weeks, the engine oil levels have been all wacky, the injector pump failed, and the working tractor has a new smell...like a "solvent" smell, once I have it up to temperature, and it's nose to the grindstone.

That's a lot of fuel and engine oil connections...oil analysis will tell the tale. Industry sourses say the Caterpillar six cylinder engines in the BR350's need rebuilding after 10K hours. Mine is clocking in at 11K, plus another 100 hours a week, or so...

Even with the mystery lubrication issues, the ol' fave is running strong, and no engine temperature changes are evident. Hydrostatic fluid temps haven't changed either...Triage continues...

Friday Night Lights

Friday night's shift started slow, but finished on higher notes.

The storm came in with much higher snow levels than we'd like. On my way into work, the torrential rain made driving tricky...so much rain became standing water because the crown of the roads couldn't drain the rain as fast as it fell. Had it been snow, it would have been 6+ inches/hour!

Snow levels lowered to pass level at 11:30PM after raining all day. It was way ugly...

Swing shift was grateful to finish their shifts, and advised we "take our time getting out there" we happily agreed...time to let the mountain "drain"...

We'd tallied around six inches of snow by 4AM. More hours of drain time were needed, but you can't make time...

In 30 years on my mountain, I've never seen more puddles, sinks and water running over the piste...we attacked it head-on...digging ditches...

Every "water feature" needed help draining. Blade a trench to help the water drain from the piste. Wherever possible we enlisted the lift operators to "do the finish work" to speed the drainage.

The bunny hill complex was our biggest problem...

Now I've seen plenty of rain on My Mountain over the years, but this is the first time I've seen so much rain on top of such a slim "base". The bunny hill has several "flats" that all became ponds or lakes.The pack is so thin, you can't "trench" it to help it drain, lest you tear up the erosion-control stuff...water bars and berms mostly. So we wait...I'm guessing the bunny complex didn't open at all Saturday.

Once we'd drained as much as time would allow, we pasted everything back together, and packed up.

Five modern groomers working as a pack is an awesome thing to behold, easily leaving 60-70 feet of corduroy in it's wake. The pack re-rolled half the open trails in a jiffy. The top of the mountain opened an hour late...but it opened with fresh corduroy from top to bottom.

After the soggy start, the groomers were treated to a half an hour on hero snow...the first of the season. Tonight's gonna ROCK!

On Auto Pilot?

It seems like I am...but no...

Yes, I'm grinding on the same trails every night, but I'm patching different obstacles nightly...it's several days between appearances for most of them...

We opened a new trail...barely...oops, I made a pun...

I'm on a first name basis with more rock groups than Bill Graham...

Sunday's promised "storm" will be all blow, no snow...any accumulation will be measured in mm not inches...

Gotta get a nap in before the Niner's game

Pleasantly Surprised

I was dreading what I'd find on My Mountain after my all too balmy three day weekend. Temperatures never reached the freezing level up there as high temperature records fell across the Tahoe Basin.

Local media is having a field day with the story, it's almost impossible to escape the din of this story...it's consuming everyone in the local sliding world.

It seems that I've developed a bunker mentality over December's dry days, and along with it a sort of hyper-vigilance concerning all things wet and weather.

When I got out of the car at work last night, I noticed a couple of things. It was warm, probably 40F. I carried my slicker instead of putting it on.

The second thing was weird...though it was warm, I didn't hear the sound of running water.

Afternoon temps were in the high 40's, if it had been springtime, meltwater would be running everywhere under the snowpack, and would be making a bunch of noise as it found it's way into the drainage system around the access roads and parking lots. Again last night it was quiet...too quiet.

My guess is the meltwater is going straight into the ground...it's been so dry that the ground never became saturated, hence zero runoff to hear.

Fortunately, the swing shift guys were upbeat, but realistic...bunker mentality on display...

I slowly ground my way up the shop road, now a dark brown colored melange of snow and dirt with gravel and stone "sprinkles". Once on the mountain proper, coverage was about like last week...good, not great.

For the most part, we've lost nothing since last week when we lost the top of the mountain. From about Mid-Mountain down we're holding steadfast, slowly improving what we have open. Post-Holiday crowds are one third of the Holiday Crush, so the piste isn't taking the total pounding it did over the Christmas Holidays.

Slowly I made my way around the mountain. The snow is what we call sugar now...it acts just like dry sand. Given a few hours, it will freeze to itself, but structurally, it's a far cry from fresh snow.

