Am in California skiing. The snow is absolutely wonderful, as it's right after a major storm, and as it's just after a holiday weekend the slopes have been pretty much deserted. Yesterday was absolutely beautiful in terms of ski conditions.
Today, on the other hand, was one of the more interesting ski days I've ever had. Actually I think it's a rather unique experience, although it's not really one I'd care to repeat.
Decided to ski at Northstar today, along with a group of six others. Went up to the top of Comstock, the chair which runs to Mt. Pluto's summit, the highest point at Northstar. Then we decided to drop down the back side of the ridge into Schaffer's Park, colloquially known as the Backside. This area is serviced only by a single high-speed detachable quad, the Backside Express.
Now imagine it's noon, most of the chairs on the lift are filled, and there are about two hundred or so people waiting in line. And then the lift breaks down.
By the time the ski patrol gets the mountain roped off, there's about three hundred people waiting below in line. The lift is still filled, and the ski patrol and maintenance people are trying to get this chair back up to cycle everyone off.
It didn't work.
Many people choose at this point to hike out. This is not a simple matter. It involves either a 4.5 mile hike to the bottom of Lookout Mountain, or a 1 mile hike up the slope, across a ridge, and then drop off to the top of Pioneer.
So Northstar calls out a fleet of snowmobiles and a couple of snowcats to bring everyone out. This involves one person riding on the snowmobile's back, with two people being towed behind in a manner similar to waterskiing.
Many people choose to give up hiking up the hill, having realized that it is not nearly as simple as it appeared to be.
The snowmobile, I should add, is not going down the hill. It is going up the hill. These are black-diamond slopes; not the piddling black diamonds that some of the east-coast readers may know, but the real ones, the stuff that's filled with bumps, powder (though most of it was skied off), and some junky snow.
There is no play in the rope. Unfortunately, this means that each time you go over a dip, the rope slacks because it acts as a chord between two points ... and then the snowmobile accelerates over the ridge of the dip and the rope pulls hard, and nearly snaps it out of your grip.
The ridgeline is very slim, as well; it barely fits two snowmobiles passing each other. Of course, there are several people who have managed to make the hike; not everyone has given up; but they take up even more space on this small path.
Finally, we make it to this orange tape set across the trees, almost as if it were a finish line. By the time we got out of the valley, my arms were aching from holding on to this tow rope, and it's now 2:30 or so.
The snowcat, which was the other option, involved cramming forty or so people into a trailer surrounded by chainlink fence, affectionately called "the cattle car". It didn't look fun, at all. And at least being towed was fun, if dangerous. I was rather scared of hitting a bump, dropping the rope, and slamming into the person behind me. Fortunately I managed not to do that.
Then, there was the way they finally had to get people off the chairlift. Three teams came down the chairlift, with a belaying rope and a metal T-bar piece. A ski patrol member climbed up the lift tower, attached the rope to the liftline, and then let it slide down to the chair. The people on the chair were then required to fasten the T-bar around their waist and then were belayed down. Unpleasant, if you ask me.
Northstar then chose to shut down two more chairs, Lookout and Comstock, as they needed people to sweep the mountain and pick up the people who made the unwise decision in hiking out.
Kudos to Northstar's lift operators for staying calm in this situation, which was apparently the first time it had happened with people on the chairlift in fifteen years. Kudos also to Northstar's management, who had drinks out at the top of Pioneer for those who were snowmobiled out, and compensated everyone who was on Backside at the time rather liberally.
I did learn the cause of the lift's problems, however. Apparently there was an electrical failure in the chairlift's main motor, which forced them to revert to the backup motor. However, there was a drive fault in the backup, which blew out the high-speed quad and would therefore only allow the low speed. Then that shaft blew, and there was apparently smoke billowing out of the motor up the top of the lift.
I think I'll not be skiing Northstar for a while.
-David
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