I was pleasantly surprised when I went to the worst spots...those high-traffic/hardly any snowmaking yet spots, where we're fighting a losing battle. I pushed bladefull after bladefull several hundred yards and spread it over the frozen meltwater "ponds" in the middle of the trail.

In the end, I made things better...we all did. The Reno AFD says snowmaking temps will return for the weekend...not a minute too soon! Real snow looks to be a couple more weeks away. We'll be doin' what we do in the meantime...

Those of you so inclined, feel free to do a Snow Dance!

Crisp The Redeemer

The snow came, the snow went...all told it added up to a couple of millimeters...3...4 tops. Americans, that's just a little shy of an eighth of an inch.

The road up to My Mountain was Gretzky City. I parked and walked crunching on the melted frozen snow, to the shop. There was a little dust showing, and the old snow sparkled with freshly formed surface crystals.

The swing shift guys were in pretty good spirits...snowmakers too. They hadn't blown any snow, but they were ready...guns, fans, and hoses were deployed across the mountain waiting for the thermometer to lose a couple more degrees...

The swing shift groomers tag-teamed a big winch project...Robbing Peter to pay Paul. The winchcat pulled a couple of feet off a trail fat with manmade snow up to it's problem child neighbor, and spread it over all the outstanding obstacles...boulders mostly.

I arrived at the scene of the crime about two hours after swing shift finished working their magic. All the misery of my previous night dissolved into relief...joy almost...the temps began to fall once the last of the clouds passed. I pushed the bounty around for three hours...a little of it I pushed uphill a couple of hundred yards to some other trouble spots. Finally laying on the corduroy, the trail looked like a debutante at her Coming Out Soirée. Snowmaking fired up around 0400...

As it turns out, the snowmaking was a psychological victory more than a strategic victory...still the hard freeze did wonders for every acre we're currently offering to our guests.

I even had to regroom our best trail after snowmaking made some pastel brown snow on top of my early shift corduroy...I was happier than a Pig in Poo to be re-rolling it! Last night fades into diffuse memory...never to gain a discreet place at my table again!

1000 Words

I earned it this morning...it's the nature of the beast known as snowmaking.

My Mountain is open in Limited Operation due to Mother Nature's intransigence. We're running half our chairs, and two dozen trails...all on manmade snow. This is no small miracle as the weather keeping our winter storm systems at bay has also brought a pattern of temperature inversions that have made snowmaking impossible many nights...hence our limited acreage.

It's Christmas Week, so 1000 skiers and snowboarders were on My Mountain Monday...when I was logging the Grooming Updates this morning, ticket sales were 20% ahead of Monday's numbers at the same time...word is getting out, we've got good conditions...all things considered.

All those sliders confined to such limited acreage, do take a toll on our snowpack...throw in some East Winds, and a little of that snowpack escapes into the sky or into the trees where my fleet of BR350s and Bisons, and BisonXs can't retrieve it...enter Snowmaking!

Of all two dozen of our currently open trails, only two are soldiering on without nightly snowmaking. Thanks to aggressive "Summer Grooming", these trails are golf course smooth, so a good 6-8 inches of snowmaking get them in opening shape, and they stay decent as the skier traffic doesn't find any obstacles as it scrapes away our pricy piste. One groomer can groom all of these acres, plus ancillary projects in under three hours.

Over the rest of the trails, snowmaking holds sway. Weather permitting, tons of water is turned to snow, that when the planets align, falls right onto the myriad obstacles...this is a good thing!

Most of the time however, Mother Nature isn't exactly a team player, so that snow must be moved from where it falls to where it's most needed. All these machinations take time...we pray for 24/7 snowmaking conditions, but of late...were lucky to get 12 hours in. This sets up a game of Groomer's Chicken...for lack of a more refined term.

Having the mountain meticulously groomed when the lifts open at 9AM sharp, always means a little juggling to get it right. When we're making snow to cover bare ground and rocks on open trails, you want to keep the guns and fans running until the last possible second.We routinely run late enough that we sacrifice any "margin of error"...if we a machine breaks down, we're screwed.

Last night I pushed it to the limit...two minutes over the limit it turns out...when I run the crew this close to the deadline, especially during a Holiday Week, the 2-way radio comes alive with my call number...or worse, my name, as Operations starts quizzing me and reminding me of the impending deadline. This always begins 10 minutes before opening. As the deadline gets nearer, I become sort of a Morning Zoo-style DJ who can't shut up over the precious airwaves as I almost end up narrating our egress from the piste...As my crew moves down the mountain, I'm telling Operations our position, which lifts they can open safely, and out ETA to safe cover...whew!

Do 1000 words fly back and forth during our rumble to safe cover? Some mornings...Easy!

Take a look at this, it's easily worth 1000 words:

Tale Of The Tape, from Reno's NWS Office

I'm guessing I've written ten thousand words about it this fall. The forecast says this will be "The Same Old Story" until the New Year

Good Night!

I just woke up from a solid 8 1/2 hours of deep sleep after 9 hours of slowly grinding around My  Mountain.

In 2 hours, I'll be checking out my tractor in preparation of doin' it all over again.

My Boss didn't lie...my trusty ol' BR350 is running like a Ferarri! In 9 hours, never once did I use max RPM or max Track Speed. Her performance belies the 9000+ hours on her clock.

All things considered, conditions were great...yes, there was more geology lurking below the thin coating of manmade snow than I'd prefer, but that's the hand we've been dealt.

I saw a great sunrise from the Top of The World, and tonight I've got a shot at seeing a pass by Phobos/Grunt, seeing that the moon is in it's last quarter. Monday morning brings a more optimum opportunity at 0615.

That Christmas Eve Thing

It's 3PM...I've been in bed for half an hour...I'm not sleepy...I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve! My alarm is set for 9:30PM...it's my first worknight of the 2011-2012 Season! I'm sipping on a stiff eggnog, listening to some talk radio. Hopefully naptime catches up with me soon.

I just got off the phone with my Boss...things sound pretty good on My Mountain, and he says my favorite BR350 is running like a Ferarri. Furthermore, when I asked he said: "Every snowcat on the hill is in fine fettle...even the 2-Ways are all installed and transmitting".

So, this turn of events is thanks to a favorable week of snowmaking conditions, and yeoman's work from our snowmakers. It's gonna be nice seeing first hand how things look...I'm beyond bored with telepresence!

Oh, webcams, PWSs, and Remote Sensors are modern miracles of the Information Age, but when you boil it down to basics, they're just an electronic fishbowl view, akin to the Chamber of Commerce-style weather forecasts that make the forecasters and their TV weatherman customers happy at the expense of the resorts, their customers, their hard working crews, and the bean counters. There's an awful lot of beans to count when you're blowing snow around the clock and Mother Nature's not chippin' in!

Looking at the AFDs and forecasts, I don't see any change to the entrenched blocking pattern in the Eastern Pacific for another week, maybe two, maybe I don't want to think about it at all for a while...

Tonight I'm just looking forward to strapping on my groomer, looking at the Work Orders, and reacquainting myself with Grooming 101, and our snowmakers' finest!

Kids, Don't Try This At Work

A Ski Resort Owner in Maine is recovering from injuries after being run over by the grooming machine he and an employee were working on. The newspaper said "David Beers, 40, and another man were trying to fix a track on the vehicle when it accidentally slipped into gear, onlookers said Sunday."

As with all things Slope Grooming that I read in the Civilian Press, the details are pretty sketchy here...not sketchy are Mr Beers' injuries. Surprisingly, besides cuts and bruises, the only real damage is a broken jaw and dislocated ankle! He's one lucky guy!

Grousers and belts on the machine's right hand track

It sounds like Mr Beers and his helper were "tracking-up" the snowcat when the accident happened. "Tracking-Up" is Snowcat Mechanic-Speak for installing the tracks. These tracks are made of steel "grousers" driven by reinforced rubber belts. Each belt is fastened to itself with "lacings" which are nothing more than hinges really. A hardened steel bolt with a locknut keeps the connection secure.

The grooming machine in question is an LMC 3700CF It's a mid-engine cab-over hydrostatic driven tractor, built by Logan Manufacturing Company. Until his legal troubles with the DEA and DOJ began, LMC was owned by John DeLorean, and named DMC as in DeLorean Manufacturing Company. Back in the day I demoed it's predecessor the Bear Cat. It had to be in the mid to late 90s.

Hydrostatic snowcats don't have gears in the sense that automobiles have gears. Hydrostatic drives are oil driven motors and controlled with valves that select forward or reverse and zero to 100% speed. There's a center detent (think neutral), and a parking brake which blocks the control oil pressure from activating the drive. Modern cats have door safety interlock switches that prevent the pumps from being stroked so no motion will be generated by the track drive motors.

This is why I don't understand the accident. When I'm sitting in the Driver's Throne of my BR350 groomer, and I'm working with a mechanic, I either have the parking brake set, or have the RPMs set to idle with my finger on the Parking Brake Switch. I've never run over a mechanic, or anyone else for that matter...(Oh, I did "pinch" a lift operator between my tracks and a fence once, but no harm, no foul, he became a rookie groomer the following season, was a quick study, and enjoyed a good career for a few years at My Mountain....earning the handle Cap'nDan.) Man, I loved working with him...

Back In the Saddle

If only for a day...

I attended an all day seminar with my crew, the Bosses and Human Resources, and Prinoth's Snowcat Demonstrator at My Mountain Thursday.

The morning session was introductions, team building basics, a brief history of My Moiuntain, and Customer Service guidelines.

I quizzed HR about our "Hired Gun Weatherman"'s prediction for the Winter, and so far, he's equivocating because it's another La Niña Winter.

Lunch was take-out Round Table Pizza.

After lunch, the Prinoth portion of the day began, featuring a slideshow augmented Operator's Manual Tutorial. Many questions were answered about the snowcats' future. Prinoth will continue to produce the original BR350 cab until no more customers want it.

We spent some time demystifying the "Glass Cockpit" on the new cab Bisons. Lots of pages of info you can scroll through. I made my annual plea that the displays be more night vision friendly. As is my usual MO, I snarkily reminded the Prinoth guy that the Prinoth engineers work the day shift in well lighted offices, while their creations work all night long...in the dark.

After a solid two hours with the manuals, we headed outside to do the "Preflight Walk-Around" demonstration. There in the bright Autumn sun sat my Old Faithful BR350, fresh from her Summer Service.

She was resplendent in rebuilt tracks, sporting fresh paint on her implements. New track belts, and shiny new cutter bars back under the tiller. The Boss confirmed that Old Faithful was the most reliable cat in the fleet last season. The only down time she suffered was due to burst hydraulic hoses and front wiper problems. None of the hydraulic maladies were drive-related, these were hoses on the blade and stinger. I'm looking forward to running her up to 10K hours this season!

On this beautiful Fall morning, I remind myself that it could be as soon as five weeks until I become a full-time Groomin' Human again.

September Grab Bag

Summer is winding down and snow and ski news is starting to trickle in. @CorduroyPlanet's Twitter stream came alive last week with snow and resort news, and many tweeters I haven't seen since the last weeks of last season have awakened from their summer slumber.

Early snowfall in Colorado is first out of the blocks this year. @Liftopia linked the early snow story. @Skiingmag retweeted @COPowder's photo from Winter Park here.

These are 12,000ft events up in the Rockies...here in Truckee the afternoon highs have been close to 80°F, cooling overnight into the low 50s. It's been more than a week since the Airport's Official Thermometer recorded the 48 State Low at 32°F.

The KTRK METAR station is biased as much as 10°-15° cooler than the Town of Truckee itself due to the airport's site in the Martis Valley. Next time you drive from Truckee to Northstar, take a look around as you pass the Truckee Airport. It's in a giant bowl, surrounded by mountains towering 2500ft above. All the cold air from those peaks runs down those peaks to find the Official Thermometers, skewing the temperature record lower.

I'm starting to hear a little La Niña noise above the general din. Even semi-summer-silent @PistenBullyUSA tweeted the speculation between tweets thanking PistenBully customers for buying another snowcat from the German manufacturer.

One of the BullyTweets caught my eye...it touts their new PistenBully EQ.1 Diesel/Electric Hybrid Groomer. I spent some time searching for the details of their hybrid system, but it looks like PB is playing this pretty close to their vest. There might be something here.

I'm imagining a diesel engine running a generator that drives the track motors and implement motors, along the line of the railroad's diesel electric locomotives. I'm pretty sure there would still be auxiliary hydraulic pumps to run the blade and stinger functions.

PistenBully touts a 25% fuel savings for the EQ.1. Torque is never a problem with electric motors, given enough horsepower and amps. Tillers and winches are electric on the EQ.1, but I couldn't find confirmation that the drive motors are electric, not hydrostatic. Given the weight of electric motors, there could be balance problems for these cats with so much weight right on the sprockets. I'll keep an eye out for more on these eBullies. I'll bet there's too much electrical interference to tune an AM radio station in one of these eBullies FAIL

The Climate Prediction Center's next 90-Day Outlook for ENSO will publish next Thursday Sept 15, 2011. The last issue caused a mini-stir when it raised the likelihood of La Niña's return to 50%.

Reading the first snowfall article reminded me of just how weird our 2011 weather has been. The story mentioned the record summer heat in Colorado in it's first sentence. Here in California, August was our eighth month of below normal temps. The Midwest, Texas, and the East and Southeast are all broiling this year...while La Niña looks to be reforming in the Pacific.


There's two weeks left of Celestial Summer, and next week I'll get my traditional first glimpse of the Autumnal light in the skies around Stead Field, home of the Reno National Championship Air Races. That's when the intel gathering and speculation about the coming Winter usually kick into gear.

Dustbin Of History

No, not that one...I'm avoiding politics until after Labor Day!

While procrastinating at the DaveCave, I tried to coax my 2004 DVR to work with my 2011 Digital Cable feed. Actually, I was trying to get my 2011 LED TV to play nice with my CableCo's new (Mid-April) Digital feed. Since April, I've been getting four beautiful HDTV channels and the rest of the Basic Cable channels 16-71 in standard-def. Missing in action, channels 2-15...homes of both PBS Stations and my favorite Train Wreck News, "Good Day Sacramento"

I rescanned several times over the months, I even browbeat my ancient 2004 DVR into tuning in most of the basic cable channels and those HDTV local networks...I'm a taxpayer, how come PBS isn't one of the Must Carry Channels? I'll never understand our bureaucracies!

While the old machine would reliably tune channels when it was constantly on, it refused to play nice when making a Timer Recording...the most important DVR function for a Graveyard Groomer!

I pulled the cable from the DVR and ran it straight to the TV and voilà, we have ignition! Every channel right where it's supposed to be. Satisfied with my progress, I hooked up the ethernet cable between the TV and my router, and explored the Internet Apps, after I created an Account (on my own TV!)...

First up the TV Guide App. Verdict: Way clunky. I doesn't list every channel of my Basic Cable Service...worst of all it omits the CSNBayArea home of the SF Giants!

I tried the Showtime App...teasers only of "The Franchise" this season's sports/reality show subtitled "A Season With the San Francisco Giants"...I missed the final episode last week. (I'll catch up when I get back to the Ancestral Digs) There were a couple of dozen third-tier movies available for streaming, but I wasn't into any of them...I was on radio duty...

Today I looked everywhere for a cable splitter (Type F coax). Every darn one I own in in a Plano Box down at the Ancestral Digs along with my other DVRs and cabling. I kept hunting...I dug through every box, bucket, basket, and tool tray, the drawers of tables...everywhere. Just a bunch of dust...and a few forgotten treasures.

I found some ancient groomer swag that I forgot I even had. Manufacturer's belt buckles dating back to 1983.

DMC's 1983 4700 Groomer on a Pewter Buckle

This brushed stainless steel photo buckle was probably a 1984 model. It's the DMC 4700 again.

There's a New Sheriff in Town 1989?

I used to have an older Thiokol buckle of an original Allis Chalmers powered 3700 snowcat, but I don't know where it's hiding.

DMC's SS Buckle paid homage to the Stainless Steel body of the DeLorean luxury sedan made famous as Dr Brown's car with the Flux Capacitor that became Marty McFly's Time Traveling DeLorean in "Back to The Future" and it's sequels. I thought the buckles were kinda tacky back in the day, and now that the 25th Anniversary Blu-ray of Back to The Future is going on a year old, I still think it's tacky.

DMC's 4700 was a short lived project from DMC. DeLorean Motor Co bought the snowcat division from Thiokol in the early 80s. DMC engineers modernized the straight six 3700, dropping in a Caterpiller 3208 V8 turbo diesel, adding a muffler, and smoothing the bodywork.

The 4700 was the first shot in the High Horsepower Arms Race in grooming machines. DeLorean fell afoul of the Drug Enforcement Agency about the time the 4700 was going into full production and it never had a chance. I didn't care for the machine as a whole, but I recognized the value of horsepower to burn!

Every groomer I've ever known who's seen or driven the 4700 says the same thing: "They should have  painted it kelly green, it looked just like Kermit D Frog of Muppet fame"!

It All Comes Back To Me Now

Nostalgia gets a bad rap in my opinion. I often wonder if "The Good Old Days" were. Time heals all wounds? Doesn't the light in memories always trend towards the golden side of the spectrum? Uh, yeah...

I'll admit I've been living in the past for a few weeks...I won't admit that it's a bad thing. It's important to know where you come from...it helps inform where you're going, and refines the means by which you arrive in your future.

I've noticed several times in the past month or six weeks that things remind me of the hours I spend in my groomer on My Mountain. A whiff of diesel smoke from a fire engine...a re-run of Shawn White's Operation X came on after bicycle racing on TV...groomers on TV, building the Flying Tomato's Secret Half Pipe in the back country near Silverton Colorado...an idling big rig in a parking lot...memory triggers come in all shapes, sizes, sounds and smells.

This morning @NorthstarTahoe announced via Twitter that the Flyin' Tomato himself, Shawn White is going to call Northstar-At-Tahoe home, and that a 22ft Half Pipe is on the drawing board for the 2011/2012 season.

I see a couple of tweets about a surprise 50 year snowstorm in New Zealand, fellow Planet @PlanetSki broke the story in the Ski Press. Meanwhile, so far Hurricane Season in the Atlantic and the Eastern Pacific have been quiet. Despite this week's media memeing  of "Severe Solar Storms" threatening our modern infrastructure, the Sun is still having a hard time ramping up to Cycle 24's Solar Maximum. Solar doldrums continue.

The New Zealand storms look serious...nice to see some snowcats turning their sprockets in anger! Hot days in the Big Valley and new wildfires daily around Reno say Fall is coming soon.

It's just a month 'till my reliable autumnal touchstone the Reno Championship Air Races.

The weatherman says a cooling trend is in place, but the Giants' bats heated up in Atlanta Wednesday...as in all things, It ain't over 'till the Fat Lady sings!

The Planets Align

You know the old saying..."You gotta keep all your ducks in a row"? Well this weekend I was thinking it's high time to get my ducks in a row, so to speak...

It was "serendipity that killed the cat", to butcher another old saw...OK, I'm just fooling around now...sure we're having another cool summer all across the Northern Hemisphere, but it has less than nothing to do with the alignment of the planets in our Solar System.

Sometimes I'm a rational, old fashioned Linear Thinker...If "A" is + (positive) and "B" is + (positive), then I'm Positive that I'm Right again! Ha! or on the right track anyway...and so on, and so on, right through the alphabet...ad nauseum...

Other times...like after a long hard weekend, or during The Dog Days of Summer, my Right Brain takes a powder (OK, a vacation if you like...or a 'stay-cation' if you must) and I become a more "relational" or horizontal thinker...leaps of faith, tangents, long lost ideas...all are welcome and orbit my consciousness like heavenly bodies in a deep space star system.

Call it fuzzy logic...call it whatever...sometimes serendipitous thinking reaps tons of fun, and the occasional comedic gem...alas, this time my thought wanderings did not reveal comedy gold. Just a slightly bemused move of my mug in the direction of a wry smile...the corners of my mouth didn't exactly lift in a smile, rather they widened a little, like they were getting ready to smile, but couldn't make up their mind whether to smile or smirk...

When I wrote the blog on bears and wild boar, it all started when I saw a tweet from @PlanetSki that touted the first article in the chain of stories.

It dawned on me that all us planets should stick together...then it dawned on me that on the internet, the concept of friends is truly skewed...even "friends" are often not even acquaintances, but a strangely choreographed string of "clicks" leading to... *DING* ..."Friend Request Accepted" I guess it's a funny way to run a virtual railroad?

So I guess that "getting my ducks in a row" should really be phrased "getting my planets to align" in CorduroyPlanetSpeak...or maybe "getting my planets in align" OK, I lost it all for a nanosecond there...

Getting My Planets In Align
Twitter is the micro-blogging service that is finally coming of age. Once derided as the online hangout of the famous (and famously deluded and self-unaware) who think their every thought and deed are of interest to the world, Twitter seems to have matured.

TV actor Ashton Kutcher, @aplusk (That 70's Show) was the first tweeter to reach the one million followers mark in April 2010. @charliesheen, famous TV Train Wreck hit a million followers in under 24 hours about a year later, also the first to complete the feat. President @BarackObama participated in the first "Whitehouse Twitter Townhall" in July 2011. During the FIFA Women's World Cup soccer finale, twitterers world wide sent 7196 tweets per second, another record!

@secupp the author and journalist said today: "Twitter has democratized the delivery of the news"

I think it's fair to say that Twitter has arrived...or matured...or found it's niche...whatever...as of March 2011 there are now 200 million Twitter users worldwide.

Twitter's first "Twitter Republican Presidential Debate" takes place Wednesday July 20th at noon PDT, moderated on Twitter by @secupp

Tune into the debate by following @140townhall on Twitter, or online at http://140townhall.com/

I've found Twitter to be very valuable when I'm grooming My Mountain. As the Graveyard Guru, I need to know when it's going to stop snowing so I can formulate my gameplan so as to be ready with the most corduroy on the trails when we turn the lifts at 9AM for our skiers and snowboarders.

I've tried several Radar Apps on my iPod Touch, free apps and paid apps, and while they are pretty to look at, they seem to be quite a bit behind real-time info...hence not as useful as I'd like.

I've found that Twitter gives me the most up-to-the-minute info, and the Twitter App is free.

I follow @MagnifeyeRoads who tweet the CalTrans Interstate 80 electronic signs every time the message changes. On storm nights, I can infer when it will stop snowing on my mountain by watching these tweets as they follow chain controls' march up the hill...good enough for me!

@MangifeyeRoads' website has all the Trans-Sierra Webcams too.

See what I mean with the Dog Daze? I ran my virtual railroad into the Twitter Ditch before I lined up my planets! Here they are so far (I'm like a wandering planet looking to orbit a friendly star in a nice neighborhood), I haven't found a PlanetBaseball, or PlanetGiants...yet...

Twitter exceeds at coverage of LIVE events, be they politics, revolutions, or sporting events. @CorduroyPlanet  follows:

@PlanetSki
The Europe based All Things Skiing, Snowboarding, and Alpine Living Around the World website

@planetcycling
This is the home of cycling on Eurosport, the French Sports TV Network that's available in 59 countries and 20 languages.

@Planet_F1 
All things Formula One, brought to you by Sky Sports Network the British Satellite Broadcaster.

These are just "the planets"...I also follow several of the bike racers, directeurs sportif, and teams on Twitter. I blame @lancearmstrong I started following Lance during his comeback TdF in 2009. At the time he was the only rider on Twitter, and he tweeted every morning and after each stage...it was but a glimpse of the riches to come, Thanks Lance!

One Begins, One Ends

From The Beginning
The 98th Tour de France began on the west coast of France Saturday, with a low tide processional ride across the Passage du Gois that connects France to Île de Noirmoutier.

In 1999 Le Tour actually was racing over this roadway that's only above water at low tide, when a big crash on the super-slick pavement split the field wide open. The Stage 2 crash separated several contenders by six minutes from the front of the race. That year Lance Armstrong's streak of good luck began, and he won his first of seven Tours de France.

Going back in history to 799AD, Île de Noirmoutier was the site of the first recorded invasion of the Vikings.

The Viking in today's race, Norway's reigning World Road Race Champion, Thor Hushovd finished third in the frantic uphill sprint at Mont des Alouettes. The last 20Km saw two crashes in the peloton that again split the contenders. Defending TdF Champion, Spaniard Alberto Contador was behind the crash caused by an inattentive spectator, and crossed the finished 1:20 behind the rest of the favorites.

Fans of Luxembourger, Andy Schleck saw this as a sort of delayed "Instant Karma" owing to Contador's taking advantage of Schleck's unfortunate chain drop on on the Port du Balès climb during Stage 15 in the Pyrenees during the 2010 Tour.

Now known as Chaingate, Schleck wearing the yellow leader's jersey, attacked Contador on the Port du Balès. As he accelerated away from the Spaniard, Schleck's chain dropped from his rear derailleur and jammed. Contador saw Schleck's mechanical trouble as he passed and began his counter attack in contravention of cycle racing's Gentleman's Agreement.

They say a True Champion doesn't take advantage of a mechanical, the Grand Tours must be settled mano a mano.

"The Spaniard took advantage to attack and went on to gain 39 seconds - exactly the amount of time that separated the two riders on the final podium in Paris.

 "I wouldn't have done that (attack)," Schleck said in an exclusive interview published in French newspaper L'Equipe on Thursday. "He said he didn't see it. But he looked like this [turning his head and looking over his shoulder - ed.] and then he attacked."

"A great champion doesn't do a thing like that. When Ullrich crashed into a ravine, Armstrong waited. When Armstrong crashed on the way to Luz-Ardiden (on stage 12 of the 2003 Tour), the other riders agreed to wait for him. That's what makes a champion. I was really very disappointed by his attitude that day." (From Cyclingnews' article here)

There will be ample opportunity for the two stars to settle it in the Pyrenees and the Alps this year.

When CorduroyPlanet publishes Sunday morning, I'll be up watching the LIVE coverage of Stage 2, the 23Km Team Time Trial. If you only watch one stage of Le tour this year, the Team Time Trial is the one to watch.

The Time Trial is known as "the race of truth"...it's just the rider against the clock. There's nowhere to "get out of the wind", and it's the ultimate test of the rider's form and fitness. The Team Time Trial is the same thing, but all nine men race together as a team. The Team Time Trial illustrates the beautiful dichotomy of Pro Bicycle Racing...it's an Individual Sport, but it's a Team Sport at the same time. The uninitiated can learn everything they need to know about Bicycle Racing at the Top Level by watching the TTT.

You can watch the full package coverage at noon PDT on NBC, and several times on cable network VERSUS 9AM, 1:30PM, 5PM, 6:30PM, 9PM, and 10:30PM

Aaa-and That's a Wrap
While I'm lazing in bed watching Le Tour LIVE, the last of the Diehard Skiers and Snowboarders will be getting ready to slide down the slopes for the last time in Season 2010/2011. Mammoth Mountain in the Southern Sierra, and four resorts in the Tahoe Sierra will turn their chairlifts through the Independence Day Weekend. It even made the news in Los Angeles.

I do miss running my BR350 Groomer...but not in Summertime Snow!

Fried

"Be careful what you wish for" goes the Sage Old Advice...

I watched KCRA's Noon News today. On the third hot day of June the whining has become deafening! The poor tiny weatherwoman genuinely looked sorry for the seasonable temps.

I was on the road early, and I sat in the car for a half an hour listening to the radio before 11 AM. It was already pushing 80°F

I finally got into the garden at 3PM. It was uphill of 90°F, but my chore was in the shade of our big cedar deodara tree. I spent a leisurely 90 minutes trying out my new classic Felco F-2 Hand Pruner. There's no substitute for the best tool for the job, whether your talking carpenter's tool, gardener's tools, or grooming machines.

About the time I started picking up my work area, my Mom came out and said: "There's a deer in the front yard"! "No kidding"? I replied, and I walked my sweaty body down the street and had a look-see. No Bambi in sight. I finished cleaning the cedar sap off the Felcos, oiled the blades and the spring and headed back inside. Mom was in the living room, and damn if that deer wasn't right outside the front window!

Mom and I were less than eight feet from the yearling doe, but the deer's attention was riveted down our street somewhere. You don't think of glass as decent camouflage, but it did the trick in this instance.

The deer stayed there in the shade of the redwood tree for a while. I kicked back with the internet, and looked for some SF Giants injury reports. No news is good news I guess...

Mom came in with the newspaper. She found a book review of a new tome: "Go the F**K to Sleep"  Published this week, she thought it would be great for my cousin who after retiring a Full-Bird Colonel from the Army, just adopted his first-born grandson. I clicked over to Amazon and ordered a copy for Cousin Brad, and one for Mom. Published Tuesday, Amazon's order page said it would ship in 7-9 days. Like the review said, Mansbach's "Children's Book for Adults" is a hit.

Not fifteen minutes later, I was scanning my Facebook wall, and there was a link to a YouTube video of Samuel L Jackson reading from "Go the F**K to Sleep"! I laughed out loud at the cosmic synchronicity. The link was posted by Cap'nDan, a groomer who worked with me 20 years ago. He and his wife became parents for the first time this spring, and we commented back and forth for a few minutes. 

Somehow, our exchange knocked some cobwebs out of my brain, and I started searching for a song I've been trying to identify for months. Cap'n Dan posts a lot of YouTube videos of classic rock, jazz, and blues. The song starring in My Quest is a throbbing Delta Blues number that's the soundtrack of a Porsche commercial that's been playing on every Formula One race I've watched this spring. In fact, I searched YouTube yesterday to no avail.

I searched via ixquick.com with a couple of new search strings, and then searched Porsche Owners Clubs. I landed on a Porsche.com page with a bunch of Flash Video links, and there was the spot complete with title. I ixquicked that and there was my latest Holy Grail.

Listen to the fine Delta Blues...don't succumb to the sports car pitch!



The late artist Junior Kimbrough's "Feels So Good #2" rocks my world, but turned into yet another head-scratcher. The tune is from Kimbrough's "First Recordings" album which is not available on CD! Vinyl or MP3 download, even a 10 inch vinyl pressing, but no CD.

I surrendered, and downloaded the tune from iTunes. I really want this guy's music on CD...in WAV format...call me old fashioned...

Satisfied but stymied, I tuned in the radio for the Giants' Pre-Game. It was 106°F outside and 80°F inside Chase Field in Phoenix. Some wag actually said; "It's a dry heat"...if it hadn't been so hot, I would have done a spit take!

The Giants won and there were some real Highlight Reel defensive plays including an almost impossible relay throw to Home to get the runner at the plate! Not torture, but exquisite none the less.

It's half past midnight and still hot in the house...I'm hittin' the showers.